David Farnor | On 12, Jan 2022

BBC Three will officially return to linear broadcast TV on 1st February.

Broadcasting from 7pm every night, the channel will be available to watch on Freeview, Sky, Virgin and Freesat. It can also be watched live on the BBC Three channel page on iPlayer (TV, Mobile and Web) with live re-start available.

RuPaul’s Drag Race: UK Versus will air on launch night with other titles joining it to be announced soon – but, in a surprise move, one key part of the launch week will be football.

Both semi-finals and the final of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) broadcast live. The tournament featuring 24 national teams based in Africa is hosted in Cameroon this year and the three matches all kick off at 7pm. Coverage will be fronted by Jermaine Jenas and audiences can tune in to watch full games live from kick-off when the channel begins broadcasting from 7pm. To watch full match coverage including the build-up, audiences can choose to watch live from 6.30pm on the BBC Three page on iPlayer.

Fiona Campbell, Controller, BBC Three, says: “We know how popular sport is with younger audiences and it’s going to have a big part to play on BBC Three. AFCON is set to be an incredibly exciting tournament with some of the best players in the World on show and its brilliant news that we will be showing the climax of the competition on free to air television.”

 

BBC Three confirmed for February 2022 return to TV

27th November 2021

BBC Three will officially return to old-school TV in “early February 2022”, the BBC has confirmed.

The channel, which first launched back in 2003, went online-only 2016, as part of wider budget cuts across the organisation. Since then, it has released content straight to BBC iPlayer, as well as to Facebook, YouTube and other social media platforms.

Now, almost a decade on from its beginnings, it’s returning as a linear broadcast channel, as the Beeb looks to expand the channel’s reach. The plans were announced last year, but have now been formally approval by Ofcom.

The channel will be available on Freeview, Sky, Virgin and Freesat with EPG numbers to be confirmed at a later date.

Commenting on the decision, Fiona Campbell, Controller BBC Three said: “I’m absolutely thrilled that Ofcom have now confirmed that BBC Three will be returning to TV screens next year. This is a big moment, with the new channel providing a destination for young audiences to discover more content on the BBC. We will work hand in hand with iPlayer to provide a broad offering that is representative of the whole of the UK and we will continue to back new talent and bold ideas. This approach will bring the audience a distinctive mix of programmes that are there to entertain, inspire and challenge thinking, at a pivotal and exciting time to be young in the UK.”

How BBC Three’s return as a linear channel will play out alongside its BBC iPlayer presence opens up a range of interesting questions that set a precedent for the future TV landscape. Indeed, as part of the approval, the BBC and Pact have agreed a new Terms of Trade deal for television productions made by independent producers.

For BBC Three commissions, the BBC will have a two-year window on iPlayer plus unlimited transmissions on the BBC Three broadcast channel during the first 18 months. The BBC also has a further 18 transmission days on BBC Three for the remaining 3.5 years of licence included within the initial programme payment to independent producers. For transmissions on other BBC channels, repeats can be purchased separately under existing terms. For iPlayer use beyond the 2 years, a payment of 1 per cent for non-exclusivity and 2 per cent for exclusivity is required for each 12-month extension, and each time the BBC acquires an additional iPlayer window, the initial licence term reduces by 6 months (but can be extended).

The Beeb is aiming for two-thirds of its programme spend to be outside of London, providing more opportunity for a wider range of suppliers from across the whole of the UK.

 

BBC Three to return as linear broadcast channel in January 2022

27th November 2021

BBC Three will officially return to linear TV in 2022.

The channel, which first launched back in 2003, went online-only 2016, as part of wider budget cuts across the organisation. Since then, it has released content straight to BBC iPlayer, as well as to Facebook, YouTube and other social media platforms.

At launch, BBC Three made up 4 per cent of BBC iPlayer requests, but within its first six months, expanded that reach to over 10 per cent from fewer programmes. In 2018, requests for BBC Three programming on iPlayer rose 58 per cent compared to the same period last year, generating an average of 4.2m requests per week – with 47 per cent of viewers on average under the age of 35. As of 2019, BBC Three was racking up 1.5 million YouTube views per week, and had a weekly Facebook reach of over 10 million.

But the Beeb has also continued to broadcast BBC Three shows on BBC One and BBC Two, and its programmes have proven to be some of those channel’s best-performing programmes, from Killing Eve to Normal People. That, combined with concerns about diverse, underserved audiences across the UK, led to plans announced last year to return to linear TV, hoping to reach viewers from minority ethnic backgrounds and lower socio-economic groups, often in the north of England, who may have less access to digital on-demand services.

