So, the BBC has announced within the last week what it wants to do with BBC3 and BBC4. BBC4 is going to cut drama, keep comedy and become more a feeder channel for BBC2, which is now just going to show repeats during the day. BBC3 is going to transfer a third of its drama budget to BBC1. Everyone’s going to have a reduced acquisitions budget.
Good thing? Bad thing? Will you watch BBC3 or BBC4 at all any more? Maybe, maybe not.
So let’s play fantasy TV controller and ask:
If you were in charge of the BBC and could move budgets around as you like, what would you do with BBC3 and BBC4? What would you have more of? What would you have less of? Would even get rid of them in favour of giving more money to BBC1 and BBC2
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I’m Rob Buckley, a journalist who writes for UK media magazines that most people have never heard of although you might have heard me on the podcast Lockdown Land or Radio 5 Live’s Saturday Edition or Afternoon Edition. I’ve edited Dreamwatch, Sprocket and Cambridge Film Festival Daily; been technical editor for TV producers magazine Televisual; reviewed films for the short-lived newspaper Cambridge Insider; written features for the even shorter-lived newspaper Soho Independent; and was regularly sarcastic about television on the blink-and-you-missed-it “web site for urban hedonists” The Tribe. Since going freelance, I've contributed to the likes of Broadcast, Total Content + Media, Action TV, Off The Telly, Action Network, TV Scoop and The Custard TV.
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