The BBC

it'll mean a loss of diversity to some extent

On the contrary

Great for Being Human and festival coverage, not so great for American Dad/Family Guy ad infinitum. E4 is even worse, though.

(or at least the notion of it)

That's the nub I think. The idea of provideing diversity just by being a distinct channel would have carried more weight in the analogue days, but there are so many channels now that just existing doesn't add much in the way of diversity if you aren't providing something a bit different.

providing

where am i gonna watch Family Guy now?

i'm aware that my reaction to BBC3 says a lot about my worse instincts tbh, but i'm not sure if Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents has added much of value to the culture.

the downside of this is quite possibly more dilution of BBC4 but

in an ideal world, i'm sure there shd be a place for everything, but i'm pretty sure the target audience for BBC3 is more or less exactly the demographic that watches least broadcast telly?

gonna be a lot of godawful stand-up comics and sitcom writers signing on, too

maybe broader, less middle-class-solipsist-scumbag question: is it possible to do Youth TV that doesn't pander?

E4's record in youth drama has been way better than BB3's over the past few years. But we're talking about a demographic that will, by and large, happily shift online with the channel anyway. Given the future of TV is mostly online anyway it might give the BBC more room to experiment here. Or it might just slowly wither on the vine.

Its a shame this has been under 'cuts' rather than from 'this channel is awful, lets use the money more wisely'.

I'm a non-licence-payer who hasn't had a telly in years so take this with a pinch of salt but this channel is almost channel 4 bad

Of all channels, this is one I'm happy to lose. It's remarkably, consistently, bad.

E4 shows TWO BROKE GIRLS and BROOKLYN NINE NINE both of which I like in different ways. E4 is miles better than BBC3 I'm afraid.

xp

i'd be torn in a poll, for sure

wtf @ Pinefox liking Two Broke Girls

BBC3 maybe has less aggressive neo-libertarian or prurient medical docs than C4 tbf

I mean this is probably the first of many cuts at the BBC and let's not lose sight of what the government's longer term agenda is.

finally ran out of episodes of Two Pints.

I was going to until you said that but yeah let's not xp

Can't say I watch it but smdh at all the crowing from CiF bbc4 stans about how the mindless cudchewers are getting what they deserve and it's some sort of victory for the intellegentsia

(My mistake for daring to peek at guardian comments obv)

Didn't jack fucking dee's shitty curbon copy sitcom run for like 6 seasons on BBC4

I'd be ok if they cut both BBC3 and BBC4 and that led for money being used to make better docs (which do require more money than just a roll-out of talking heads, 50 quid at a time) and funding the better comedy scripts.

Both of these could end up on BBC2.

Freeview is mostly crap

i wish BBC4 wd put all the docs i'm too knackered or distracted to watch in the week on at the weekend instead of 48 hours of Whispering Bob Harris

Last night I noticed a slot for a new channel: ITV4+1

ITV4 is okay - show a lot of movies and some of the less desired footie matches

Or itv5 as I will insist on calling it xp

Been doing that for 10yrs not gonna stop now

ITV4 is fine but seriously do we need a +1 channel for it?

yes, as a Tottenham fan who sometimes works late I consider ITV4+1 a key channel.

I want +1s and +2s for every channel coz I forget everything and coz I want to watch prime time after the kids are in bed and coz I've only got 80 hours on my V+ box and it's full of things I won't get round to watching.

i don't mind using what i assume is cheap and plentiful capacity for the +1 channels cos sometimes they have a use - it's a weird niche use, sure, but like i assume many people i still have a download limit with my ISP that prohibits a move to all-streaming all-the-time just yet

and there are also people like me who don't have that thing or a V+ box, just a TV

(I have this computer but I don't watch TV on it, assuming I could)

ilx shows its age.

so the bbc channels will go 1, 2, 4 with a gap? annoying. it's bad enough that there's nothing on freeview channel 8.

lol i have Estuary, Grimsby's Number 1 TV station on Channel 8

I noticed a new channel 'coming soon' on 8.

http://www.estuary.tv/

whether 8 is gonna be assigned to various regional channels like this i don't know

yeah its a slot for some local thing. yay freeview.

as a fan of awfulness even i struggle to watch more than 2 or 3 mins at a time

so the bbc channels will go 1, 2, 4 with a gap?

Argh, nooooo. If there is no other reason to save BBC3, this is good enough. IT WILL DRIVE ME MAD.

Going out on a limb here but I'm guessing that BBC3 isn't really aiming for people like the Pinefox.

The assumption that every young person has a computer/easy access to somewhere to watch online is probably more damaging, it's discriminatory to everyone who can't afford one for one thing.

But PF likes TWO BROKE GIRLS! It may not be aiming, but he is open to it!

BBC3 was less terrible than it sold itself as, in some ways. I ended up catching ten minutes of Reggie Yates' Extreme South Africa, which sounds like the worst thing imaginable, but it seemed like a pretty thoughtful look at poverty, violence and racism. The tabloid documentaries that they did also seem several cuts above Channel 5 and arguably 4 based on my limited exposure. The topics and framing of their factual shows probably put a lot of viewers off giving them a chance and the failure to go full Gypsy Wedding / Extreme Couponing might have cost them from the other side.

Was Pulling on bbc3? It made it look awful when actually it was brilliant.

A lot of the uproar seems less about BBC Three as it is and more about some magical BBC Three that commentators would like to exist.

BBC Three comedy for instance is consistently terrible, the only bright spots in my memory being People Just Do Nothing (comprising one episode) and Ja'ime - Private School Girl (bought from Australia). The "development hell" that turns promising series into shit is legendary there; producers know their vision will be unrecognisable once it comes out the other end. Which is why they approach Sky these days instead. As for "oh noes, there isn't any other BBC channel commissioning comedy", well, they will do once BBC Three goes!

There is a case for a more Newsbeat-y channel but BBC One basically is that already, surely!

Like, the Reggie Yates SA doc really SHOULD be on BBC One. And Family Guy should NOT. Win-win?

But which BBC channel will show a doc where a teenage girl has a visible wee in the middle of a music festival field?

Parliament?

This is the first time in the BBC's history that we are proposing to close a television channel. I can’t rule out it being the last change to our programmes or services. It will save the BBC over £50 million a year. £30 million of that will go into drama on BBC One. And it also means we will extend Children's programmes by an hour a night and provide a BBC One +1 channel. I must stress - all of this is what we are proposing to the BBC Trust. They will have the final say.

Tracer Hand, do you work for the BBC?

Not going to answer on the grounds it may incriminate me