Digital strategy for Channel Five Broadcasting

Prior to engaging Made by Many, Channel Five had invested little in the digital space, with a web presence limited to a TV guide and programme support microsites. But by 2007, the broadcaster was realising that changing audience behaviour typified by a shift in attention from TV to the web had created new commercial opportunities.

Channel Five engaged Made by Many to co-develop a jump strategy that would take a late starter into a leading position. The objective was to create a digital strategy that allowed Channel Five to punch above its weight online, delivering engaging digital commercial enterprises at relatively low cost.

Our approach

Made by Many interviewed stakeholders and ran a competitive analysis of broader attention challengers to Five’s core audience. Working with Five’s internal management team we produced a strategic framework to identify content and service opportunities in key vertical areas, each encompassing a number of programme brands. We designed the services to have a life and usefulness outside the TV programme schedule windows: the experience would be social, televisual, expert and personal, would leverage the TV experience and build audience during and after the broadcast window.  

We also produced a detailed technology strategy based around two alternative open source stacks, laying the foundations for an expanded digital department that could commission, produce and operate a network of different web channels with shared services and components to reduce costs and single sign-on to ensure an integrated customer experience and best use of customer data. 

We worked with Five to produce a multi-stream revenue plan, including growth forecasting and opportunity analysis, as well as full cost analysis to produce a 5 year business plan. The strategy and business plan were presented to the board and RTL to secure funding. 

How it all went

fwd.five became the central piece of an internal change management program to create new branded channels, recruit new skill sets, train staff in agile processes and build a library of best practice

The strategy programme included three design prototypes based around sports, drama and consumer programmes; the latter was delivered as a hero project - fwd.five.tv - that became the central piece of an internal change management program to recruit new skill sets, train staff in agile processes and build a library of best practice in key digital competencies. FWD was a new branded channel for all of Five’s male-skewed consumer and tech programming including Fifth Gear and the popular Gadget Show.  The proposition combined hundreds of short-form video clips tagged with product data and linked to editorial product reviews, together with user-created ‘what’s hot’ data and a price feed providing affiliate revenues. This was an entirely new way of watching magazine TV programmes in themed segments rather than episodes; it was an ideal opportunity to extend the TV experience into crowd-sourced opinion and shopping and the resulting sponsorship and display advertising revenues have consistently met Five’s ambitious audience and revenue targets.

As well as brand creation, concept design and production design Made by Many assisted in technology partner selection and advised on commercial partnerships, taking a seat on the digital steering group. Technical consulting included advice on video-on-demand, a distributed embeddable full-length TV programme player and developing OpenID standards for users; both a first for a UK broadcaster.  

In the year following initial strategy implementation, visits to five.tv sites increased 200%. FiveFWD recorded 0.5m uniques in its first month of operation, with a 20% bounce rate and an average time on site of six minutes.