BBC Three

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2009)

BBC Three
BBC Three logo
Launched	9 February 2003
Owned by	BBC
Picture format	16:9 SDTV
Audience share	1.2% (September 2009, BARB)
Country	United Kingdom
Replaced	BBC Choice
Sister channel(s)	BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Four, BBC News, BBC Parliament, BBC HD
Website	www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree
Availability
Terrestrial
Freeview	Channel 7
Satellite
Freesat	Channel 106
Sky Digital	Channel 115
Astra 2D	10773H 22000 5/6
Cable
Virgin Media	Channel 106
UPC Ireland	Channel 116
UPC Netherlands	Channel 805
WightCable	Channel 106/10
Ziggo (Netherlands)	Channel 52
Telenet (Belgium)	Channel 565
Naxoo (Switzerland)	Channel 215
IPTV
Tiscali TV	Channel 19
Internet television
BBC Online	Watch live (UK only)
BBC iPlayer	Watch live (UK only)

BBC Three is a television channel from the BBC broadcasting via digital cable, terrestrial, IPTV and satellite platforms. The channel is described by the BBC as an outlet for 'New drama, talent, comedy, films, and accessible news'. The channel is on-air from 19:00 to about 04:00 each night, in order to share terrestrial television bandwidth with the CBBC Channel^{[citation needed]}. Unlike its commercial rivals, 90% of BBC Three's output is from the United Kingdom and other European Union countries. 80% is original, covering all genres, from current affairs, to drama, to comedy to animation. BBC Three has a unique '60 second news' format. This was adopted so that operation of the channel could be completely automated, without the complication of dealing with variable length live news broadcasts. The current controller of the station is Danny Cohen,^[1] and the Head of Scheduling is Dan McGolpin.

Contents 1 Launch 2 Identity 3 Programming 3.1 Milestones 3.2 Other programmes 4 Viewership 5 Awards 6 Criticism 7 Proposed earlier start time for BBC Three 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Launch

The channel is the successor to the similar BBC Choice and was launched on 9 February 2003^{[citation needed]}, eleven months after the originally planned launch date (and the launch of BBC Four). The delay was due to debate over its proposed format - some felt it wouldn't be sufficiently different from existing commercial channels catering to young people. The channel was launched by Stuart Murphy, who previously ran BBC Choice, and before that UK Play, the now-discontinued UKTV music and comedy channel on which ran Rock Profile, by Matt Lucas and David Walliams (who went on to star in Little Britain). At 33, Murphy was the youngest channel controller in the country, a title he held since launching UK Play at the age of 26, although on 20 October 2005 it was announced that Murphy was soon to leave the channel to work in commercial television.

[edit] Identity

The channel's original idents were conceived by Stefan Marjoram at Aardman Animations and were used from launch until February 2008. Stuart Murphy was touring Aardman Animations looking for new programming ideas for BBC Three when he spotted the cone shaped creatures, he then took the idea back to the Lambie-Nairn agency, responsible for the BBC Three identity package.^[2] A feature of this identity is also the music "Three Is The Magic Number", based (only the lyrics are copied) upon Schoolhouse Rock!.

BBC Online provided a number of downloads and activities based on the channel's identity, these included "BlobMate", screensavers, wallpapers and also games such as BlobLander and BlobBert. The idea used by both Lambie-Nairn, who had developed the branding for CBeebies and CBBC, and Aardman, was to create the BBC Three blobs as a relation to the green and yellow blobs of the children's channels. Up until they rebranded the channel, it had two continuity announcers, Kieron Elliott, who has a Scottish accent, and also presents the breakfast show on 96.3 Rock Radio, and a female, Lola Buckley who has a Yorkshire accent. Presently the continuity announcements are done by either Collette Collins or Gavin Inskip.

On 22 January 2008 a new channel identity was unveiled. Rebranding was carried out by Red Bee Media, along with agencies MPG and Agency Republic with music and sound design by creative audio company Koink.^[3]

[edit] Programming

[edit] Milestones

In early 2003, viewers could watch episodes of popular BBC soap opera EastEnders on BBC Three before they were broadcast on BBC One. This programming decision co-incided with the relaunch of the channel and helped it break the one million viewers milestone for the first time. An episode of EastEnders Revealed, which was commissioned for BBC Three, attracted 611,000 viewers.

In October 2004, BBC Three broke its previous viewing record when 1.8 million viewers tuned in for a new series of the award-winning comedy, Little Britain.^[4] Little Britain was later broadcast on the BBC's terrestrial analogue channels BBC One and BBC Two. In the same year, the newly commissioned Chris Crudelli hit Mind, Body & Kick Ass Moves was exported to over 100 countries.

