Lighting emerged as the lead candidate in the race to replace Dawn Airey, who resigned in September to become the managing director of Sky Networks at BSkyB.
It is understood that Lighting beat a list of candidates to win the post including Nick Milligan, who was appointed by RTL as acting chief executive. It is thought that Milligan is unlikely to stay at Five.
Other names believed to have been in the running initially included former NTL boss Stephen Carter, who was last week appointed to the top job at media super-watchdog Ofcom. Carlton Communication's Steve Hewlett and RDF's David Frank were also thought to have been interviewed.
Lighting, who was close to former Telewest's chief executive Adam Singer, is thought to have been seen for her final interview with Five, which was rebranded from Channel 5 late last year, having first met with RTL bosses before Christmas.
At Flextech, Lighting was responsible for all of Flextech's channels, which include Bravo, LivingTV and Trouble. She has also been responsible for the 'UK' branded joint venture channels with the BBC, including UK Gold and UK Style.
The final decision has been made by Didier Bellens, chief executive of RTL Group. Last week RTL, which owns 65% of Five with the rest owned by United Business Media, said that the advertising market looked tough and that it did not see a sustained recovery under way at present.
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