Deadline: BBC Considers U-Turn On Closing BBC4

Story from Deadline:

The BBC is considering a U-turn on closing BBC4 as a television channel amid solid ratings and a backlash against cuts at the corporation.

The BBC said last year that it would shut down BBC4’s linear channel and move the brand online from 2025 as part of plans to become a “digital first” broadcaster.

Deadline hears, however, that the BBC’s content team is considering maintaining the channel given its relatively low running costs and popularity with viewers.

Sources said no decision has been made, but there is growing confidence it could be rescued. “Tim [Davie] is minded to save BBC4,” said one source familiar with the Director-General’s thinking.

Another BBC insider said the position has not changed since last May, when Davie announced that BBC4 would move online alongside children’s channel CBBC.

BBC4 has been hollowed out to become largely an archive service, where highbrow comedy and documentaries are curated for discerning viewers. Its budget of £22M ($27M) is half what it was in 2017 and the BBC’s Ofcom-enforced operating license, which was published last week, reduced the channel’s original production quota to 65%. 

Despite the original content cuts, BBC4, which gave the world hits like Detectorists and The Thick Of It, enjoyed its highest viewing figures in a year last December when its monthly reach was 19M.

This audience figure sank to 15.8M in February, but it was still double the reach of BBC3, which was reinstated to TV last year with a budget of £80M.

There is a growing consensus at the BBC and beyond that the decision to revive BBC3 as a television channel last year has not been successful.

The channel’s biggest linear hit has been the U.S. version of The Traitors rather than an original show, and there is a sense that young audiences are not as engaged with the service as the BBC would like. Shows such as RuPaul’s Drag Race UK continue to perform well but mainly on iPlayer.

BBC3’s monthly reach of 7.4M viewers in February was its lowest since it was restored to TV in February 2022. One source said the decision to promote BBC3 Controller Fiona Campbell to a new role overseeing the BBC’s youth audience signaled a shift in thinking. Removing BBC3 from linear would represent a climbdown, however, given that it first went online-only in 2016 before that decision was reversed in one of the last moves made by Davie’s predecessor Tony Hall.

Some see the BBC3 decision as being incongruous with Davie’s push to embrace a digital switchover. The Director-General said last year that the BBC would have “fewer linear broadcast services” over the next decade, but then qualified his comments in January, saying they were meant to be “provocative.”

“We should have an aggressive plan but that is not a plan to remove things used by lots of people too soon,” he told UK Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee.

Potential public backlash could also be a factor in the BBC4 decision. The BBC often faces an audience outcry when it threatens to close services, recently reversing plans to shut down the BBC Singers choir after widespread criticism.

There is also a perception that the BBC could be overcorrecting in its efforts to engage young audiences, meaning shows and services that skew older are potentially feeling the brunt of the cuts. Closing BBC4 and maintaining BBC3 would support this narrative.

“They are so obsessed by youth here that sometimes they can’t see the wood for the trees,” said a source.

The BBC will be forced into major content cuts this year, whatever the view of audiences.

On Thursday, it unveiled an eye-watering move to cut 1,000 hours worth of shows per year as it battles to hit an annual overall savings target that has increased by 40% to £400M ($500M) by 2027/28. Difficult choices lie ahead, said the BBC, as it strips nearly £100M out of its TV budget alone.

Deadline understands there is an informal review currently taking place with commissioners examining mid-budget shows that are not cutting through as much as they would like. A number of these shows are set to be culled over the coming weeks, while Autumnwatch and Frankie Boyle’s New World Order have recently been cut.

The first show revealed to be ending in the post-Annual Plan era, family comedy hit Ghosts, emerged this morning, although this decision was made separate to the 1,000 hours and it was always intended to conclude after five seasons.

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