Richard Desmond's Northern & Shell has agreed to buy Channel Five for £103 million ($158.8 million) from European broadcasting giant RTL, according to published reports.
Five is the United Kingdom's fifth-largest broadcaster, but by far its smallest terrestrial TV channel. It has about 10 percent of the advertising market. Launched in 1997, Five was bought by RTL in 2005. It airs a lineup dominated by imported crime drama "CSI," reality TV and Australian soap operas.
RTL announced its deal with Northern & Shell, the private company that controls Desmond's newspaper and magazine titles, on Friday evening in London. Desmond owns Express Newspapers as well as celebrity magazine OK! He is said to be worth about £950 million (about $1.5 billion).
According to the Guardian, Desmond's bid is believed to be twice what his closest rival offered for the company, which reported an operating loss of 41 million euros (about $53 million) in its last fiscal year. Others said to be interested in buying Five were competitor Channel 4 and "Big Brother" creator John De Mol.
According to the Telegraph, Desmond may be thinking of boosting the reality quotient on Five. He reportedly has had discussions with Endemol, which now owns "Big Brother"; the show is in its final season on Channel 4 and Desmond might try to resurrect it on Five.
Media regulator Ofcom is expected to approve the Five deal. Desmond has a broadcasting license already for the adult pay TV channels he operates on the BSkyB satellite system.
Five's broadcasting license, which runs until 2014, requires it to screen certain amounts of news and current affairs programming; Desmond has assured Ofcom he plans to meet those requirements.
Desmond may try to renegotiate Five's content deals with U.S. broadcasters and studios, in an effort to cut costs.
