Channel 5 to become just ‘5’: UK PSB’s first ‘unified’ rebrand
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Paramount is rebranding Channel 5 to just 5 as part of plans to relaunch the public-service broadcaster across linear, streaming and digital platforms under one unified name, The Media Leader can reveal.
The relaunch, due to happen by April next year, means Paramount will no longer merge Channel 5’s broadcaster VOD service My5 with free ad-support TV (FAST) platform Pluto TV, as was due to take place this autumn.
Instead, My5 will relaunch next year under the unified parent brand of 5 across linear, streaming and digital platforms.
Free-to-air public broadcaster Channel 5 has rebranded multiple times since its launch in 1997. From 2002-2011 it was renamed as simply Five (“Channel 5 was a name; ‘Five’ is a brand”, proclaimed then-director of marketing David Pullen, with the change being reverted following the channel’s acquisition by Richard Desmond.
This latest move is reminiscent of Channel 4’s decision in 2022 to rebrand its VOD platform All 4 as Channel 4, although Paramount has gone a step further by rebadging all of its media brands. UKTV also rebranded earlier this year.
Paramount said the move will give its audience “easy access to its award-winning range of programming and content, wherever and whenever they want it”.
5 to get interface-lift
As part of the relaunch, the free streaming service will be given a new user interface to “enhance audience experience”.
This platform will feature a significantly expanded content offer to complement Channel 5’s acclaimed UK drama originals and unscripted programming, Paramount said. This will include content from across the wider Paramount stable, such as MTV Entertainment Studios, CBS and Comedy Central, as well as the opportunity to sample content from Paramount+.
There will also be content for children from Milkshake! and Nickelodeon, as well as boxsets from additional content partners.
Pluto TV will continue as a standalone service in the UK. While Pluto TV will no longer be integrated into 5’s broadcaster VOD platform, the new-look service will include a range of “specially curated FAST channels”, as do ITV’s ITVX and streaming-stick providers like Roku.
There will also be personalisation and enhanced data-led advertising opportunities.
Accessible content
Paramount operates the main Channel 5 broadcast channel as well as a series of linear variants: 5Star, 5USA, 5Select and 5Action.
According to Barb figures, Channel 5’s linear channels achieved a fifth consecutive year of share growth last year, after improving by 5% in 2023.
Ian Daly, head of AV investment at media agency the7stars, told The Media Leader in January that he wasn’t surprised by the figures, given that Channel 5 “has an excellent understanding of its audience as well as its competitors”.
In terms of programming, Channel 5 has offered a mix of “comfort TV” shows, having brought back the erstwhile BBC comedy All Creatures Great and Small (pictured above), which attracted the channel’s largest audience of the year in 2023, with an average of 3.7m viewers and a 19% share.
Channel 5 has also invested heavily in factual programming for a popular audience, namely accessible history, royal documentaries and celebrity travelogues.
Ben Frow, chief content officer at Paramount UK, has been credited in particular for gaining higher viewing figures in previously neglected regions of the UK (such as Yorkshire, the Midlands and Scotland).
Frow, who returned to Channel 5 in 2012 as director of programmes, described the broadcaster’s content strategy in 2022 as “of the people, for the people”. He added: “We’re not highfalutin, we’re not snooty, we don’t look down on our audience, we’re not patronising.”
C5 boss: ‘We think it’s the right time’
Sarah Rose, president of Channel 5 and UK regional lead at Paramount, said: “We have seen record growth for My5 viewing over the last three years and, as more of our audience discover streaming, we think it’s the right time to have a much closer relationship between our linear and streaming services.
“The new exciting content and FAST channels that we’ll be offering on 5 from 2025 will build on the amazing array of homegrown Channel 5 hits we know our audience already love.”
Frow added: “We know from the success that so many of our Channel 5 shows have had on Netflix that there’s a huge appetite for our content in the streaming world. As we relaunch as 5, our streaming service will be a much bigger and broader offer than My5, with a significantly expanded range of content, including new series and boxsets in reality, drama, factual and kids from across the Paramount family.”
Editor’s note: The headline has been amended after publication to clarify this is Channel 5’s first “unified” (linear and digital) rebrand.
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