CHANNEL 5 TO END SOFT PORN IMAGE

THE OWNERS of Channel 5 are planning to increase investment in order to distance itself from its image as British Television’s home of soft pornography.
RTL Group, the pan-European broadcaster that controls Channel 5, is understood to be planning to raise spending on programming to develop it into a mainstream TV station, concerned that its image is limiting business opportunities.
Channel 5, launched in 1997, has built an audience share of more than six per cent and a value in excess of £1.1 billion.
Although some executives, such as Richard Eyre, director of RTL and a devout Christian, are known to have ethical misgivings about some of Channel 5’s programmes, people say the revamp is being driven by commercial logic rather than family values.
RTL Group owns 65 per cent of Channel 5, following the merger this year of CLT-Ufa and Pearson Television.