Channel 5 retunes its internet strategy

Fifth Gear's web site has been souped up

TV broadcaster Five has completed the outsourcing of its web site technology as part of a plan to improve its use of the internet to better engage with viewers.

The decision to bring in a supplier for hosting and management followed the creation of Five's digital media group in 2008, and the realisation that managing disparate programme web sites by different hosting providers would hamper the progress of its web strategy.

The hosting platform provided by Claranet went live in stages from October and the implementation was completed in December. During that period, Five relaunched its corporate web site, and revamped content for The Gadget Show, Fifth Gear, Five News, Neighbours and the channel's main Five.tv site.

"This is part of our wider plan to ramp up our rich media offering as we had not invested in that area as much as our competitors had until recently," said Five technology manager François Chabat.

"With a single provider, we have much better performance online, less administration and a single set of quality standards, which means we know what to expect and how to react in case of any issues."

Web developments at Five during 2009 will focus on key advertising revenue generators such as soap operas and gaming, as well as and expansion of user communities using Web 2.0 technology. Agile programming techniques are a vital part of the plan.

"We are rapid and experimental and are willing to throw away things if they do not work. That way we can offer something new every week to our audience," said Five digital controller Paul Thornton-Jones.