BBC Three (streaming service)

In February 2014 at the Oxford Media Conference, BBC Director-General Tony Hall stated that as part of the ongoing "Delivering Quality First" initiative at the corporation (which, as motivated by the government freeze of television license fee costs, aims to reach £700 million in cost-savings across the BBC up to the end of the 2016–17 television season),[7][8] the BBC was in the process of finalizing plans to make another £100 million in cuts to be announced the following month. Believing that general budget cuts across the entire corporation would compromise the quality of its in-house productions—especially dramas, which he described as being the "essence" of the BBC—Hall stated that these cuts could require "hard decisions" to be made. He explained that the corporation had "reached the point where salami-slicing would affect quality and distinctiveness. Rather than seek to preserve a less good version of our past, we decided to focus on what we do best: from drama to taking iPlayer into the next generation."[9]

On 5 March 2014, the BBC announced several cost-savings proposals, subject to the approval of the BBC Trust. Among them were plans to discontinue BBC Three as a television channel, and convert it into an online service.[10] In its proposal, the BBC stated that while motivated by financial considerations, the conversion was a "future-facing move" that would "develop a ground-breaking new online service which will bring high quality, distinctive UK-originated long form and new form interactive content to 16–34 year olds", and take advantage of the increased use of online services by the channel's target demographics. It was outlined that the service would have to leverage the "strengths" of BBC Three, such as curation, original productions, and "best-in-class storytelling", and adapt them to the "immediacy" and interactivity of digital.[11]

As the service would not be bound to the limitations of linear schedules, the scope of the new BBC Three would fall under three "editorial pillars" as opposed to programming genres: "Make Me Laugh" reflects comedic and "personality-driven" programmes, and "Make Me Think" reflects current affairs, drama, and other factual programming. A third pillar, "Give Me a Voice", reflects that the service's content would be of topical interest to the 16–34 year-old demographic, and would encourage discussion and participation especially via social media.[11] The overall programming budget of the service would be reduced by nearly half in comparison to the BBC Three channel. While it would have a larger focus on short-form web series, the service planned to continue investments into commissioning long-form programmes and "comedy at near current levels", and serving as an incubator for new talent. The service's output would primarily be delivered through iPlayer, but plans called for a revamped "branded space" to showcase the content, as well distributing short-form productions via alternative outlets such as YouTube.[11]

The proposal faced criticism from notable parties, including Greg James, Matt Lucas and Jack Whitehall.[12] Media writer Roy Greenslade considered the change to be "unquestionably the most sensible or perhaps the least worst" way of cutting costs. While admitting BBC Three's recent success in targeting its demographic and its role as a launchpad for new talent, he argued that BBC Three was "a marginal channel with a small share of the overall television audience", and that "'Hard decisions' are just that. If the BBC is to have any hope of sustaining its quality core output then a sacrifice had to be made."[7]

Logo from 2016 to 2020.

The transition was finalised by the BBC Trust in November 2015. The trust cited the shifting viewing habits of BBC Three's target audience from linear TV to digital services, and that the discontinuation of BBC Three as a television channel would allow the BBC to "deliver more distinctive content online, while bearing down on costs". Conditions were imposed on other BBC properties to complement the changes; BBC One and Two will be required to develop "distinctive programmes designed for younger audiences", as well as air repeats of all full-length programmes commissioned for BBC Three. The trust also approved related proposals to allow first-run and third-party content on iPlayer, and extend CBBC's broadcast day to 9:00 p.m. (CBBC signed off at 7:00 p.m. to conserve Freeview bandwidth for BBC Three) with a focus on an older youth audience.[13][14]

On 4 January 2016, it was announced that the new BBC Three digital service would launch on 16 February 2016.[15][16] The same day, a new logo for the service was unveiled. Inspired by the iconography of mobile applications, the new logo incorporates the Roman numeral for the number three, with the third bar replaced by an exclamation mark. Marketing head Nikki Carr explained that the three bars represented the aforementioned "editorial pillars" (with the exclamation mark representing the "Give Me a Voice" aspect).[17] The new logo received mixed reactions from the public, with some drawing comparisons to the album cover of Plan B's Ill Manors, a Roman numeral "2" with an exclamation point ("BBC Two!"), and a proposed redesign of the BBC's logo seen in an episode of the comedy W1A. In regards to the W1A comparison, Carr joked that "thanks to W1A we're cursed at the BBC when it comes to marketing and I don't want to come across all Siobhan Sharpe but forgive me some lingo." The channel also parodied the comparisons in a Vine video.[18][19]

BBC Three controller Damian Kavanagh explained that the new digital service would feature the "same award-winning programmes freed from the constraints of linear TV", emphasizing the ability to distribute content across "whatever format and platform is most appropriate".[2] Hall described the internal atmosphere surrounding the new BBC Three as being like a "startup", explaining that "I love the feeling of going and being with Damian's team. It feels creative, energetic and mischievous as well, just as it should be."[20] Kavanagh felt that the concise "pillars" of BBC Three, combined with its new structure, would give creators more flexibility and immediacy in how they produce content. He explained that "we can allow people to do things that I don't think other broadcasters can really do at the moment—in terms of giving people room to try things and also play around with form in a way we couldn’t have done if we'd stayed on television", with the remainder of the BBC's content ecosystem as a "safety net".[21] Kavanagh also emphasized a continued goal to use the service as an incubator for new talent, hoping that it will be remembered as "the place that spotted the next James Corden, the next Aidan Turner, the next whoever."[20]

On 13 February 2016, prior to the service's launch, it was reported that the BBC was considering merging BBC Three and BBC Radio 1 under unified management if the digital BBC Three service is not successful. Kavanagh stated that he himself was unaware of this proposal, but added that BBC Three was "a really powerful youth brand with 13 years' heritage" and that he "[didn't] see the logic in winding down something that has that audience, and has that badge of quality, and has that heritage."[22]

The BBC Three television channel formally signed off during the early morning of 16 February 2016, concurrent with the official re-launch of the new BBC Three. The last programme aired was an episode of Gavin & Stacey, introduced by its co-star James Corden from the set of his current U.S. chat show The Late Late Show in Los Angeles. The channel space continued to carry promotional information regarding the BBC Three online service until it officially shut down on 31 March 2016.[21][23]

On 2 March 2021 the BBC announced that BBC Three would relaunch as a linear broadcast channel from 2022, reversing the action of 2016.[6] In November 2021 regulator Ofcom confirmed that the channel would return to television in February 2022. The relaunched BBC Three linear television channel returned to Freeview, Sky, Virgin and Freesat from 1 February 2022.[24]