BBC Three Television, The BBC - British Broadcasting Corporation

BBC Three Television

BBC Three, is a television channel from the BBC, broadcasting on digital cable, digital terrestrial and satellite. The channel was launched on 9 February 2003, 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 is described by the BBC as an outlet for 'New drama, New talent, British comedy, top films and accessible news'. The channel is on-air from 19:00 to 04:00 each night, in order to share terrestrial digital bandwidth with the CBBC channel.

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 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 for RDF Media. His stay there was very brief and after 3 weeks, he had quit and moved to another independent, Twofour.

The current controller of the station is Danny Cohen, whilst the current scheduler is Damian Kavanagh, who used to schedule BBC One.

Channel 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.
A feature of this identity is also the music "Three Is The Magic Number", based (only the lyrics are copied) upon Schoolhouse Rock!.
www.bbc.co.uk provides a number of downloads and activities based on the channels identity, these include "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.
The channel has 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.

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. The channel will have 6 new idents, 6 stings and 3 promo openers all produced by Nexus Productions.
Danny Cohen, BBC Three's Controller, speaking of the rebranding said: "I'm delighted to announce BBC Three's fantastic line-up of new programmes, along with our innovative and exciting approach to television for young audiences. BBC Three is aiming to become Britain's most ambitious multi-platform network – combining television and the web into a single, integrated offering.

Programming

In early 2003, viewers could watch episodes of popular BBC soap opera EastEnders on BBC Three before they were broadcast on BBC One. This was to coincide with the relaunch of the channel and helped it break the one million viewers milestone for the first time. The episode was not originally commissioned for the channel. An episode of EastEnders Revealed, which was commissioned for BBC Three, attracted 611,000 viewers.
In October 2004, BBC Three broke its previous records at the time, when 1.8 million viewers tuned in for a new series of the award-winning comedy, Little Britain. Little Britain was later broadcast on the BBC's terrestrial analogue channels BBC One and BBC Two. In the same year newly commissioned Chris Crudelli hit Mind, Body & Kick Ass Moves was rolled out 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 it 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 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.

Torchwood

Torchwood launched with an impressive 2.4 million viewers in October 2006, not only breaking BBC Three's previous record of 1.8 million, but it is also believed to be the biggest ever multichannel audience for a UK-originated, non-sports programme, thought to be third to an episode of Friends, broadcast on Sky One in 2000, which attracted 2.8 million viewers and in 2006 with Sky One's Terry Pratchett's Hogfather which attracted 2.6 million viewers.[citation needed] The second episode attracted an equally impressive 2.3 million viewers, and boosted BBC Three to a 3.5% share of multichannel viewing that evening, compared to the network's three month Sunday average of 0.9%.

Successful new programmes have included 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. Other new programmes which crossed channels have been Tittybangbang, a comedy sketch show starring Lucy Montgomery and Debbie Chazen, and Man Stroke Woman, another sketch show, starring Nick Frost and Nick Burns, mostly dealing with relationships of 20- and 30-somethings, which first aired on November 21, 2005. Based on the programme's success, it began to be repeated on BBC Two. BBC Three was also the home to Monkey Dust, a twisted adult animation which graphically depicted many stereotypes such as paedophilia, racism and youth 'hoodie' violence.

The channel features hourly news updates called 60 Seconds, which includes the top news, sport and entertainment stories. It is presented in a cheeky, relaxed style in keeping with the rest of the channel. As part of the BBC's discussions with the government in whether the channel could launch originally, 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 in fact, the programme's audiences were minuscule and the output was provided elsewhere on the BBC.

News update on BBC Three

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.
Popular programmes on the channel include Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps (the channel's longest running comedy), The Mighty Boosh and Family Guy. In May 2007 the channel aired the new sitcom Gavin & Stacey written by and staring Ruth Jones and James Corden alongside Mathew Horne, Joanna Page, Alison Steadman and Rob Brydon.
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.

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, House of Tiny Tearways, Sex..with Mum & Dad, Little Angels and Teen Angels.
New shows commissioned include a variety show based on social networking, hosted by Lily Allen, a series of "hard-hitting" documentaries aimed at a young audience and six new drama pilots, one of which is to be made into a full series including Phoo Action.

Audience & Competition

The channel is aimed at 25-34 year olds, and and competes with other digital channels ITV2 and E4.
Its share of the audience during its transmission hours is 2.6% among 25-34 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.