BBC Three Digital Proposal Takes The Fight To The Internet

The BBC revealed its plan to relaunch BBC Three as an online-only service year this morning. If approved, the plan could save the BBC £50m a year.

The proposal, a reaction to funding cuts and a tactical bid to lure in “millennials and Generation Z”, will see the channel cut back on original long-form content, while ramping up production on short-form content (‘listicles’, viral videos, animated GIFs, and memes were all mentioned in the presentation) for the channel's new wesbite.

The proposal, which requires approval from the BBC trust, said the Beeb’s youth-oriented channel will still offer 24-hour live programming via a new BBC Three website and iPlayer, but will be making less original shows to fill the schedule.

Ditching the old-fangled concept of genres, the new BBC Three will focus its original content efforts on two areas it dubs: “Make Me Think” and “Make Me Laugh”.

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“Make Me Think” will be a mix of documentaries, current affairs, news, and drama, while “Make Me Laugh” will focus on original scripted comedy like ‘Gavin & Stacey’ and ‘Little Britain’ both of which began life on the channel.

Sad news then for fans of ‘In The Flesh’ currently campaigning for a third series, as it looks as though the fantasy zombie drama falls between the two new pillars of content.

“We’re still going to make drama for BBC Three,” Danny Cohen the director of BBC TV said, “We’ve been able to afford on the BBC budget roughly one drama a year, so ‘Being Human’ and ‘In The Flesh’ – both BAFTA winners.

“We want to keep winning BAFTAs on BBC Three and we’re going to keep making dramas to do that. We’ve got one that we’re planning that will be part of the launch year of the BBC Three digital service, subject to BBC Trust approval.”

The new digital only BBC Three is planning to launch in Autumn 2015.

Read more about the proposal on the BBC blog.