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BBC Executives considering a BBC THREE hour

BBC TWO most likely earmarked for the hour of youth programming (December 2016)

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IS
Inspector Sands
And my suggestion of DEF II wasn't serious at all
RE
Rex
And my suggestion of DEF II wasn't serious at all

Fair enough - but what they're planning for BBC Three's possible block is strikingly just like DEF II! Wink
BR
Brekkie
I know before they scrapped it I did say they should consider making 10pm-midnight on BBC2 a BBC3 zone, moving Newsnight to the news channel. Frankly though if they did that they might as well just keep BBC3 - just run it from 9pm instead of 7pm, and as BBC3 content traditionally could be repeated frequently it's easy enough to flesh out the schedule by for example repeating the previous nights block from 11pm, then the same nights TV again from 1am. Throw in the likes of EastEnders repeats and second screenings of more BBC1/2 content and they soon rebuild the channel with relatively little expenditure.

I'd be surprised if they have any real interest in the HD space vacated by BBC3 - and if they do the restricted hours means the return on it is going to be relatively small.
DV
DVB Cornwall
You can't move the Corporation's only primetime Current Affairs programme off a main channel. It automatically denegrates it. As for the BBC Three Zone clearly this will need post Watershead time. Removing an hour between 2100 and 2230 from BBC Two will be dire for the channel. The only logical slot I can see is on BBC One post News M-W.
BR
Brekkie
You can't close down the only channel that serves an adult audience under 40 either but they did.

Newsnight has been lost for some time on BBC2 - I actually think both it and the news channel could benefit from a switch. I also think it's a matter of priorities - from 10.30-10.45 you've 3 of the BBC's 5 streams showing news (2 from 10-11.15), so I think having a slot for former BBC3 programming on BBC2 from 10pm, with Newsnight either moves to the news channel or pushed back to 11pm (and perhaps cut to 30 minutes) is a price worth paying.
VM
VMPhil
Maybe they could use the evening down-time on CBBC's streams to show BBC Three programming as a kind of linear channel in its own right. Crazy idea, I know. Wink

What if they just had one channel where there was children's shows during the day, and the adult stuff at night? Maybe call it BBC Choice?
JO
Josh
Maybe they could use the evening down-time on CBBC's streams to show BBC Three programming as a kind of linear channel in its own right. Crazy idea, I know. Wink

What if they just had one channel where there was children's shows during the day, and the adult stuff at night? Maybe call it BBC Choice?


*cough*
RE
Rex
You can't close down the only channel that serves an adult audience under 40 either but they did.

Newsnight has been lost for some time on BBC2 - I actually think both it and the news channel could benefit from a switch. I also think it's a matter of priorities - from 10.30-10.45 you've 3 of the BBC's 5 streams showing news (2 from 10-11.15), so I think having a slot for former BBC3 programming on BBC2 from 10pm, with Newsnight either moves to the news channel or pushed back to 11pm (and perhaps cut to 30 minutes) is a price worth paying.

I'd rather see Newsnight get moved back to 11pm to make way for the THREE hour, rather than moving it entirely to the NC.

Newsnight is a staple of BBC TWO. Moving it to the News Channel would completely devalue its status, and it's not something that would be ideal for the BBC to carry out.
SW
Steve Williams
Is that an hour a day or an hour a week - the latter seems more likely. BBC3 content is pretty much non-existent in the schedules at the moment - indeed just gone through the Christmas listings and nothing stands out as being BBC3 content.


Why are you expecting to find BBC3 content at Christmas? Most of their output is documentaries, how many of those are suitable for Christmas? Even when BBC3 was a fully-fledged channel it showed mostly films and repeats at Christmas. It is a totally atypical schedule to be drawing any conclusions from.

Also, the general point is that there is less BBC3 content than there used to be but that is also part of the BBC-wide move towards making fewer, bigger things. They may have made more hours of programming in the past, but that included several hundred hours of things like Live At Johnnys and Celebrity Scissorhands that cost about 50p to make and were made for the sake of filling the schedules. Do you want umpteen series of that for the sake of having umpteen series or for the same price have one good series of Fleabag? Pretty sure most would opt for the latter.

Absolutely ridiculous - for weeks there's been barely any BBC THREE content on ONE and TWO. Doesn't that contravene BBC Trust rules on how much BBC ONE and TWO have to show BBC THREE content a week?


What rule was that? The pledge was that long-form BBC3 content would be shown on BBC1 and BBC2, and that's what they've done. It doesn't need to be X numbers of hours a week, it can be shown where it's appropriate. Some weeks they might show a lot - like they did a month or two ago when the Tuesday 10.45 slot on BBC1 was more or less a full-time BBC3 zone anyway, or when they were showing Thirteen, Fleabag and Murder In Successville on BBC2 on Sunday nights - and sometimes they might show a bit less. Depends what they've got and where it'll fit in the schedules. The other month they showed a Reggie Yates documentary at 9pm on BBC1. Even the Comedy Feeds have been shown on BBC2. I'm not even sure some of those were shown on BBC3 when it was a channel.

Better to wait for when they have the best place to put in then just dump it on for the sake of showing it. Average it out over several months, not one week. And again, they're not going to be able to churn out several shows a week because that's not what BBC3 is doing, because of this fewer, better thing. You may wish to compare the amount of new British content per week with that on Sky 1 and I don't think BBC3 would be found wanting in that regard.

BBC One as a outlet for Three content isn't as practical as Two is. Much of what it had shown from Three (Cuckoo, Asian Provocateur and Josh) would have fitted better on BBC Two.


I don't especially agree with that, either. Josh is a big broad sitcom that fits perfectly well on BBC1 alongside things like Mrs Brown. I don't see much difference between late night BBC1 and late night BBC2, except one gets a compatible lead-in from shows like Graham Norton and Match of the Day, and one gets a less compatible lead-in from Newsnight. When BBC3 started in 2003 most of the terrestrial repeats were on late night BBC1 as well. And they've shown plenty of stuff on BBC2 too.
JA
jay Founding member
Why don't they just bring back the bloody channel.
JA
JAS84
They may have made more hours of programming in the past, but that included several hundred hours of things like Live At Johnnys and Celebrity Scissorhands that cost about 50p to make and were made for the sake of filling the schedules.
Ahem, Scissorhands was not made just to fill the schedules, it was part of Children in Need.
SW
Steve Williams
JAS84 posted:
Ahem, Scissorhands was not made just to fill the schedules, it was part of Children in Need.


I know, but they could have promoted Children in Need by doing an hour long documentary or something for the same price. But the Scissorhands format also had the happy side-effect of filling the schedules for half an hour a night for several nights.

If you want, replace "Celebrity Scissorhands" in that post with your own choice of nondescript cheap BBC3 early evening fare like Headjam or something.

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