Channel Five sold to Richard Desmond

[dutchman]

Channel Five has been sold to Richard Desmond's Northern & Shell for £103.5m, RTL confirmed this evening.

With immediate effect, Five joins Desmond's roster of media assets, including Express Newspapers, the Daily Star, OK! magazine, and Portland TV - home of adult TV channels Television X and Red Hot.

In a statement, RTL Group chief executive Gerhard Zeiler said: "With a significant recovery of the UK TV advertising market and Five performing well in the first half of 2010, we saw a window of opportunity to realise a transaction based on a fair evaluation of Five. The disposal is in line with RTL Group’s strategy of being number one or two in each of our markets. I would like to thank the whole team at Five and CEO & Chair Dawn Airey for their passion and professionalism, especially in the difficult past 20 months which saw a comprehensive restructuring of the company."

Desmond visited Ofcom last week to assure them that Five's public service obligations to provide news and current affairs programming in primetime would be upheld. Speculation is mounting that Desmond will bolster celebrity-led content - possibly even including a continuation of Big Brother - on the television channel's schedule, using his other media assets to cross-promote Five. Media regulations would, however, bar Desmond from cross-promoting his print titles on the channel.

RTL took full ownership of Five in 2005, paying £247.6m for UBM's 35% stake in the broadcaster.