LONDON — When the BBC withdrew its youth-oriented TV channel and put it online in 2016, the broadcaster went where its viewers seemed to be.
Streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon had changed the way people – both in the UK and the US – watched TV, and BBC Three’s target audience, 16- to 34-year-olds, apparently turned their backs on traditional TV channels.
Now Britain’s public service broadcaster has made a U-turn: BBC Three – home to programs like “Fleabag” and “Normal People” – is back on terrestrial TV.
The move reflects ongoing challenges in understanding how the Internet is changing TV habits. And it shows how the BBC is doubling down on youth programming when it comes to competition and potential cuts.
BBC Three was launched in 2003 as a younger sibling of the BBC’s two long-running TV channels. It produced provocative comedies such as “The Mighty Boosh” and “Little Britain” that appealed to a younger audience than the more conventional programming on BBC One and Two. The decision to turn BBC Three into a streaming channel also entailed a massive budget cut, from £85 million to £30 million (about $114 million to $40 million).
“It was a disaster. And it was a disaster right away,” said Patrick Barwise, co-author of the book ‘The War Against the BBC’ about the move.
The time spent watching the channel quickly dropped by more than 70 percent, and it also lost the same share of reach among its target viewers, according to data from Enders, a research firm.
There is broader evidence that millions of households have not, in fact, switched to streaming. In an interview, Fiona Campbell, the head of BBC Three, pointed to a recent report on American TV habits by Nielsen that showed 64 percent of viewers still regularly watch cable TV, compared to 26 percent who watch streaming.
The idea that young people are turning their backs on traditional TV also seems more complicated than it was six years ago. The BBC Three relaunch also aims to make programming more accessible, Campbell said, especially for less affluent and more rural viewers who may not have high-speed internet and will be less likely to stream.
According to Barwise, many young viewers also opt for a hybrid approach. “People watch Netflix or other videos part of the time, and then they watch broadcasts,” he said. Despite a decline, younger viewers still watch live television for more than an hour a day, according to British media regulator Ofcom.
During its online-only years, BBC Three still produced some of the broadcaster’s most popular shows, and the renewed investment in the channel – the program budget will return to £80 million – comes at a time when the BBC is under pressure from various quarters. .
The UK government recently announced that the country’s license fee, which is charged every year to all households with a TV and is the main source of funding for the BBC, will be frozen for the next two years. With inflation rising rapidly in Britain, this is likely to mean another round of austerity, and BBC chief Tim Davie has said “everything is on the agenda”.
“It may not be a good time to freeze the BBC license fee when real inflation is really high and inflation in the broadcasting industry is really high,” said Roger Mosey, a former head of BBC Television. News. “Not only do you have competition from the streamers for the audience, you also have competition for talent.”
In this context, the public broadcaster is relying on BBC Three’s track record for producing buzzy shows combined with the allure of traditional “linear” television. In Britain, despite the availability of seemingly never-ending streaming content, viewers have been drawn to weekly appointment views.
The BBC publishes many of its popular programs as complete seasons on its streaming service iPlayer, at the same time as the first episode airs on television. Charlotte Moore, the BBC’s head of content, said in a telephone interview that with “The Tourist”, a drama starring Jamie Dornan, “we still have two million people choosing to watch it on a Sunday night, even though it’s all available on iPlayer.”
When the BBC Three show “Normal People” aired on the broadcaster’s traditional TV channels, it was a regular trending topic on British social media. “When we do shows that really stimulate conversation,” Campbell said, “people want to be present in the live moment. And that’s why channels still have a role.”
Campbell also believes there are downsides to only distributing shows via streaming, as viewers may be more reluctant to watch documentaries on challenging public service topics. Citing a recent series on revenge porn, she said, “It’s very challenging topics, and people would say, ‘Do I really want to go there?’ Whereas if they come across it on linear it can be less intimidating.
While Moore declined to say whether BBC Three would be immune from the next round of budget cuts, she indicated that youth programming would remain a core focus. “Obviously, we’ll be looking at our entire financial envelope to figure out how to meet all of the public’s needs, with the money we have,” she said. “But of course the young audience will remain a crucial part of that.”
With the return to broadcast, Campbell also hopes to make BBC Three stand out from its commercial streaming rivals by telling stories from across Britain. Upcoming programs include “Brickies”, which follows young masons in the north of England, and a tractor racing competition called “The Fast and the Farmer(ish)”, filmed in Northern Ireland and created to appeal to the 11 million young people living in rural Britain.
“You want to reflect the current challenges and pressures and difficulties that people are facing right now, especially after the pandemic,” Campbell said. “If we don’t reflect that, why do they need us in their lives?”