Comedy affected as BBC Three to go online only
BBC Three is to close and become an online-only channel, if plans revealed this week are approved.
6th March Update: Director-General Tony Hall has confirmed the plan to move the BBC Three brand to iPlayer in the autumn of 2015. If the BBC Trust gives the go ahead, its budget will be slashed from circa £85m to £25m, with the rest of its funds and resources boosting the BBC One drama budget by £30m; launching a BBC One + 1 time-delay channel; and extending CBBC's broadcast by an hour each night. The BBC has released a detailed statement explaining its decision.
The channel's future has been in question for a number of years amidst falling ratings, but serious rumours of the change only began circulating on Tuesday, and it is now apparent the BBC's intentions are more than just idle speculation.
The proposals have been revealed less than three months after the corporation launched an HD variant of the channel, orientated at the lucrative 16-30 year old demographic.
The station has helped launch a wealth of hit comedies since it was created in 2003, including Little Britain, Gavin & Stacey, Him & Her, and Russell Howard's Good News. It is also developing new hits such as Uncle (pictured).
Writers and stars from the various shows are now coming out in force to argue against the channel ceasing television broadcast. A petition to save the channel had attracted thousands of signatures within hours of being started, and continues to grow.
The BBC has previously reversed decisions to close its 6 Music and Asian Network radio services after public campaigning.
If the plans, which are part of new Director-General Tony Hall's next drive of cost-cutting measures, are approved then the channel's programming will be moved to being available exclusively via the popular iPlayer on-demand streaming service. BBC Three would disappear from regular TV platforms such as Freeview, Sky and Virgin Media.
An official statement is due to be made tomorrow (Thursday 6th March), however the BBC Trust - which represents the interests of Licence Fee-payers - would have to approve any such measure before it could be actioned.
BBC Three launched on 9th February 2003, replacing entertainment station BBC Choice. Having begun airing in September 1998, BBC Choice was the first British TV channel to broadcast exclusively in digital format rather than via traditional analogue television signals, and was initially streamed online accordingly.
Matt Lucas, famed for the popular sketch show Little Britain, which launched on BBC Three's opening night, has already described the proposal as "really bad for new comedy", whilst Jack Whitehall, whose sitcom Bad Education is one of the station's biggest ever hits, said the channel's "support of new comedy in particular is vital!"
Twitter is awash with comments from those involved in BBC Three programmes expressing dismay at the news. Joe Lycett, who is due to film a new pilot for the channel next week called Junk, has remarked about how the plans will impact on future developments: "This pilot I'm doing for them is a waste of time. Come anyway and we'll trash the joint."
Late in 2011 it was announced that BBC Three would refocus its comedy programming toward developing new talent and creating new formats to progress to BBC One. Quite where the new policy would leave aspiring talent and new programme makers is unclear.
The next drive of BBC cost cutting is aimed to save some £100 million. The channel's 2013-14 budget has been £85m, although much is spent on programme production, which would remain a cost if the channel continues to survive as an online service thus the conclusion is the channel will make less shows in future.
The proposals to move online will not come as a huge surprise to some, with current channel controller Zai Bennett (pictured) having overseen two seasons of comedy pilots - Feed My Funny 2012 and BBC Comedy Feeds 2013 - which were published on iPlayer before being shown on television.
Bennett was heavily criticised when he took over the role in 2011, axing almost all of the channel's comedy programmes immediately, including cult hit How Not To Live Your Life, and long-running sitcom Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps, which had been growing its audience despite being in its ninth series.
However, he has since commissioned some new hits, including Jack Whitehall's Bad Education. The school-based sitcom was the first title to take part in the scheme in which the channel's scripted comedies are made available on iPlayer before being shown on TV. The show has since become one of iPlayer's most-demanded programmes.
Not everyone is convinced that young people will adjust to viewing programmes online as a default. At the moment 25% of viewing by 16-24 year olds is online. One senior BBC insider told trade newspaper Broadcast that the proposals were "premature", pointing to the channel's loyal audience, which saw it grow its share of 16 to 24 year-old viewers by 3% to 7.7% last year. "This demographic is worth 10 times any other audience. It's the next generation of licence fee-payers," the source said.
In the most recent BBC Annual Report, covering the 2012-13 financial year, BBC Three is highly praised for its "original comedy, drama and factual programming that celebrates new British talent". With a £89.7m budget across that year, the channel received an Appreciation Index rating - the corporation's own mechanism for measuring viewer satisfaction - of 84%; higher than that of BBC One.
A public supporter of BBC Three wrote on Twitter: "The people who watch BBC3 don't watch 1, 2 & 4. I do not pay my TV licence to have my demographic cut out."
6th March Update: New comedies such as Nick Helm's Heavy Entertainment, Siblings, and Josh and returning hits such as Uncle, Bad Education, Russell Howard's Good News, Cuckoo and Badults are expected to be shown before the channel closes, but any subsequent series may only be available online. However, it should be noted the BBC has said: "We plan to show BBC Three's long-form content on either BBC One or BBC Two."
'Long-form content' refers to traditional full-length episodes, rather than web shorts.
Speaking positively about the changes, Tony Hall says: "I'm convinced that the BBC as a creative organisation will be able to reinvent a space for young people on the iPlayer that will be bold, innovative and distinctive. It will not just be a TV channel distributed online - it will be an opportunity to look at new forms, formats, different durations, and more individualised and interactive content. It will play to BBC Three's strengths, offer something distinctive and new, and enhance the BBC's reputation with young audiences. And I will challenge everyone in the BBC to spend much more time focusing on programming for young audiences. We will lead the way."
The BBC's Director of Television, and BBC Three's former controller, Danny Cohen states: "BBC Three will continue to build on the comic brilliance of Little Britain, Gavin & Stacey and Bad Education, of the entertainment value of Russell Howard's Good News and Backchat."
He adds: "We will also make sure that every piece of long-form BBC Three content finds a home on one of our linear television channels. We do not want our content for young audiences to be available only to those with a broadband connection - and we don't want anyone to miss out on the great new programmes we will be producing."
Below is a sample of BBC Three's output, via ten of its most popular comedy shows:
Bad Education (launched 2012):
Gavin & Stacey (launched 2007):
View this clip on the BBC website
The Mighty Boosh (launched 2004):
Nighty Night (launched 2004):
Russell Howard's Good News (launched 2009):
Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps (on BBC Three since channel launched):