The two-week deal is the first time a brand has sponsored an entire TV channel for longer than a few hours. Country Life will sponsor the channel from its launch on 17 February.
Last year, after media regulator Ofcom relaxed rules surrounding terrestrial TV channel sponsorship, Fiat sponsored the entire evening schedule on Five on 21 January. Fiat was the first advertiser to take advantage of the relaxed Ofcom rules.
The Country Life deal includes on-screen sponsorship idents around all Blighty shows, programme menu boards and promotional trails. Brand sponsorship credits will run in all breaks between 7pm and 11pm.
Country Life will continue after the initial two-week period to sponsor a strand on Blighty called "Best of British", which will feature six hours per day of programming on the channel. This element of the deal will last for a further 50 weeks.
The deal was negotiated by Andy Moore, commercial development manager, and Dan Bixby, agency sales manager from IDS, and Steve Venes, broadcast director, and media planners Stephanie Mulcahy and Jonathan Newton of John Ayling & Associates.
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