If this is to do with the rumours of BBC Three returning to TV....
I think it’s quite simple really, after 10pm BBC One is basically BBC Three anyway. So if BBC Three gets BBC Four’s EPG slot. You can then move Newsnight to BBC One when Question Time isn’t airing and BBC Four’s demographic can be catered for by repurposed and liberated BBC Two.
If this is to do with the rumours of BBC Three returning to TV....
I think it’s quite simple really. After 10pm BBC One is basically BBC Three anyway, so if BBC Three gets BBC Four’s EPG slot. You can then move Newsnight to BBC One when Question Time isn’t airing and post-10pm BBC Four’s demographic can be catered for by BBC Two.
There's no chance they'd move Newsnight to BBC One, it doesn't even do that well on BBC Two.
I think this was inevitable. In terms of OTA channels, it might be more prudent for the BBC to do less better.
To be honest, that's my opinion with TV in general. There's too many channels dividing the audience pie and thus the advertising potential and, therefore, quality. I'd rather some of the non-PSB channels went before BBC Four but there you go.
Those were the very same words used by media commentators back in 1989 when the Broadcasting Bill was first proposed by the then Thatcher government and would become law in 1990, thus starting the process of the downward spiral of television in Britain, kicking off with the disastrous ITV franchise awards in October 1991.
And they were right more than they could've imagined. The assumption at the time was that television would retain the dominance it had in home entertainment. It's not just that the pie was cut into more pieces; the pie got smaller with the arrival of the internet and video games offering people something different to do at home in their spare time.
I can't find a source, but I've seen another rumour mentioned elsewhere that rather than closure, BBC Four could be scaled back to being an archive/repeats channel (not that it isn't already mostly repeats).
The problem with closing it altogether is that it leaves the BBC without a 'spare' outlet - where do all the things go that they can't/don't want to put on BBC1 or BBC2 - extended festival coverage, overflowing Wimbledon, Eurovision semi-finals etc, in other words everything that BBC Four that got dumped with when BBC Three went.
If BBC Four remained as a mostly repeats channel then that wouldn't be a problem - in fact it sounds a bit like the original incarnation of BBC Choice...
If BBC Four does close, then I think it will be completely unacceptable to have both 9pm-7am and 7pm-6am as dead air time showing nothing but holding slides for the 2 kids channels.
Total waste of dead air time! I'd rather repeats of all BBC shows shown in these dead air slots rather than nothing at all!
BBC Three should be a HD only feed with a programme block from 9pm-1am, then the same block repeated 1am- 5am.
Maybe Four should be the same? Get rid of SD for all but BBC One and everything else HD only.
The standalone BBC HD channel was fantastic! It only went down hill when it became a simulcast of ONE/TWO programmes. It was perfect with its own schedule!
If this is to do with the rumours of BBC Three returning to TV....
I think it’s quite simple really. After 10pm BBC One is basically BBC Three anyway, so if BBC Three gets BBC Four’s EPG slot. You can then move Newsnight to BBC One when Question Time isn’t airing and post-10pm BBC Four’s demographic can be catered for by BBC Two.
There's no chance they'd move Newsnight to BBC One, it doesn't even do that well on BBC Two.
But it would be to free up BBC Two whilst keeping a good PSB commitment. BBC One is already obliged to show News for the best part of an hour, so you’d have one channel with flexibility post-10pm rather than none.
If this is to do with the rumours of BBC Three returning to TV....
I think it’s quite simple really. After 10pm BBC One is basically BBC Three anyway, so if BBC Three gets BBC Four’s EPG slot. You can then move Newsnight to BBC One when Question Time isn’t airing and post-10pm BBC Four’s demographic can be catered for by BBC Two.
There's no chance they'd move Newsnight to BBC One, it doesn't even do that well on BBC Two.
The BBC should not be chasing ratings anyway. If Newsnight gets rubbish ratings on ONE then that's just the way it is. BBC ONE is a public service broadcaster and if they want more eyeballs watching it they need to think of ways of making the programme move appealing to viewers.
We need the BBC for the arts. And BBC television might be staging a total withdrawal. I hope I’m wrong.
I understand the concern though I am fairly confident the BBC won't be staging a total withdrawal from the arts. Particularly at a time when its method of funding, its rôle and even its existence are coming under scrutiny. It's things like the arts that are key to the BBC's place and purpose on the media landscape. There's no need for BBC Two to be another general entertainment channel; especially when we have tons of them on the commercial side of things.
I think they need to scrap the BBC Three and BBC Four brands and focus on BBC iPlayer as the master brand.
If programmes are streaming only, then they are "on BBC iPlayer".
It was telling when they launched RuPaul's Drag Race UK - one of the biggest shows for BBC Three - that it had to be advertised as "on BBC Three, on BBC iPlayer". Really, at this stage, that sort of mixed messaging is absolutely pointless.
If it's on TV, it's on BBC One or BBC Two. Otherwise, it's on BBC iPlayer. ESPECIALLY now that iPlayer is supposedly "personalising" recommendations.
The future of linear TV channels is premieres and big event television. There is no need in this day and age for the BBC to be spreading its content thinly across three linear channels rather than having two strong ones. Anything that doesn't need to be appointment-to-view can live on iPlayer, and anything else that needs streaming (eg Proms) can be on pop-up livestreams on iPlayer. This is the reality of television consumption today.
I disagree - the whole point of branding is just that. I've watch so little on Three because it does not appeal - maybe it's my age... Having said that there's always a cross-over from Two to Four and Three to Two, much the same as some radio shows travel over to TV. I've looked at Three's online schedule and I'm pleased it's there as I know what I'm missing.
:-(
A former member
I said as much in a different thread recently but the BBC needs to review all of its content, work out what it should be doing, and piece it together in however many channels that fills. Stuff like “but you can’t move Newsnight” are exactly the sort of arguments that need to be dropped.