The UK television advertising market will grow by up to 2 per cent this year, Channel Five owner RTL predicted as it said Five’s new digital spin-off channels boosted its audience share.

Five’s family of channels recorded an audience share of 6.3 per cent in the first half of the year to June, with 5.5 per cent for the main free-to-air analogue channel and 0.8 per cent combined for the digital channels Five Life and Five US, which launched in October, according to RTL. Last year Five had an audience share of 5.7 per cent.

“We will see overall growth in the UK television market for the whole year of 2007,” Gerhard Zeiler RTL CEO, said. “I’m ready to forecast that the growth will be between 1 per cent and 2 per cent.”

Five’s share of the advertising market had risen from 8.4 per cent in the first half 2006 to 9 per cent in the first half of this year and would be “significantly above 9 per cent” in the second half of 2007, he added.

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