Channel 5 Advertising in the UK: Costs, Streaming and Value
Channel 5 advertising gets you broad, older-leaning reach at a price that often undercuts ITV1 for all-adults and housewife audiences. It is strong in daytime and with factual, crime and drama viewers. It is owned by Paramount and sold alongside its own streaming service. For mass-market, older-skewing and response-led briefs, it is often the best-value broadcaster on the plan. For young or upmarket targets it usually isn’t.
What Channel 5 is, and who watches it
Channel 5, now branded as 5, is one of the public service broadcaster channels, and the only one owned by a US studio group, Paramount. Alongside the main channel sits a set of 5-branded digital channels and the streaming service. Check the current line-up and who sells the airtime before you book. Channel names and sales arrangements have changed more than once.
The audience profile decides how you use it:
- Older and broad. The main channel skews older than ITV1 and much older than Channel 4. Housewives, all adults and older adults are its core currency.
- Daytime-strong. Daytime and early evening deliver a large share of the channel’s value, with factual, property, lifestyle and bought-in drama carrying the day. This is also why it does well for DRTV.
- Peak built on factual, true crime and drama. These are genres with loyal, habitual viewers, which gives dependable ratings rather than big-event spikes.
- Weaker on young and upmarket viewers. 16-34s and ABC1s are harder to buy at volume here, so paying a premium for them on Channel 5 rarely makes sense.
Channel 5 advertising costs: what drives the price
Channel 5 is traded on CPT (cost per thousand impacts) against an agreed buying audience, and priced through the deal rather than a rate card. We don’t publish a Channel 5 CPT on this site. The things that move it are:
- Buying audience. Channel 5 looks most competitive on broad audiences such as all adults, housewives and older adults. Trade it on those. Measuring it against a narrow young audience flatters no one.
- Seasonality. Q4 demand lifts prices across the market, and Channel 5 is no exception. Quieter months are where it can be bought very efficiently. See our seasonality guide.
- Daypart. Daytime is where the efficient impacts are. Peak costs more but delivers more reach per spot.
- Spot length. Quoted against a 30″ base (1.00). A 10″ is roughly 0.5 and a 60″ roughly 2.0. The factors are approximate and vary by sales house, which matters for DRTV advertisers running longer copy.
- Fixed vs pre-emptible. Pre-emptible airtime is cheaper but can be moved. For response work, a cheap pre-emptible daytime schedule is often exactly right. For a launch that must hit a date, fix the key spots.
- Station mix. Delivery from the digital channels is cheaper than the main channel. Ask for the split, because a schedule weighted to the smaller channels can look better on CPT than it performs.
When Channel 5 is better value than ITV
ITV1 is the reach benchmark, and it is getting more expensive. TheHub market price data, published on our ITV1 CPT index, shows ITV1’s average Jan–Aug 2026 adults CPT at £14.32, up from £11.97 in 2025 (+19.6%). Over the same period, housewives with children rose to £245.03 (+27.4%). These are average market prices, and what an advertiser actually pays is usually less. When ITV1 inflates like that, the case for moving some broad-audience weight to Channel 5 gets stronger.
| Brief | Channel 5’s role | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Mass-market, older adults, housewives | Core station | Its audience is your audience, so you pay no premium for a skew you don’t need |
| DRTV / lead generation | Core, heavy on daytime | Efficient daytime impacts and viewers who respond; judge on cost per response |
| Broad awareness with ITV as lead | Reach and frequency top-up | Adds impacts more cheaply than piling more weight on ITV1 |
| Young adults, ABC1, upmarket launch | Minor or none | Delivery against these audiences is thin; Channel 4, Sky or BVOD usually do better |
| Big-moment launch needing instant reach | Supporting | ITV1 peak still builds reach fastest; Channel 5 adds frequency around it |
The trap is buying Channel 5 on a cheap all-adults CPT when the brand’s real buyers are younger. The price looks good, but the impacts land on the wrong people. Our ITV advertising costs page gives the other side of the comparison.
Channel 5 and its streaming service (My5, now 5)
Channel 5’s streaming service was long known as My5 and has since been folded into the 5 brand. Whatever the app is called when you book, you are buying broadcaster VOD (BVOD): ads in long-form Channel 5 content, served to signed-in viewers and bought on CPM against impressions.
What streaming adds to a Channel 5 plan:
- Viewers linear misses. Lighter TV viewers who catch 5’s dramas and documentaries on demand.
- Frequency control. Set a frequency cap so the same household isn’t hit repeatedly while others see nothing.
- Targeting. Registration and platform data allow audience and geographic targeting. Each layer usually adds to the CPM, so only pay for what changes the outcome.
- Measurable delivery. Impressions and completion rates, reported separately from BARB impacts.
Planning the two together means giving each a job. Linear builds the reach and carries the weight. Streaming extends to the lighter viewers and manages frequency. Ask for reach de-duplicated across both rather than two reports added together. Check the impression volumes actually available against your audience, because a thin streaming line on a small budget can produce too few impressions to read. Either fund it properly or leave it out. Our BVOD advertising guide and connected TV page cover how it sits against the wider streaming market.
Channel 5 for DRTV and response advertisers
Channel 5 has long been a staple of DRTV schedules, and the reasons are structural. Daytime audiences are at home, response-friendly categories fit the programming, and the pricing leaves room to run longer spot lengths that give a phone number or offer time to land. Buy it on cost per response, check it against spot-by-spot response data, and cut breaks that don’t pay. Our DRTV buying page explains how we read that data.
Channel 5 also works for small and first-time TV advertisers. Thinkbox counted 984 new TV advertisers in 2025 (+6% YoY), and 400+ spent under £25k in the year. An efficient daytime schedule on a broad-reach station is one of the more sensible ways to spend that kind of money. See TV advertising for small business.
Send us the plan or proposal and we’ll tell you what we’d change. Contact us here.
Questions
How much does it cost to advertise on Channel 5?
There is no fixed price. Channel 5 is traded on CPT against the audience you buy, and the price moves with season, daypart, spot length and your deal. It is usually most competitive on broad audiences such as all adults and housewives, and most efficient in daytime.
Is Channel 5 cheaper than ITV?
For broad and older audiences it often delivers impacts more cheaply than ITV1, especially while ITV1 prices are rising. ITV1 still builds reach faster, particularly in peak. Many plans use ITV for reach and Channel 5 for efficient weight.
Who owns Channel 5?
Channel 5 is owned by Paramount. Check who currently sells its airtime and streaming inventory when you plan, as sales arrangements in the UK market change.
Is My5 still called My5?
The streaming service was branded My5 for years and has since moved under the 5 brand. For advertisers it is the same thing: BVOD inventory in Channel 5 content, bought on impressions.
Is Channel 5 good for direct response TV?
Yes. Its daytime audiences, programme mix and pricing make it a regular part of DRTV schedules. Judge it on cost per response and spot-level results rather than on CPT alone.