The BBC has been asked to supply a bid in competition with ITN, which currently provides news bulletins for Five. ITN's £6m contract with Five, formerly known as Channel 5, ends next year.
If the BBC were to submit a bid, the move would be hugely controversial and would give fresh impetus to the debate about the commercialisation of the BBC and the television licence.
The BBC has not indicated whether it plans to submit a bid. If it did it would be a first because the BBC does not provide news bulletins to any channels in the UK other than its own digital and terrestrial services. In the US, the BBC sells its bulletins to the Public Broadcasting Service, PBS.
There was speculation earlier this year that Five could ditch ITN as its news service if major shareholder ITV was allowed to take control -- this became possible on July 17 when the government's Communications Act gained royal assent, permitting the relaxation of media-ownership rules.
News of a possible BBC bid comes as Five continues its march upmarket with improved programming based around imported drama and films, as well as homegrown documentary and arts programming.
Five news is known for its relaxed approach, with its presenters, including Kirsty Young, occasionally presenting perched on their desks.
A win for the BBC would be a huge blow to ITN, which has already had to cut costs massively in a bid to hold on to its contracts to provide news to Channel 4 and ITV.
Two years ago, ITN faced stiff competition for the ITV news contract from the Sky-backed Channel 3 News consortium. Channel 3 News tried to undercut ITN by a considerable margin, which resulted in ITN having to rethink its bid price to around £33m, down £13m from its initial bid of £46m.
The idea to invite the BBC to submit a bid is thought to have come from Jane Lighting, Five’s newly arrived chief executive.
Lighting had a close relationship with the BBC in her former job as head of Flextech, the programming arm of cable firm Telewest.
At Flextech, Lighting was responsible for all Flextech's channels, including the 'UK'-branded channels, which are joint ventures with the BBC, such as UK Gold and UK Style.
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