Five joins big four

Five have reached a milestone in their broadcasting history as figures recently released show that the channel now has a national coverage of 96%, this is enough for the channel to seek listed status. This listed status is only for channels which achieve over 95% coverage, but in the long term can mean so much more the channel and the viewers too.

Ofcom have reviewed the figures and agree that the Five now deserves to belong to the listed club, which includes, The BBC, ITV and Channel Four. What this will mean for the channel itself is that it will be able to cover many of the sports which are protected under the listed agreement.

This means that from now on Five must be given an equal opportunity to acquire the UK rights to many sporting events. These events are varied but can include events such as the Olympics, Wimbledon, European Football Championships and the World Cup. There are two groups A and B. A is the live coverage of these events, while B is the highlight programmes. It will certainly be interesting to see which events end up on Five.