Media tycoon buys UK’s Channel Five
The UK TV channel which airs Neighbours and Home and Away has a new owner.
- Published by David Knox
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UK media tycoon Richard Desmond, has purchased TV channel Five for £104m.
The channel plays Australian soaps Neighbours, Home and Away and has just launched new UK talent show Don’t Stop Believing, which will have an Australian adaptation.
But Five has always struggled to establish a clear identity and was hit hard by the slump in advertising revenue during the downturn.
Desmond, the owner of the Daily Express, Daily Star, and OK! Magazine, is likely to cut costs but invest in British production.
“To me, content is always king, and that will continue and accelerate with this acquisition. Channel 5 has already got some terrific imports which we are very proud of, such as CSI, The Mentalist, Neighbours and Home And Away,” he said.
“But I’ve always believed in British talent, and we will actively pursue developing terrific homegrown programming,” he said.
He singled out for praise Don’t Stop Believing.
He is also expected to introduce more celebrity programmes and may even try to revive Big Brother, now in its last series on Channel 4.
“And if we could get Coronation Street, for instance, I absolutely would”.
Five was sold by entertainment network RTL which owns FremantleMedia.
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- Tagged with Coronation Street, Big Brother, CSI, Don’t Stop Believing, Home and Away, Neighbours, The Mentalist
2 Responses
One sure way to ensure failure is to bring big brother back. That show is one of the things from the last decade that we’d rather forget about, along with work chioces It should be dead and cremated.
please please revive big brother with the aus version gone and the usa version as boring as bat sh*t i need the uk version to get my fix