LONDON (Brand Republic) - Channel 5 has received a £6m cash injection from shareholders RTL and United Business Media in an attempt to boost audience figures, which have stalled at around 5.5%.
The funding for new programming is in addition to the £20m increase the channel was awarded at the beginning of the year. In February, the station stole early evening Australian soap Home and Away from ITV.
The cash boost is widely viewed as a triumph for majority shareholder RTL, which owns 65% of the channel.
UBM has, to date, aggressively opposed any attempts by RTL to step up investment in the station. This dispute resulted in RTL taking UBM to court before Christmas, as the smaller shareholder tried to block a £10m movie deal between Channel 5 and Warner Bros.
Earlier this year, RTL chairman Didier Bellens publicly challenged UBM CEO Lord Hollick to invest in Channel 5, resulting in the £6m funding for the broadcaster announced today.
The extra cash will be used to fund more high-profile original series, following the success of reality TV shows The Mole and Touch the Truck.
It is this type of programming, and the high hopes the broadcaster has for the Jerry Springer-hosted quiz show Greed, that demonstrates the appetite among Channel 5 viewers for 鈥渋nnovative popular programming鈥, according to Channel 5 CEO Dawn Airey.
Channel 5 was launched in 1997 and managed to net a 6% audience share with a tight programming budget of around £130m a year.
Late last year, RTL announced its intention to increase funding in the channel in order to raise the quality of programming. RTL feared advertisers would shy away from the broadcaster, which was becoming notorious for its late-night soft-porn programming.