Plans Unveiled for Online-Only BBC Three

LONDON: Tony Hall, the director-general of the BBC, has outlined the proposal for BBC Three's move to online, where content would be divided under two editorial pillars: Make Me Think and Make Me Laugh.

Hall said that the proposed changes, which are subject to approval by the BBC Trust, would allow the use of "new forms and formats, different durations and more individualized and interactive content." In addition to financial necessity, moving BBC Three online presents an opportunity to reach out to more 16- to 34-year-olds in the U.K.

As part of the changes, children's programs on CBBC would be extended by two hours per day. This would help to ensure that the BBC's younger audiences aged 6 to 12 have the opportunity to watch the channel in the early evening, rather than when they are at school.

The proposal also includes the launch of a catch-up channel, BBC One+1. This would help to make programs more available to people who do not use BBC iPlayer or have broadband access.

Hall said: “With the license fee frozen we’ve had to make difficult decisions—and none more so than our proposal to move BBC Three online. In rising to this challenge, we’ve managed to come up one of the most exciting and ambitious proposals I’ve seen since I came back to the BBC.

“By searching out new ways to engage and entertain young audiences on their terms, the new BBC Three will be a great example of how we can reinvent the public service for the digital world—using their talent, appearing on the platforms and devices that they use and talking to them as equals and partners.”

Danny Cohen, BBC's director of television, added: “As a former BBC Three controller this genuinely wasn’t an easy decision but if ever there’s proof that necessity is the mother of invention, I believe it’s today’s proposal. I didn’t want to make savings by simply salami-slicing again across the board in BBC Television—for me that wasn’t an option.

“I'm truly very excited about the plans we are developing, both in terms of what they will mean for the future of BBC Three and what we can learn to drive the whole of the BBC forward in a time of relentless digital and technological change. I don’t want us to sit back as a legacy company and watch as generational change bites away at our impact—I want us to be at the forefront of that change.”

Damian Kavanagh, BBC Three's proposal lead, commented: “When we announced our plans to move BBC Three online, we admitted we were doing it earlier than hoped but it’s become clear that for young audiences, their shift from linear to TV to online is already happening. It now represents 28 percent of the average daily viewing for 16-24s, with forecasts from Enders Analysis suggesting this will be as high as 40 percent by 2020. Our proposal is to reinvent BBC Three for the digital age and to take risks with ideas, talent and technology. We want to take what’s great about BBC Three and what’s great about digital and merge the two, to give audiences something of the digital world, not just in it. This is not moving a TV channel and putting it online. This is new. We are the first broadcaster in the world to propose something like this.”