Television's unwanted stepchild
VoD: Five left on the sidelines
Recently it was announced that Ofcom's plan for a high definition Freeview service would provide HD channels for the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, but no standard provision given for Channel Five to have a HD channel, plus now it appears that Five was initially sidelined when it came to setting up a planned video on demand portal for the terrestrial broadcasters.
The answer is simpler than it initially seems. The BBC is obviously a public service broadcaster funded by the licence fee, ITV holds expensive regional licences and Channel 4 has its own well defined public service remit, whereas Channel Five was just a commercial broadcaster operating a patchwork analogue terrestrial service.
Combine this with Channel Five's direct competitiveness with Channel 4 and you have the perfect excuse to leave Five out the "terrestrial club", so to speak, on the grounds of not having a distinctive public service remit. Also it's subsequently easy to argue that Five is just to be treated the same as all of the other terrestrial (digital) broadcasters.
There's no doubt that Channel Five will inevitably provide programmes for any "one stop shop" internet-based video on demand service run by the major terrestrial broadcasters - it can't afford not to - but despite RTL being one of the largest European broadcasters, Channel Five is relatively weak when it comes to influencing UK broadcasting policy matters.
RTL is probably now regretting not having bought ITV plc at an earlier stage, but there is always the prospect of a weakening ITV share price if a creative renaissance fails to materialise and BSkyB being forced to divest its ITV shares. BSkyB might theoretically be interested in some form of exchange deal that includes swapping its ITV shares in exchange for Channel Five.
Although BSkyB seems to be superficially losing interest in free-to-air terrestrial television, it could somehow work Five into its "Picnic" pay-TV proposal if only to repurpose the space occupied by channels such as Five Life and Five US. But of course RTL isn't the only potential purchaser of shares in ITV plc, and it could have a fight on its hands when the occasion arises.
