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Desmond closes in on Five
Richard Desmond, the owner of the Express newspapers, is understood to have tabled a £104m offer for television channel Five, and could be named as a preferred bidder as early as today. Despite a last-minute approach from?Channel 4, owner RTL is understood to be much more interested in?Desmond’s offer, which is considerably higher. As the smallest of Britain’s five terrestrial broadcasters, the channel – which was launched to much fanfare in 1997 – has struggled in the face of the advertising recession. RTL has written down the value of the broadcaster by £402m in the last two years.