In 2005, BBC Three showed the documentary series Doctor Who Confidential immediately after episodes of the new series of Doctor Who had been screened on BBC One. This was followed up in July 2005, when it began to screen repeats of both programmes. Coincidentally, the 1971 Doctor Who story The Dæmons featured a broadcast on a then-fictional BBC Three. In October 2005, it was announced that BBC Three had commissioned a spin-off drama series from Doctor Who, Torchwood, designed as a post-watershed science fiction drama for a more adult audience. Torchwood launched with an impressive 2.4 million viewers in October 2006, breaking BBC Three's previous record of 1.8 million for Little Britain.^[5]Torchwood is the first science fiction programme ever to have been commissioned by the channel, although it had previously shown repeats of Doctor Who and imported programmes such as Farscape.

In 2006, BBC Three aired the first run of a back-up show for BBC Two's The Apprentice, You're Fired! until sport and high ratings moved it to BBC Two.

[edit] Other programmes

Other successful new programmes have included:

• Ideal
• Funland, described as being a 'disturbingly funny new thriller', which first aired on Sunday 23 October 2006 at 22:00 ( It has since been repeated on prime-time BBC One).
• Tittybangbang, a comedy sketch show starring Lucy Montgomery and Debbie Chazen, which first aired on 10 January 2006, and featured a range of bizarre characters.
• Nighty Night
• The Smoking Room
• Man Stroke Woman, a sketch show, starring Nick Frost and Nick Burns, mostly dealing with relationships of 20- and 30-somethings, which first aired on 21 November 2005, subsequently being repeated on BBC Two due to its success.
• Monkey Dust was twisted adult animation which graphically depicted many stereotypes such as paedophilia, racism and youth 'hoodie' violence.
• Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps (the channel's longest running comedy)
• The Mighty Boosh
• The Coffee Shop (2010) new sitcom
• Coming of Age
• Family Guy In April 2009 it was confirmed that BBC Three would be showing the UK premiere of Family Guy Season 7 (ref). On 18 April 2009, BBC Three presented Family Guy Night. The shows included were Family Guy: The Story so Far (BBC Three exclusive), Blue Harvest and Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story. The following night the UK première of the seventh series was shown with a double bill showing with Love Blactually and I Dream of Jesus.
• Gavin & Stacey (first aired in May, 2007) written by and starring Ruth Jones and James Corden alongside Mathew Horne, Joanna Page, Alison Steadman and Rob Brydon.
• Last Man Standing ( a reality TV show)narrated by Ralf Little, series one was aired from 26 June to 14 August 2007 and series two began on 14 October 2008.
• Lily Allen and Friends, a variety show based on social networking, hosted by Lily Allen,^[6] a multi-platform talent show.
• Upstaged presented by DJ Scott Mills, a multi-platform talent show broadcast on BBC Three and the internet.
• a series of "hard-hitting" documentaries aimed at a young audience and six new drama pilots.^[7]
• Phoo Action (which is to be made into a full series).^[8]
• Being Human (which has now been made into a series)
• Mrs Inbetweeny
• West 10 LDN
• The Things I Haven't Told You
• Dis/Connected
• New BBC Three comedy sketch series Horne and Corden debuted 10 March 2009, to the highest ratings of all BBC Three comedy debuts. ^[9]
• Match of the Day Live international football matches featuring Wales are often shown if an England match is being shown on BBC One. The channel also shows some matches of England's Women's team. The 2008 Africa Cup of Nations was shown on the channel from 20 January – 10 February 2008.

BBC Three is also home to many pan-psychology based programmes which bring topics such as addictions and childcare into an entertainment and educational context. Such programmes include:

• Freaky Eaters
• Spendaholics
• The House of Tiny Tearaways
• Sex..with Mum & Dad
• Little Angels (TV series)

BBC Three has also focused on the beauty market, with the 'Beauty season' as well as continuous beauty shows. These include: 'Jamelia: Whose Hair Is It Anyway?", 'Look But Don't Touch' (presented by Alesha Dixon), and one of the channel's top shows: Snog Marry Avoid?.

