Five has signed a two-year deal with BBC Broadcast for the corporation's commercial play-out division to provide "second-line disaster recovery" for all of the commercial broadcaster's programme feeds.
Should power, technical, terrorism or local problems occur at or around Five's broadcast facility - The London Playout Centre - in central London, BBC Broadcast's playout and channel management business in Shepherd's Bush will take over programme transmission.
Initially, provision of the service will be from BBC Broadcast's current base at Television Centre but it will operate from its digital Broadcast Centre in the new Media Village at White City when it opens later this year.
The Broadcast Centre is protected by blast walls and served by two power stations and has the capability to manage activities remotely, storing content on multiple back-up servers.
"Post September 11, broadcasters have been putting in place deals to keep themselves on-air," said BBC Broadcast director of marketing, sales and client services John Pink. "This back-up could be worth anything up to£1m a day for Five in ad revenue saved."
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