BBC Three, the youth TV channel that has so far found little success in appealing to its target audience, will relaunch next month with a “huge step forward in multiplatform”. The channel is planning “a new relationship between television and the internet”, “plans to simulcast all programmes on the web, regular slots for user-generated content in prime-time and the placing of interactive ideas at the heart of programmes” (oh, and a new logo). An example – viewers will introduce next programmes by recording and uploading webcam clips. More hype from controller Danny Cohen (see announcement for more): it’s a “world in which our content can move seamlessly between TV, online and mobile”. Other announcements include a ream of new programme commissions.
We’ve heard similar ambitions before. BBC Three and Channel 4’s E4 both launched promising to tap a new generation of creative UK producers to make innovative new animations and so on, but that never fully came to pass and BBC Three’s viewer share is just 2.6 percent amongst its target 25-34 crowd. Maybe now, with greater online sophistication amongst that audience, the time is more right.
Update: More details from BBC Vision multiplatform controller Simon Nelson.