Channel Five to show TV on Facebook

Channel Five has announced that it has made a deal with Facebook that means its TV-on-demand platform, ‘Demand Five’, will be embedded into the social-networking site.

This means that Channel Five is set to be the first broadcaster to show television programmes through Facebook, and apparently it will be launching in the next ten days.

Demand Five will show programmes that have been previously broadcast on Channel Five, including CSI: Miami, Home & Away, and Neighbours.

Over 26 million people in the UK use Facebook, and so will have access to this TV-on-demand platform.

Ian Maude, an Enders analyst, said that the deal is a “very smart move… If your business is about reaching as many eyeballs as possible, it makes absolute sense to do so on Facebook, especially for a broadcaster like Five that has a relatively small reach online.”

Maude added the deal would also make Facebook more of a content site: “It’s a win-win situation for both”.

Five has already launched content on Facebook with the  drama Push, which premiered yesterday (Wednesday) both on air and online, including on Facebook.