Channel 5's US parent company Paramount has extracted £215m from the British broadcaster even as it suffered a sharp drop in profits.
The payout, which is among the largest in the channel's history, was taken from retained earnings in Paramount's first year under the leadership of David Ellison, the son of Oracle tycoon Larry Ellison .
It came despite Channel 5's pre-tax profits slumping by two-thirds to £11.9m, while revenues fell 8pc to £292m, according to newly filed accounts.
The All Creatures Great and Small broadcaster blamed the decline on "challenging" conditions in the advertising market as brands continued to divert their spending away from traditional TV.
Channel 5's travails underscore the challenge facing Mr Ellison, who closed an $8bn (£6bn) deal to take control of Paramount last summer .
He has since pulled off an even more audacious swoop on Warner Bros . The $110bn merger, which closed this week, is set to reshape Hollywood.
But the newly formed company, which has been rebranded Skydance, is already facing questions over eye-watering debt levels.
The company is heavily reliant on its declining linear television business to generate cash to service its debt.
As a result, bosses are also preparing at least $6bn in cost cuts in an effort to balance the books. The dividends suggest Mr Ellison will also squeeze subsidiaries for additional cash.
Channel 5 has previously handed significant dividends to its parent company, including a £740m payout in 2020.
Channel 5, which has an older audience than its rival public-service broadcasters, still attracts much of its viewing through traditional linear TV.
However, the channel has been investing heavily in its streaming service, which relaunched last year under the new brand name "5".
Bosses said the investment had started to pay off as Channel 5's streaming viewing rose by more than a third in 2025, outpacing the BBC, ITV and Channel 4.
The company was also boosted by a one-off gain of £19.1m after its investment in a subsidiary was transferred to another part of the Paramount group.
Paramount's tie-up with Warner Bros, which owns CNN, TNT Sports and the eponymous film studios, has triggered concerns over media plurality and the effect on news provision in the UK.
Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, threatened to intervene in the deal, but ultimately waved it through after Paramount pledged to pump an extra £80m into Channel 5 over the next three years.
The cash will be used to fund news, original children's programming and an additional 20 hours of drama programming each year.
Channel 5 spent more than £200m on programming last year as it splashed out on new dramas and rights for sports fixtures including the Fifa Club World Cup .
The tournament's final between Chelsea and Paris St Germain delivered the channel's biggest ever live sports audience, with a peak of 2.4 million on the main channel and 459,000 streaming it.
Channel 5, which appointed Reemah Sakaan as its new boss at the start of this year, recently struck a deal to shift its £300m advertising sales business from Sky to Channel 4.
Channel 4, which posted a deficit of £10m last year, is also struggling with a decline in the TV ad market and has outlined plans to cut around a quarter of its workforce in the biggest redundancy round in its four-decade history.
