The History of BBC Three And The BBC

The BBC

The BBC is a public service broadcaster established by Royal Charter. It's funded by the license fee paid by UK households. It provides ten national TV channels, regional TV programmes, an internet TV service (BBC Three), 10 national radio stations, 40 local radio stations and an extensive website. (Google)

The BBC is a politically neutral platform, so therefore anything that is politically biased towards 1 particular party is not allowed to be aired. The BBC doesn't have adverts from other companies since it makes it's money of license fees. 

The BBC was the first ever British TV channel founded on the 18th October 1922 by John Reith and Baron Reith. 

The Reith principles are : Inform, Educate, Entertain 

All BBC programs must follow at least 1 of these principles.

The TV License (£159 a year) means that the BBC can't be in direct competition with any other TV channel. The BBC is meant to appeal to a very niche audience.

The History of BBC Three

BBC Three launched as a digital television channel on 9 February 2003. It began with a two hour simulcast with BBC Two, where terrestrial viewers were introduced to Little Britain, music show Recovered and Johnny Vaughan Tonight. BBC Three aimed to cater for 24-35 year old, but its target audience got younger over time. Its aim was to innovative and produce award winning programmes, but not without generating some controversy along the way.

Among the headline grabbers - like Snog, Marry, Avoid? and Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents - were hits such as Don't Tell the Bride. BBC Three nurtured a list of comedies including The Mighty Boosh, Gavin and Stacey, Nighty Night and People Just Do Nothing. Documentary series such as Our War allowed the British troops fighting in Afghanistan to tell their own stories.

Many viewers felt the approach was immersive and compelling. The channel united Russell T Davies and David Tennant for the drama Casanova, which eventually led to his casting as Doctor Who. Other BBC Three dramas included Murdered by My Boyfriend, Being Human and In the Flesh.

BBC Three became well known for showing shows targeted at young people such as Family Guy, American Dad, Bad Education ext. These types of shows where quite different to the regular stuff you'd see on BBC 1 and 2 so therefore BBC needed to make a 3rd channel to air them.

BBC Three made history in February 2016 when it became online-only, in line with the changing habits of its viewers. Both versions of BBC Three have been home to cutting edge programmes that often reach beyond its core audience. (BBC Website)

Why did BBC 3 Get Cancelled?

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. 

However 6 years after BBC Three was taken off air BBC Three was re-launched back on television on February 1st 2022 with the channel focusing on shows such as Ru-Paul's Drag Race.

The purpose of BBC Three was to make a TV channel that appeals to and represents young people and their interests and for the longest time BBC Three did just that however with the rise of social media and streaming services TV channels took a massive hit and BBC Three was no different. The BBC tried to counter act this by making BBC Three digital however with them losing key shows such as Family Guy to ITV2 BBC Three's digital launch didn't necessarily go to plan. This has led to BBC Three relaunching back on the TV as a way to hopefully bring back some of their old audience.