Viacom’s Channel 5 Bolsters Digital Platform My5 With PBS America & A+E Networks Deals

Viacom’s Channel 5 is bolstering its digital platform My5 with new content deals with PBS America and A+E Networks.

The company has added 1,500 hours of programming to the service, building on arrangements with the Together channel, All3Media’s Little Dot Studios and BET.

The deal with U.S. public broadcaster PBS America includes a raft of documentaries such as Secrets of the Manor House, Secrets of Stonehenge, Becoming the Beatles and The History Detectives.

Richard Kingsbury, General Manager, PBS America, said, “PBS America has crafted an increasingly popular niche on free to air television by specialising in high quality history and current affairs programming. Our launch on My5 gives us a great shop window for our offering in the free streaming world. The Viacom team have been great to work with and I would heartily recommend them to other rights owners.”

Meanwhile, the company has extended its partnership with A+E Networks UK channel Blaze, increasing its volume of content available on the video-on-demand service such as Swamp People, Pawn Stars, Forged in Fire and Billy the Exterminator. It comes after Blaze launched as a branded channel on My5 in September 2017.

Adrian Pilkington, SVP of Commercial Strategy at A+E Networks UK, said, “We’re really pleased to build on our important relationship with Viacom, enabling some of the best factual entertainment content from our free-to-air channel Blaze to reach an even wider audience on My5.”

James Tatam, VP of Commercial, Digital & Operations, Channel 5, added, “Viewers have come to expect a lot more from streaming services and this new slate of partners accelerates the development of My5 as we take it from player to platform. With a diverse range of high-quality content from our partners, and from across the Channel 5 portfolio, we know there’s something for everyone. We look forward to announcing further content partners in future.”