Channel Five reveals intention to step up digital TV presence

Five intends to make its mark in digital media

UK TV channel Five has revealed plans to aggressively ramp up its online presence.

François Chabat, the channel's senior technology manager, exclusively told Computing that syndication of content is a key part of its strategy.

He said that the channel now wants content available on more devices and revealed that Demand Five is the only UK broadcaster's catch-up service offered on Sony’s Bravia internet TV.

The broadcaster has been posting content from its Demand Five catch-up service on YouTube, TV.com and the forthcoming Project Canvas, which will include content from several channels.

The strategy appears to be paying dividends as Chabat reported continuous growth since 2008, culminating in its highest ever traffic just last month, where it saw seven million unique streams of its content.

The news comes at a time when it was revealed that ITV will be bringing its online video-on-demand service to smartphones.

The broadcaster is in talks with Apple, BlackBerry and Google’s Android team about launching an ITV Player mobile app, according to The Telegraph.

ITV hopes to be the first major UK broadcaster to release a TV catch-up app on the most popular mobile devices, beating the BBC and Channel 4 to the punch.

The broadcaster intends to charge a one-off payment for the app and is trying to get its 30-day catch-up service available on every key smartphone device, a senior TV executive close to ITV told the newspaper.

The app will be populated daily with new content which will be continually supported by advertising.