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Media
Express owner favourite to buy Five
By CMU Editorial | Published on Tuesday 20 July 2010
Richard Desmond, the owner of the Daily Express, Daily Star and OK! magazine, is currently favourite to acquire Channel Five in a £100 million deal which could be signed as soon as next week. It makes sense really, Five is the TV equivalent of Desmond’s print media if you think about it, you know, full of shit. And should Five return to its roots and use soft porn to pull in a late night audience, well, Desmond owns a whole load of telly porn. Though, possibly none of it soft enough for a terrestrial station.
Desmond stepped in as a bidder for loss-making Five soon after current owners RTL Group formally put the channel up for sale. As previously reported, ITV, Channel 4, BSkyB and various US TV networks were all tipped as possible buyers too. According to The Guardian, Channel 4 and a US firm – either Time Warner or NBC Universal – are all also still in the running, though Desmond is reportedly RTL’s favourite buyer, mainly because his acquisition of Five would not require any regulator approval, so could be a quick deal.
