BBC confirms end of broadcast BBC3

BBC director general Tony Hall has confirmed the UK pubcaster’s plans to cease operating its youth-skewing BBC3 brand as a broadcast channel but maintain it online.

According to the corporation, the plan, which has been widely expected, will save the BBC over £50m (US$85.6m) a year – £30m of which will be pumped into drama on flagship network BBC1.

BBC3 will be reinvented as a new and innovative online service, the organisation said, and will free up spectrum to extend CBBC by an hour a night and to provide a BBC1 +1 time-shifted service.

“This is the first time in the BBC’s history that we are proposing to close a television channel. I can’t rule out it being the last change to our programmes or services,” said Lord Hall, adding that the “difficult decision” had been driven by the need to make cost savings as a result of its latest licence fee settlement.

“The BBC is living with a licence fee that for five years will have been flat – it will not have gone up at all. And, at the same time, we are absorbing extra costs that we were asked to take on – for the World Service, S4C and the roll-out of broadband,” said Hall.

“The BBC is, by its nature and history, an organisation that constantly reinvents itself,” he added. “I believe the iPlayer is a key part of the future for public service broadcasting. It’s the gateway for people who increasingly want to watch and listen to what they want, when they want it – on tablets, on mobiles as well as other screens.

“Reconciling these two aims – financial and strategic – has led us to this difficult conclusion. We should close BBC3 as a broadcast or linear channel and ask Danny (Cohen, BBC director of television) and his team to reinvent it as a channel online and on the iPlayer.”

Hall said the plan was to bring this into effect in the autumn of next year, though the proposal is still subject to approval by governing body the BBC Trust.

BBC3 is close to Cohen’s heart, since he built up the channel as controller when he moved over from Channel 4’s E4 in 2007, subsequently rising quickly up the BBC ranks to his present role.

“This is the biggest strategic decision the BBC has made in over a decade. While it has been an extremely difficult decision borne out of financial necessity, I believe it is also a creatively energising and innovative move,” he said.

“BBC3 will continue to do all the things we love but it will also have the freedom to break traditional shackles and allow the BBC to be a leader in digital change. It will not just be a TV Channel distributed online. There is a wonderful creative opportunity here to develop new formats with new programme lengths – and to reach young audiences in an ever growing number of ways.

“Will we still want to make all of our current affairs’ documentaries at 60 minutes in the age of Vice and YouTube? Will we find that contemporary documentary and formats work much better at 40 or 45 minutes than 58? What will we learn about the length we want to make each episode of our dramas or comedies, perhaps learning from new market players like Netflix and Amazon?” Cohen continued.

“Although I’m sure that video – televisual – content will be at the core of the new BBC3, we’ll need to challenge ourselves to think and create differently. In this sense, BBC3 will be the spearhead for a new age of digital change for the BBC. It will be the pathfinder as we learn how audience behaviour is changing in the coming years – and it will allow the BBC to be ready for the next waves of disruptive digital disruption.”

Hall paid tribute to current BBC3 controller Zai Bennett and his team for bringing series such as Gavin & Stacey, Little Britain, Bad Education and Bluestone 42 to TV screens and appeared to suggest that the commissioners will carry on as normal.

“You can be rightly proud of what you have achieved so far. I want you to carry on making programmes for young audiences that continue to break new ground,” said Hall.