Five has said that it is "not interested" in buying the terrestrial rights to 24 from Sky.

As reported yesterday, Sky One snapped up both the pay TV and terrestrial rights to the third series of the hit show. It was expected that Five would buy the terrestrial rights portion from Sky, but now they claim that the audience wouldn't be high enough.

"I think its terrestrial audience would be cut in half after it had appeared on Sky One," Five's director of acquisitions Jeff Ford told C21. "Anyway, we've got a full slate for the New Year."

Channel 4 is now the favourite to air the show terrestrially.