Following YouTube striking a deal with Channel 4 two weeks ago, they’ve managed to come to an agreement with Channel Five to allow them to broadcast many of Five’s shows online.
The various shows currently available are the Australian soaps Neighbours and Home and Away along with The Hotel Inspector and The Gadget Show. They can be accessed via YouTube Shows along with the 250 hours of archived footage that will be available shortly.
Five are still in discussions with the US rights holders (CBS and Disney) to get popular shows from across the ocean such as CSI and FlashForward brought to the on-demand service.
“By the nature of the platform, it’s a younger audience – younger, upwardly mobile 16-to-24-year-olds, that may not actually be the core target of Five but hopefully they will enjoy our programmes as well,” said Jon Lewis, Five’s head of Digital Media.
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Five aren’t stopping with YouTube, they’re in discussions with other internet on-demand services such as Hulu and SeeSaw. Dawn Airey, Five’s Chief Executive said the deal sets the tone for how other broadcasting companies should act in order to reach out to the online communities.
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