There’s also another audience to be targeted. On average, young adults in the UK spend more media time per week (seven and a half hours) with BBC’s services than any other brand, but Beeb research identified a significant group of younger viewers who maintain a strong linear TV habit but are currently light users of the BBC.

“Regardless of the debates about the past, we want to give BBC Three its own broadcast channel again,” said Charlotte Moore, Chief Content Officer. “It has exciting, groundbreaking content that deserves the widest possible audience and using BBC iPlayer alongside a broadcast channel will deliver the most value.”

Most notably, the returning BBC Three will increase the diversity and creativity of its output, committing to doubling its investment on commissions over the next two years build on the strengths of BBC Three’s online performance. The channel will aim for at least two-thirds of the expanded programme spend to be outside of London and across the UK.

Subject to Ofcom approval, BBC Three will start broadcasting once more in January 2022, adapting CBBC’s operating hours to make room for it. The channel will be targeted at audiences aged 16 to 34. The new channel will broadcast from 7pm to 4am each day, the same as the hours of the channel when it closed in 2016. As a result CBBC’s broadcast hours will revert to closing at 7pm – as was the case before 2016.

 

BBC Three could return to linear TV

21st May 2020

BBC Three could come back to TV screens as a linear channel.

The channel, which first launched back in 2003, went online-only 2016, as part of wider budget cuts across the organisation. Since then, it has released content straight to BBC iPlayer, as well as to Facebook, YouTube and other social media platforms.

At launch, BBC Three made up 4 per cent of BBC iPlayer requests, but within its first six months, expanded that reach to over 10 per cent from fewer programmes. In 2018, requests for BBC Three programming on iPlayer rose 58 per cent compared to the same period last year, generating an average of 4.2m requests per week – with 47 per cent of viewers on average under the age of 35. BBC Three’s YouTube channel has also achieved exponential growth with UK views growing over 80 per cent year on year (Oct-Dec 2017 vs Oct-Dec 2018) and over 1.2m subscribers globally, over 100 per cent growth year-on-year. As of 2019, BBC Three racks up 1.5 million YouTube views per week, and has a weekly Facebook reach of over 10 million.

BBC Three has quietly remained on air in some form on BBC One, with all long-form series required to have a TV broadcast after their initial online release. Indeed, when its shows are on BBC One and Two they have typically enjoyed a spike in audiences both on TV and on-demand. Last year, that became a more formal arrangement, with BBC One showcasing BBC Three programmes in a dedicated late night slot on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Now, the Beeb has said that it’s looking at taking BBC Three back to linear TV properly.

The news comes as part of the BBC’s Annual Plan published this week. The plan comes as the Beeb has demonstrated its value to the public through a push to combine education services for children, parents and teachers and added box sets on BBC iPlayer for longer.

New figures show that as many as 94 per cent of the UK adult population – and 86 per cent of younger people – have turned to the BBC in recent weeks, with the vast majority rating the BBC’s response highly and official figures showing it remains the most trusted source of news.

As a result, BBC iPlayer has had a succession of record-breaking days, with news programmes, Killing Eve, The Nest and Normal People driving huge numbers of requests.

“We have improved our performance with young adults in this period – we are reaching as many as eight out of ten young people,” says the Beeb. “Far from ‘turning their backs on the BBC’, as some have suggested, they have been embracing our news and shows such as Normal People.”

BBC Three has also delivered some of the BBC’s biggest performing programmes, with Normal People now having more than 38m requests to watch it on BBC iPlayer.

“We will be using our commissioning budgets to invest in creativity across the whole UK and to increase the diversity of our output, led by our plans for BBC Three,” says the report. “We will step up our commitment to better serve young audiences who currently get less value from the BBC.”

Indeed, it aims to double the amount it spends on BBC Three commissions over the next two years. This money would have to be found from elsewhere in BBC content budgets.

While the BBC says BBC Three has been “a hit machine”, though, it is considering reversing its online move to build on that streaming success.

“BBC Three has been a hit machine. Such is its performance, we will consider the merit of restoring it as a linear channel,” says the Beeb. “While young people would continue to predominately watch BBC Three content online, we believe that with the depth of content we now have available, there are still more people we could reach through a linear channel.”

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