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BBC Three - Trust's final decision published

Split from BBC Three (November 2015)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
LL
Larry the Loafer
The content is pretty appalling. I'm not going to miss BBC Three as it stands right now. Funnily enough I started watching Him & Her for the first time on Netflix, and although I'm only three episodes in, I like it. But it has made me realise just how little content has since been injected into BBC Three over the last five years or so. The only decent ones that spring to mind are Uncle and Murder in Successville, although the latter is spoilt by the involvement of rubbish reality stars from shows put out by BBC Three's rivals.
IN
Interceptor
How useful it is when a channel is listed in the TV guide and you can see what they're showing.

Yeah! What are the BBC thinking? The amount of twenty-somethings who eagrely study the BBC Three column of the Radio Times the moment it drops through their door...

Sadly no longer a 20-something but really dispute that - I actually found out about 3 or 4 shows on TV this week through a quick glance at the weeks TV Guide this morning that I had no idea were airing.

You dispute that TV listings publications are rarely read and even rarer purchased by people in BBC Three's target demographic?
JA
JAS84
Why purchase a TV mag? You can use the EPG (which would go at least a week ahead) or get TV listings free on websites, through an app, or by buying a weekend newspaper.
LL
London Lite Founding member
JAS84 posted:
Why purchase a TV mag? You can use the EPG (which would go at least a week ahead) or get TV listings free on websites, through an app, or by buying a weekend newspaper.


One of the reasons why the Radio Times has invested in other content and they even provide recommendations of catch-up programmes in the printed magazine to justify the £2.30 cover price.

However it's fair to say the RT at least skews older with younger readers going for the cheap listings mags.
IN
Interceptor
JAS84 posted:
Why purchase a TV mag? You can use the EPG (which would go at least a week ahead) or get TV listings free on websites, through an app, or by buying a weekend newspaper.


One of the reasons why the Radio Times has invested in other content and they even provide recommendations of catch-up programmes in the printed magazine to justify the £2.30 cover price.

However it's fair to say the RT at least skews older with younger readers going for the cheap listings mags.

Younger as in under 50? Maybe. Younger as in under 35? I very much doubt it!
LL
London Lite Founding member
JAS84 posted:
Why purchase a TV mag? You can use the EPG (which would go at least a week ahead) or get TV listings free on websites, through an app, or by buying a weekend newspaper.


One of the reasons why the Radio Times has invested in other content and they even provide recommendations of catch-up programmes in the printed magazine to justify the £2.30 cover price.

However it's fair to say the RT at least skews older with younger readers going for the cheap listings mags.

Younger as in under 50? Maybe. Younger as in under 35? I very much doubt it!


Magazines are not dead just yet. It can be a lot simpler to pick up What's On TV for a few pence or the free newspaper listings mag than navigate an EPG and that includes the BBC Three demo.

Incidentally a friend of mine is 30 and buys the print edition of the RT!
RR
RR
Top three paid for magazines are TV listing magazines:

http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/magazine-abcs-top-100-glance/1360010
BR
Brekkie
Yeah! What are the BBC thinking? The amount of twenty-somethings who eagrely study the BBC Three column of the Radio Times the moment it drops through their door...

Sadly no longer a 20-something but really dispute that - I actually found out about 3 or 4 shows on TV this week through a quick glance at the weeks TV Guide this morning that I had no idea were airing.

You dispute that TV listings publications are rarely read and even rarer purchased by people in BBC Three's target demographic?

Isn't it you disputing that, and me disputing what you're disputing. I'm getting rather confused! My point is the EPG isn't great for planning a weeks viewing or finding shows returning to screen and that the old fashioned way of reading the TV highlights for the week, whether in a TV mag, a free TV guide or even on this new fangled thing called the interweb is often the easiest way to find out what's on and BBC3 is going to struggle to make itself heard in promoting it's content in that way, relying instead on social media and the few BBC promos they'll get instead.

Obviously with it not being linear it's not going to matter too much if people don't catch it the moment it premieres, but you can bet that having used higher internet viewership as the reason to close the TV channel that ultimately lower internet viewership will be the justification for closing it altogether.

Are BBC3 shows being restricted to 30 days too - will that be enough for word to reach the potential audience? Making a Murderer on Netflix is a good case study for how on demand services rely on word of mouth - and it had been on Netflix about a month before it really took off.
IN
Interceptor

One of the reasons why the Radio Times has invested in other content and they even provide recommendations of catch-up programmes in the printed magazine to justify the £2.30 cover price.

However it's fair to say the RT at least skews older with younger readers going for the cheap listings mags.

Younger as in under 50? Maybe. Younger as in under 35? I very much doubt it!


Magazines are not dead just yet. It can be a lot simpler to pick up What's On TV for a few pence or the free newspaper listings mag than navigate an EPG and that includes the BBC Three demo.

Incidentally a friend of mine is 30 and buys the print edition of the RT!

I didn't claim they were. I merely suggested that TV listings magazines are not aimed at young adults nor do they buy them - so the issue Brekkie suggested there might be (where people will look for BBC Three and be surprised by its absense) would be limited.

Pick any one of them up and have a look at the adverts. That'll tell you all you need to know.
NT
Night Thoughts
Media Guardian has an interview with Damian Kavanagh: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/feb/07/bbc3-damian-kavanagh-youth-offer

I'm well out of its age range now, but The Daily Drop really is dire - a crap BBC BuzzFeed.

I could understand it if The Daily Drop linked out to some of the BBC's other web offerings (the Newsbeat website is the obvious example - especially as Tony Hall talked about putting Newsbeat on BBC3 before the axe fell) but this is what happens when people who work in broadcast suddenly think they can make great text content. Nine times out of ten, they can't.
BR
Brekkie
I think the fact a 47 year old man is in charge of it probably sums up the BBC's attitude to it.

As you say the Daily Drop is dire and isn't something the licence fee should be spent on - with the "BBC3" budget being cut so dramatically every single penny should be spent on programming.
SW
Steve Williams
I think the fact a 47 year old man is in charge of it probably sums up the BBC's attitude to it.


Wait until you see how old the controllers of CBBC and CBeebies are.

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