Viacom buy Channel 5 for £450m

U.S. media company Viacom has today confirmed it is buying UK free-to-air public service broadcaster, Channel 5 for £450m.
Viacom, owners of MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and Paramount movies has said it will introduce more UK-created content to global audiences.
Channel 5 launched as the UK’s fifth public service broadcaster in March 1997 has an audience of 42 million viewers in the UK.
The deal was announced by Viacom and Mr Desmond’s Northern & Shell Media Group on Thursday.

Richard Desmond has agreed to sell UK broadcaster Channel 5 to US group Viacom for £450m, in a move that will see him receive more than four times his initial investment.
He bought Channel 5 in 2010 for £103.5m from European broadcasting group RTL. He turned around the lossmaking channel by cutting overheads and investing in programming.

After the sale process began in January of 2014, both BT and ITV ruled themselves out of the race, leaving US groups such as Discovery, Scripps and Viacom as the most likely buyers.
What impact this will have on Channel 5, remains to be seen. Will Viacom go down the Pay-TV route, or bring Channel 5 HD out of encryption and on to Freeview and Freesat?