Five is the first TV Channel to strike a deal with Facebook to host content. The Five on demand player, Demand Five, will be embedded into facebook, bolstering the Five on demand service through likes and shares from Facebook’s 26m UK users.
The Facebook Five service is reportedly ready to roll out, and will be launching in the next “week to ten days”, according to sources.
The deal could have a big impact on the Demand Five ad revenue, and be a massive audience pick me up for Demand Five audience figures. This will please media tyrant Richard Desmond, who has just bought the channel for £103m. Desmond’s portfolio also includes the Express, and TV channels Television X and Red Hot TV.
Desmond is on a cost cutting spree at Five, having already cut seven of its executive board directors earlier today, out of a possible nine. He’s also revealed that he’ll be inflicting £20m worth of brutal cuts, which includes a 25 per cent cut of the Five workforce. After hacking its staff to bits, he’ll then invest £300m in the channel.
The success of the Facebook deal is not guaranteed though, although it’s been generally positively received. The quality of the video will be an important factor in its success or failure, and it will be interesting to see how propping up an on demand service that falls behind iPlayer and 4OD with Facebook will affect the programming at Five.
What do you think? If you don’t watch Five, will you start now, because it’s embedded in Facebook? Is the video quality important?