The channel features hourly news updates called 60 Seconds, presented by Tasmin Lucia Khan during the week, which include the top news, sport and entertainment stories. They are presented in a relaxed style in keeping with the rest of the channel. As part of the BBC's discussions with the government regarding the founding of the channel, a longer news programme had been promised to provide a daily section of news and current affairs. The News Show, as it came to be called upon launch was later rebranded The 7 O'Clock News. However, the BBC discontinued the bulletin in 2005, claiming that the programme's audience was minuscule and the output was provided elsewhere on the BBC^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] Viewership

The channel is aimed at 15-34 year olds,^[10] and competes with other digital channels including ITV2 and E4.^[11]

In 2008 it reached 26.3% of 16-34 year olds in digital homes — the channel's highest ever such reach and above that of E4, ITV2, Dave and Sky One.^[12]

Meanwhile, Its share of the audience during its transmission hours is 2.6% among 15-34 year olds, and 1.7% among all individuals. BARB, the official ratings agency, averages out BBC Three's viewing figures over 24 hours even though the channel only broadcasts in the evening, giving a distorted sense of the channel's viewership. Despite several official complaints from the BBC, BARB continues to publish figures which the BBC argues are unrepresentative. Nine million people watch BBC Three every week.^[4]

[edit] Awards

The channel has had critical and popular successes, winning more awards in its six year history than its commercial rivals (Sky One, Living, E4, ITV2, Five and Comedy Central) have won in their combined 25-year history. In total BBC Three has won 7 BAFTA awards, 5 British Comedy Awards, 15 Royal Television Society Awards and 5 Rose d'Or Awards since the channel was launched in February 2003. Most recently, it won Broadcast Magazine's Digital Channel of the Year Award for Best General Entertainment Channel, and MGEITF Non Terrestrial Channel of the Year.

All three of BBC Three's dramas produced in 2004 (Outlaws, Bodies and Conviction) received BAFTA nominations, as did classical music show Flashmob The Opera^{[citation needed]}

In 2008, BBC Three's Gavin and Stacey won the BAFTA audience award and the best comedy performance award was awarded to James Corden for his part.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Criticism

The channel has also come in for criticism from several corners, the most prominent of which are some of the BBC's long-standing presenters. These include John Humphrys, who argued that BBC Three and BBC Four should be shut down in the face of budget cuts to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, which he presents,^[13] John Sweeney of Panorama,^[14] and Jeremy Paxman are among other journalists have also criticised the channel and its content.^[15]

[edit] Proposed earlier start time for BBC Three

BBC Vision director, Jana Bennett, confirmed in an interview for Broadcast magazine in May 2008 that the BBC Trust has been petitioned to change the start of transmission time from the current time of 7pm each evening to earlier in the afternoon. A decision from the Trust is not expected until 2009.^[16]

Bennett said that some of the extra hours would be given over to BBC Switch the BBC's teen programming strand.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• BBC Three at BBC Online
• BBC Three listings at BBC Online

v • d • e BBC Television UK channels BBC One (in Northern Ireland • Scotland • Wales) · BBC Two (in Northern Ireland • Scotland • Wales) · BBC Three · BBC Four · BBC News · BBC Parliament · CBBC Channel · CBeebies · BBC HD Joint ventures and international channels BBC Alba · BBC America · BBC Arabic Television · BBC Canada · BBC Entertainment · BBC HD (International) · BBC Kids · BBC Knowledge (International) · BBC Lifestyle · BBC Persian Television · BBC Prime · BBC World News · Animal Planet · Community Channel · People+Arts · UKTV (UK and Ireland) · UKTV (Australia and New Zealand) Defunct channels BBC Knowledge (UK) · BBC Choice  · BBC Food · BBC World Service Television · BBC TV Europe · BBC Japan · BBC Select

v • d • e BARB UK TV weekly viewing share 1981-2008 ¹ These figures are updated weekly and show for comparison the viewing share of various channels, either since the channel launched or since BARB was created (January 1992). The channels shown are, in order, the BBC television channels, those from the ITV Network, those from Channel 4, Five, those from UKTV and those from BSkyB. This represents the majority of the first-run television and those channels carried by digital satellite, cable and Freeview. BBC One share 1981-2008 BBC Two share 1981-2008 BBC Three share 2003-2008 BBC Four share 2002-2008 ITV Network share 1981-2008 ITV2 share 2000-2008 ITV3 share 2004-2008 ITV4 share 2005-2008 Channel 4 share 1983-2008 E4 share 2001-2008 Film4 share 1998-2008 More4 share 2005-2008 Five share 1997-2008 UKTV Gold share 1992-2008 UKTV History share 2002-2008 BSkyB share 1995-2008 Sky1 share 1992-2008 Sky3 share 2005-2008 Sky Movies share 2000-2008 Sky Sports share 2000-2008 Sky News share 1992-2008 ¹ figures from BARB, updated to April 2008