Beloved BBC channel could be shut down again as major cuts loom

The youth-focused channel had many hits

It is reported that the staff fears that the BBC’s director general will announce the closure of the poorly performing channels.

Matt Brittin, the corporation’s director general, has repeatedly stated that linear TV and radio services may have to shut as audiences move online.

As per The Guardian, the latest stage of a plan to save £500m and shed up to 2,000 jobs includes the closure of these channels and Brittin is expected to inform staff on Wednesday.

Just this week, the director of the BBC iPlayer and Channels division, Dan McGolpin, called for expressions of interest in voluntary redundancy from the staff.

What the email sent to staff said about the new plan

McGolpin said in an email that the plan to “mitigate the number of [enforced] redundancies” included sounding out staff interest about job-sharing arrangements.

In his email he also mentioned a reduction in hours, and “relocating to another BBC base across the UK”.

As Brittin is focusing on cutting back on TV and radio services and content that delivers the least value for money, the move has fuelled speculation that the BBC is about to take the two channels online-only.

One insider told The Guardian: “It is no secret that BBC Scotland and BBC Three are very expensive on a cost-per-viewer basis – a key metric being looked at – and they clearly haven’t achieved what was hoped.”

BBC Three's beloved hits for British audiences

This would not be the first time that BBC Three is taken off linear broadcast, however.

In order to save costs, it had moved online-only in 2016 as well.

The channel that is youth-focused was launched in 2003 and its hits include Gavin and Stacey, Fleabag, Killing Eve and Normal People, which was a hit during lockdown.

However, it has struggled since it made a comeback to linear TV four years ago, with audiences now mostly using streaming TV and YouTube, amid other video platforms.

Recently, due to financial pressures, BBC Three also announced that it was canning RuPaul’s Drag Race UK.

In a week, typically 4% of the British population watch the channel live, while its cost per user hour was 26p in 2023-24 and 18p in 2024-25.

Meanwhile, a similar fate awaits also BBC Scotland, which was launched in 2019 as a dedicated outlet for Scottish programming.

As per BBC’s latest annual report to 31 March, only 12% of people in Scotland watch the channel live, while 54% of the adult population watch BBC Scotland content each week across BBC TV/iPlayer, BBC Radio and BBC Online.

For the BBC Scotland TV channel, its cost per user hour in 2024-25 was 13p.