Ofcom's Annual BBC Report

Can't move the news to Two, as Two can't do regional opt-outs.

So demote all of the public service broadcasting to BBC2?
Furthermore, do you really think that all programmes of the same genre are aimed at the same demographics? I seriously doubt that the majority of pointless viewers would suddenly tune into only connect (for example) just because they were on the same channel.

Ofcom would never allow BBC One to have no news.

The problems with the BBC failing to attract those of us in the 16-24 demographic are many fold and not just those that the BBC have identified. If the BBC wants to reverse the decline in viewership in that age bracket I honestly think they need to consider offering free TV licences to students, or at least altering the current rules that often mean that students are often expected to buy a TV licence each rather than together as a flat. Quite frankly the prospect of having to pay £147 to watch the BBC is not in the slightest appealing considering Youtube is free and the majority of students either have access to a parents Netflix account or at the very least share the subscription amongst a group of friends. Another issue is that the BBC seems to consider that all individuals in the age bracket are going to be interested in the same type of content when in reality most people develop between the ages of 16 and 24 meaning that they are no longer interested in the same stuff by the age of 24 as they were at 16 and 90% of the BBC three content seems to target giggly teenage girls rather than young professionals. Furthermore with the lack of a dedicated channel for content aimed at the age group the BBC need to do more to advertise what they do have available externally as trailers between programmes aimed at others won't be seen by the demographic meaning that however good the content is it will have low viewing figures.

There is also the long term issue which they slightly backtracked on, but never properly did, of CBBC casting aside viewers once they hit puberty. The shows which may not have been teen shows but certainly bridges that gap when we were of that age have long gone and never really been replaced.

I honestly think the best place to start is re-establishing proper Saturday morning TV on BBC1. Going Live and Live and Kicking, and actually even the shows before them and Tiswas over on the other side were going viral long before going viral was a thing. In addition it was a visible shop window for the sort of acts and personalities that appeal to that audience, something really lacking now.

Won’t happen as kids shows don’t rate anymore, there’s a reason that Saturday Kitchen took over that slot.

I think investing more into CBBC and content for iPlayer is more likely.

It's that sort of short sighted view which has got them in the situation they're in now. It's not about how many are watching, it's about who are watching, and switching 9-12am on a Saturday morning is an easy move they can make ot bring in a younger audience. Give Saturday Mash Up (or it's equivalent) the budget it got from CBBC plus the Saturday Kitchen budget and I'm sure it could begin to do the job it needs to do.

Indeed restoring a Saturday morning show to BBC1 was one of the major recommendations a couple of years back when a similar report came out, a recommendation completely ignored other than a token effort hidden away on the CBBC channel.

A Saturday morning programme aimed at children would have little to no impact on the 16-24 age group. If the BBC is to be successful in getting teens watching anything commissioned out of the children's budget it will require the dropping of the CBBC brand from it as the current generation of teens won't pay attention to anything aimed at children. In fact the solution may well be in moving Cbeebies online only, returning CBBC to ending at 7pm and creating a new channel between 4-9 with a new name and branding aimed at teens.

I imagine nobody wants to deal with angry parents to justify axing CBeebies

I thought you guys would realise that keeping Breakfast, 1, 6, and 10 o'clock news on BBC One would be a given. When talking about news on BBC Two, I was referencing programmes that are already on there like VD and Newsroom Live.

They need more short form content that can go out on multiple platforms but not necessarily a full broadcast channel. It goes out on iPlayer and then maybe can be packaged into something for broadcast.

Gaming is massive in that market. Look at platforms like Twitch, Mixer & YouTube, people like watching people play games. But do the BBC have a single gaming programme?

EDIT: I found something called The Gaming Show on iPlayer but it only has 6 episodes.

The main problem with why the BBC does badly in that demographic is not just due to content but how that age group consumes content. The BBC iPlayer is still lagging behind Netflix and Amazon in terms of library and retention. Quite why they've decided to distill their content even further with Britbox, you have to wonder if they even have a strategy at all.

I can't think of many things the BBC does these days which makes it more distinctive than say Netflix or Amazon in terms of producing content. BBC local radio and TV is pretty threadbare.

It's really sad as the BBC itself looks increasingly unsustainable in the long run, in its current form.