Information about how we regulate Channel 5 in the UK, including our latest reports and reviews.
The licence for Channel 5 is held by Channel 5 Broadcasting Limited, a subsidiary of the American media corporation Paramount Global. It provides a service across the whole of the UK.
As a public service broadcaster, Channel 5 must contribute to the purposes of public service broadcasting (PSB), as set out in section 264 of the Communications Act 2003.
You can find the current licensee details and a copy of the licence on our website. Before granting the licences, we consulted on and set the programming obligations.
Complain about something you’ve seen on this channel
You can make a complaint about a programme you watched on this channel.
Licence renewal
The current Channel 5 licence will expire at the end of 2024.
On 29 June 2022, we published our report to the Secretary of State in anticipation of a new licensing round for the Channel 3 and Channel 5 services.
The report sets out our view on how well the Channel 3 and Channel 5 licensees could contribute to the fulfilment of the purposes of PSB, at a commercially sustainable cost, over the next ten-year licence period.
Change of licence conditions relating to the provision of news
In 2021, we approved a request from Channel 5 to change the conditions of its licence relating to its news provision. Channel 5 requested this change in order to introduce a new one-hour-long news broadcast from 5pm. The change to the licence condition will not affect the total amount of news that Channel 5 is required to broadcast each year.