My5 Adds 1,500 More Hours of Content

Channel 5 has secured four more content partnerships for its streaming service My5, bringing a total of 1,500 additional hours of programming to the platform over the next year.

The deals were secured with PBS America, the Together channel, Little Dot Studios and BET. The content will span history, scripted drama, reality, documentaries and comedy. The programming will begin to arrive on the platform this month.

PBS America, the U.K. branch of American public broadcaster PBS, will broadcast a slate of documentaries on My5 that includes Secrets of the Manor House, Secrets of Stonehenge, Becoming the Beatles and The History Detectives. Meanwhile, the U.K. free-to-air channel Together is set to deliver programs such as Mary’s Silver Service, David Attenborough’s Richmond Park and Great British Garden Revival.

Little Dot Studios will launch content from two of its owned thematic web channels, the human interest documentary channel Real Stories and the science and engineering channel Spark. Content from the Viacom-owned channel BET includes the scripted drama Being Mary Jane and the reality series Chasing Destiny.

Also beginning this month, A+E Networks UK will extend its partnership with My5, bringing more content to the service. The partnership with A+E Networks UK’s free-to-air entertainment channel Blaze is being extended with a commitment to increase its offering on My5.

James Tatam, the VP of commercial, digital and operations at Channel 5, commented, “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.”

Richard Kingsbury, the general manager of PBS America, said, “PBS America has crafted an increasingly popular niche on free-to-air television by specializing 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.”

Adrian Pilkington, the senior VP of commercial strategy at A+E Networks UK, remarked, “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.”