Five’s Opie Announces Plan To Boost Programming
Lisa Opie, Five’s managing director of content, has launched an initiative to enable viewers to directly pitch programming ideas to commissioners in a bid to reconnect the channel with its dwindling audiences.
In an RTS speech last night, entitled ‘What is the point of Five?’ Opie said: “There has never been a way the viewer can pitch an idea directly to a broadcaster.
“We hope that by flinging open our door to the viewers we will discover the sort of rare and unpredictable talent which will enable us to produce distinctive, surprising programming which will set us apart from our rivals.”
Five’s commissioning editors are currently setting up MySpace pages to enable this.
Five News will also undergo a revamp with citizen journalism strand ‘Your News’ becoming a key part of the daily news roundups.
Opie said: “In the same way Five News redefined news when it launched 10 years ago I want it now to be in the vanguard of citizen journalism with more direct input from viewers.”
Opie added that recent events in the industry are eroding viewers trust in television and that her priority is to gain viewers trust by giving them an unprecedented amount of input into the programmes they produce.
“We need to embark on a two-way dialogue with viewers as they, quite rightly, want the same input, interaction and response from television that they can experience with other media such as the internet, radio and gaming.
“I believe that this will set us apart from our rivals and give our viewers a real sense of ownership of Five, building communities around both the channel and individual programmes.”
As Five approaches its 10th birthday, the broadcaster’s flagship station has seen its annual share of viewing in recent years follow a downward trend.
The latest news coupled with a recent programming restructure, which has also sparked the search for a director of programmes for its main channel (see Five Restructures Programming Team), could in part be a bid to improve the channel’s performance.
The shift away from its main player, however, could also be due in part to viewers migrating to Five’s new digital channels, Five Life and Five US, which it launched last year (see Five To Launch Two New Channels).
Earlier in the week, Five’s controller of features and entertainment, Ben Frow, announced he was to leave the broadcaster (see Frow Leaves Five), whilst last month Hannah Barnes, managing editor of Sky One, Two and Three, was announced as the new controller of Five Life and Five US, taking over from Nick Thorogood (see Five Digital Controller Replaced).
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