ThisisBigBrother.com - UK TV Forums - C5 to get 'double-digit' budget increase, on-screen rebrand & 'beef up' news service.

Quote:

The chief executive of Channel 5 owner Viacom said the broadcaster would be given a double-digit budget increase in the year ahead with plans to increase its news programming and an overhaul of its on-screen brand.

Philippe Dauman said last year’s purchase of Channel 5 from Richard Desmond for £450m was a “huge leap forward” for the international ambitions of the MTV and Nickelodeon parent company.

With the future of the BBC under scrutiny, Dauman said he had “a lot of respect” for the corporation but said more scrutiny was required if it went into areas where “commercial media companies have invested a lot, if it goes into starting a new music network”.

The first US company to own a UK public service broadcaster, Dauman said: “We said we would increase investment in original content, we have and we will continue to do so. The programme budget for Channel 5 will see a double-digit increase again in 2015/16.”

Dauman told the Royal Television Society conference in Cambridge on Wednesday that the company would refresh Channel 5’s on-air brand and “beef up” its news service.

In recent years, Channel 5’s news has failed to match the profile it once gained when its then news anchor, Kirsty Young, first perched on a desk nearly 20 years ago.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/201...st-programming

Sounds exciting!