Five signs YouTube deal to offer shows on demand

Five has signed a deal with YouTube to make shows such as The Hotel Inspector, The Gadget Show, Neighbours and Home And Away available for catch up viewing on the video-sharing website.

The broadcaster's shows are available on demand and free-of-charge via the Google-owned website in the UK from today.

Five will make its Demand Five service of new programmes available via YouTube shortly after television transmission and the website's users will also be able to access around 250 hours of Five's archive content.

The partnership follows a similar deal agreed with Channel 4 in October.

Dawn Airey, chairman and chief executive of Five said: "This is a tremendously important deal for Five because in one fell swoop it extends the reach of our content beyond linear TV and our own existing websites to a new audience of younger, upwardly mobile and web-savvy individuals - an audience that advertisers are equally desirous of attracting...

"Legitimate internet video operators are far from the 'parasites' that some have sought to portray them as in the past; on the contrary, they can be an important partner in helping modern day broadcasters reach new audiences and continue to fund high quality original content."

Five's programming can be found within YouTube's UK Shows section at youtube.com/shows.