Five has signed a three-year deal with YouTube that will make the channel's programming freely available online.
YouTube, a hugely-popular Google-owned video sharing website, inked a similar deal with Channel 4 earlier in the year, and will now provide users with access to many of Five's shows - including Neighbours, Home and Away and The Gadget Show - as part of its on-demand service.
The deal will make Five's programming available via YouTube shortly after broadcast, and some 250 hours of archived shows are also said to be making their way online. However, a number of Five's high-profile U.S. programming, including shows such as CSI, will not yet be available via YouTube due to distribution rights.
Available freely to UK users, YouTube's Five content will be supported primarily by advertising, with the proceeds shared by Google and Five.
"Five will have a branded presence on YouTube and its sales team will be able to sell both display and video advertising (typically pre-roll and mid-roll advertisements and sponsorship bumpers) around the content available on the site," said the broadcaster in a statement.
Five's chief executive, Dawn Airey, hailed the deal as a means to expand the channel's audience whilst simultaneously tackling the problem of piracy.
"This is a tremendously important deal for Five because in one fell swoop it extends the reach of our content beyond linear TV and our own existing websites to a new audience of younger, upwardly mobile and web-savvy individuals – an audience that advertisers are equally desirous of attracting. Importantly it extends the availability of legally available long-form content online thereby dealing a blow to web piracy," she said.
