The BBC was originally planning to close CBBC and BBC Four by this year. Now it’s likely both channels will stay on-air, at least for a little longer.
- After announcing the cuts three year ago, the BBC has gone quiet about its plans.
- BBC’s head of children’s TV confirms CBBC channel will continue.
- Any major changes to BBC services likely to feed in to Royal Charter renewal talks.
In 2022, the BBC announced plans to cut both BBC Four and CBBC from traditional linear TV platforms. According to the BBC, the channels were due to close within three years (by 2025). A year later, first rumblings of a U-turn were reported in media outlets. Plans to close the channels were absent from the BBC’s annual plan for 2024-25.
Recently, the BBC’s head of children’s programmes confirmed CBBC has had a reprieve, echoing earlier reports of a similar reprieve for BBC Four. In comments picked up by The i Paper, Patricia Hildago said “it’s really important… that if children still need us on a linear network, we’re going to be there for them.”
The BBC’s Chief Content Officer Charlotte Moore previously said both channels wouldn’t close “until we think they don’t bring value to audiences”. Moore said the broadcaster is using data to evaluate the right time to close services.
Both BBC Four and CBBC still attract viewers, although not to extent enjoyed previously. For one thing, BBC Four’s budget has been steadily cut over the years, meaning dramas that once brought higher ratings are no longer aired on the channel. It is now largely reliant on repeats. Meanwhile, CBBC has seen audiences drop as children are attracted to streaming platforms such as YouTube and TikTok.
Recurring Dilemma for the BBC
It’s just over 12 years since BBC One stopped showing CBBC in the afternoon. That programme block continued long after the launch of the CBBC channel to ensure children without digital TV could access programmes. Following the conclusion of digital switchover (the switch from 5-channel analogue to multi-channel digital TV), the arrangement ended on 21st December 2012.
The BBC now faces a similar dilemma. Poorer households and homes in areas where internet infrastructure is lacking would lose access to CBBC programmes if the channel was removed from traditional broadcast platforms.
In 2022, the BBC also announced the planned closure of BBC Radio 4 Extra and BBC Radio 4 Longwave (LW). It’s stopped operating a separate LW schedule ahead of the LW service closing as early as this year. But some of BBC Radio 4 LW’s programmes were migrated to BBC Radio 4 Extra last April.
🟢 Analysis: Closing channels wouldn’t necessarily generate savings
By: Marc Thornham
If BBC Four and CBBC went online only tomorrow, it could have surprisingly little impact on BBC budgets.
Content for both channel brands would still be need to be provided, but would just be shown through the iPlayer rather than traditional broadcast channels.
Rather than offer programmes solely on-demand, like it did for BBC Three programmes between 2016-2022, the BBC might decide to convert both channel brands into curated streaming channels in addition to providing on-demand content. This would be similar to the streaming-only ITV channels you’ll find in ITVX, including ITVX Kids, and on various platforms like Pluto TV, Samsung TV Plus and even Freeview. While such channels don’t have the same type of schedule as traditional channels, they still require some form of playout and curation of content.
An online switch would however serve a different purpose.
In the 2000s, the BBC launched BBC Three, BBC Four, CBBC and CBeebies to encourage audiences to switch from analogue to digital television. The channels only became universally available to all TV households in the UK at the conclusion of digital switchover in 2012.
Now the BBC, alongside other broadcasters wants to undertake a second ‘digital switchover’, or to be precise a switch from first generation digital TV platforms to next generation IPTV platforms. It can’t afford to launch new channels, but it can migrate some of its services to an online-only environment. And as some of its audience, particular younger ones, are already ahead of the game, this makes sense. As traditional broadcast platforms close down, both services would in the future become universally available again. In the meantime, while both channels continue to broadcast on traditional TV platforms, they can act as barker channels for the iPlayer.
Technical reasons why a closedown doesn’t yet make sense
Another reason why closing channels may not generate much savings is the way services are broadcast on Digital Terrestrial Television, better known as Freeview.
The BBC currently transmits two multiplexes of channels. One, carrying standard definition channels, is granted to the BBC as part of its Royal Charter. The second, carrying HD channels is operated on a commercial basis.
Removing channels would leave a gap on its first multiplex – bandwidth that would be worth millions in carriage fees over several years, but can’t be let out to commercial broadcasters under the terms of its Royal Charter. The capacity must be used for BBC services only. The overall fixed cost of running the multiplex would be the same, but spread over fewer services.
It would also create a gap on its second multiplex, the HD multiplex, where CBBC and BBC Four broadcast in high definition. This could be used to reinstate BBC News HD, which was dropped in 2022 following a reorganisation of Freeview capacity or make BBC Three HD available to Freeview users in Scotland and Wales, where the channel is substituted by BBC Scotland and S4C respectively. Alternatively, unlike capacity on its first multiplex, it could let out the space to commercial broadcasters.
However, the licence to operate the HD multiplex expires next year, which would put off potential takers. The BBC might not wish to use it to expand its own HD services because ultimately it wants to move viewers to streaming platforms like Freely.
Additional reconfiguration required
Finally, closing BBC Four and CBBC would affect current channel pairings. BBC Four currently shares bandwidth with CBeebies. BBC Three shares bandwidth with CBBC. The switchover between channels in each pair takes place just before 7pm and at 5:30am. Closing BBC Four and CBBC would force the BBC to look at reconfiguring the pairings across its platforms, which would create additional cost.
When is a change more likely?
As a result of the above technical factors and ongoing negotiations regarding the BBC Charter Renewal, it’s likely we won’t see any changes until closer to Charter renewal.
That renewal process will determine the BBC’s remit for the coming decade. This will include matters such as which services it needs to provide and how it makes them available. And it’s likely the BBC may address the future of these services within this process.
As the BBC’s Freeview capacity is linked to the Royal Charter renewal in 2027, it’s more likely bigger changes could take place then.