Channel 5 has made its first advertiser-supplied programming deal -
bringing radio’s Pepsi Network Chart on to television.
The channel - which, since it went on air at Easter, has been keen to
develop relationships with advertisers beyond spot commercials - will
launch the show early next year. Called the Pepsi Chart Show Event, the
programme will replicate independent radio’s Pepsi Chart, the UK’s top
music chart show, which is broadcast weekly on 75 stations across the
country.
Pepsi first became involved in advertiser-supplied programming in the UK
through Channel 4’s Passenger series, conceived and created for Pepsi by
Broadcast Innovations. Robert Dodds, the managing director of Broadcast
Innovations, confirmed that Pepsi had created the Pepsi Chart Show Event
with his company and was selling the UK rights to Channel 5.
Pepsi’s sponsorship of the show will have a market value of around
pounds 2 million a year.
The programme is designed as an ’event’ to ensure it does not break the
ITC’s sponsorship code, which precludes advertisers sponsoring programme
material with which they are closely associated.
Nick Milligan, the sales director of Channel 5, said that Pepsi, pop
music and Channel 5 made a perfect fit and that the show was ’an example
of the disciplines of sales, programming and marketing working together
to bring a successful programme format to Channel 5 viewers’.
The association between Pepsi and Channel 5 is likely to be extended
off-screen and a marketing deal involving the use of the Channel 5 logo
on Pepsi cans has been mooted.
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