Five announces the launch of a landmark initiative that will allow Five's viewers to embed episodes of their favourite television shows on their websites, social networks and blogs. Five becomes the first UK broadcaster to syndicate full episodes of popular programmes for catch-up viewing on third-party websites. The initiative, which utilises the Brightcove platform, gives Five the ability to expand the distribution of long-form, ad-supported video content online and will also generate additional advertising income.

Partner websites and Five's own online properties, such as Five.tv and FiveFWD, the cars and gadgets portal for young males, will be the first websites to benefit from the deal. The syndicated player initiative will be widely available later this year to third-party websites and to consumers who will be able to add embeddable video content to their own favourite places on the Web.

The syndicated player initiative employs the full range of capabilities provided by the Brightcove online video platform including deep customization of player design and functionality, as well as integration with a broad set of advertising, content management and geo-location technologies. With the average length of video content reaching 45 minutes, Five will leverage multiple cue-point targeting to place in-stream advertising in long-form online video programming. Capable of reaching more than 98 percent of Internet users, the syndicated player initiative is built on the industry-standard Adobe Flash format, which is the number one platform for video on the Web.

The syndicated player is the latest online video initiative to launch as part of a company-wide agreement that enables Five to use Brightcove to publish and distribute ad-supported video content across its online properties, including Five News with Natasha Kaplinsky, Milkshake!, and Australian soap opera, Neighbours.