BBC3 sets date for online shift

BBC3 in the UK has set a date for its move online as the pubcaster’s governing body launches a second consultation over the proposed changes.

Tony Hall

Now set at March 1 next year, the move has been in the works since chief Tony Hall revealed the planned change in 2014. Proposals for the channel include creating a BBC3 brand that would offer content across the BBC’s services.

Meanwhile, BBC3’s existing shows will be shifted to sibling linear nets BBC1 and BBC2 during the latter part of this year.

A “broad-based phased transition on the closure of BBC3 as a broadcast channel in January 2016” is planned, with the linear network then redirecting viewers to the new online service.

The BBC says it expects to save around £4m (US$6.25m) by opting not to run a dual service that would keep the linear net running into April.

The pubcaster added that the new BBC3 will also offer content “that will resonate with younger audiences – comedy, personality-led entertainment, drama, factual, documentaries and current affairs.”

It said BBC3 content should “be available across the BBC’s services – on a dedicated branded space on bbc.co.uk, on programme pages on BBC Online, on BBC iPlayer, on BBC1 and BBC2 and on Connected Red Button.

“In short, moving BBC3 online will allow us to react to significant changes in technology and audience behaviour and reinvent public service broadcasting for younger audiences.”

The broadcaster received provisional approval for the changes from the BBC Trust, which oversees its operations, in June and now a second public consultation is underway and due to run until September 30.

It will also consider changes to the iPlayer and longer hours for CBBC, as well as the proposed launch of a BBC+1 channel, which has been provisionally rejected by the Trust and is now unlikely to happen.