Perhaps I’ve missed something but does anyone really care about BBC 3?
Looking at its schedule its hard to see all that innovative and thought provoking programming we’re told it produces….what I see is 95% repeats…..or sensationalist tabloid type tat that it denounces the Daily Mail for…’Snog, Marry Avoid’ or ‘Secrets of South America….Generation Sex’ or the fascinating ‘Pop’s Greatest Dance Crazes’.
The ‘youf’ are gutted:
“I’m completely gutted, I think you’re completely ignoring our views,” said BBC Three fan Alice. “We’re not going to sit by and take it – we’re going to make a stand and try to save the channel.”

There’s a bit of infighting going on at the BBC just now……BBC 3 is to be re-shaped for the digital age, taking a pay cut along the way……
The BBC has announced sweeping changes to youth channel BBC Three, which will disappear from the EPG in autumn 2015.
…….so far, listening to the interviews, it seems that it is mostly other BBC staff who are upset.
The BBC tells us that…..
The problem for the BBC is that Three is viewed by 16 million people a week and they tend to be people the rest of the corporation struggles to reach – the young, the less affluent and more ethnically diverse.
Comedy producer Ash Atalla said the BBC had at a stroke made itself “whiter, older and more middle class”.
Not quite sure how they have come to the conclusion that it’s only ‘the young, the less affluent and more ethnically diverse’ who don’t watch the BBC…quite a sweeping statement…but why limit it to those categories? Just how many others, the whiter, older, middle class, actually watch massive amounts of BBC1 or BBC 2, never mind 3 and 4? Looking at the schedules it doesn’t look particularly inspiring viewing for anybody.
Possibly the problem with the BBC is that it has had too much money and has been able to indulge itself and spend without regard to quality, spreading itself too thin….
“They have ended up working in this culture which is buried in the last century, which is ‘we are the BBC, we do what we like, we don’t have to be too accountable’.
Not a great deal of money is being saved here….BBC 3’s budget is £85, it will be £25 m in future, but £30 million of the cut budget will be used to fund BBC 1 drama.
Possibly the ‘cut’ is a negotiating tactic for the next round of charter renewal talks……
‘The BBC’s director of television, Danny Cohen, even refused to rule out the possibility of closing another channel, saying: “We don’t know for certain what will happen for BBC Four in the future”.
“We can’t keep offering the same with less money,” he continued.
“If future funding for the BBC comes under threat, the likelihood is we would have to take more services along the same route.”
Strange though that the pruning of BBC 3 is being cast as the end of comedy and innovative programming…..wasn’t that the job of BBC 2 before the BBC got too big?…..
Jane Root, Controller of BBC TWO, says: “The most enjoyable thing about the channel is that it brings surprise, sophistication and innovation to a range of things.
“It has always been famous for creating both popular comedy and thought-provoking programmes.
“That sense of variety has been there all the way though the channel’s history.”
A vast array of comedy, culture and highminded programming flooded out of BBC 2….The Young Ones, Ab Fab, Not the Nine O’clock News, The Ascent of Man, Life on Earth, The Office, Yes Minister…… never mind Monty Python…..etc etc…..
Here’s a list of just the comedy on BBC 2
And BBC One?
How about Mrs Brown’s Boys?……
Its opening in the UK won 16.4% of the ratings in its Monday night slot and was received well by viewers.[30] Despite the critical reviews, 2.9 million viewers had tuned in by the third episode.[31][32][33] The 2011 Christmas Special achieved 6.61 million viewers, winning in its 10 pm time-slot.[34][35] Consolidated figures revealed that the 2012 Christmas specials were the most watched programmes on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day respectively: “Mammy Christmas” had 11.68 million viewers (41.3%) and “The Virgin Mammy” was watched by 10.72 million (38.7%).[36] The episode “Buckin’ Mammy” was the most watched programme in the UK on Christmas Day 2013, with 9.4 million viewers.[37]
Must have been a few ‘ethnic’ people, or young ones, or ‘not middle class’ people watching that….or Top Gear.
Perhaps the BBC should go back to doing a few things well rather than trying to serve every niche market or exotic cultural sector of the community with their own personalised channels.