BBC3 sell-off: Corporation rejects a £100m offer to buy the channel

The leading production companies Hat Trick and Avalon tabled a bid to rescue the channel, which BBC managers want to close to help save £50 million a year

The BBC Television Centre seen from the air ( Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

The closure of BBC3 as a television channel is not a “fait accompli” the BBC Trust said, after the corporation snubbed a £100m offer to buy the channel from a consortium of comedy producers.

The leading production companies Hat Trick and Avalon tabled a bid to rescue the youth entertainment channel, which BBC managers want to close to help save £50 million a year.

The BBC received a join approach from Hat Trick, producer of programmes including Have I Got News For You and Outnumbered, and Avalon, the talent management and production company behind shows for Al Murray and Russell Howard.

Under the proposal, BBC Three would continue to broadcast on all digital platforms and the channel’s programme budget would be increased from £81m to £100m a year.

The privately-owned BBC would continue to target a young, ethnically diverse audience. Under the BBC’s plans to take the channel online, the budget is to be cut to £30m a year.

Jon Thoday, joint managing director of Avalon, and Jimmy Mulville, managing director of Hat Trick, wrote to Rona Fairhead, Chair of the BBC Trust, after the BBC executive rejected the approach.

The BBC is unprepared to countenance the sell-off of a major channel, since it could set a precedent for other services, such as Radio 1.

David Liddiment, an outgoing member of the BBC Trust, said: “No one is going to do a back door deal around BBC Three.”

The Trust has begun assessing the online-only proposal, which it will subject to a “public value test”. The body gave hope to campaigners seeking to save BBC3 after it said closure was “not a fait accompli.”

The Trust has previously rejected management proposals to close the BBC 6Music channel and a plan to create a £68m online local video platform after ruling that they would not serve the interest of licence-fee payers.

A BBC Trust spokesman said: “We have received the letter from Avalon and Hat Trick and we’ll respond in due course.” The Trust vowed to give “everyone including the industry a chance to say what they think and we are intending to publish responses in full.”

A “provisional decision” on BBC3’s future will be reached in April with a final verdict expected for 6 months. Ms Fairhead has described the BBC3 decision as a “really difficult challenge. If you look at the statistics, it will show that group of the public are watching less, they are certainly watching very differently, although sometimes they view by appointment, typically they eat or watch on the go through devices that they have.”

The BBC plans to use the savings from a BBC3 channel closure to launch a +1 channel for BBC One, extend the hours for CBBC and increase investment in drama on BBC One.

An independent assessment of the BBC’s plans concluded: “The proposed service changes result in a slight overall gain in viewing for the BBC, of 0.17% in 2017.”

Online viewing of full-length programmes for 16-24 year olds is expected to rise from 28% to 40% by 2020.

But the Trust will have to decide whether online viewers will drift away from BBC programming given the loss of the promotional power BBC3 enjoys as a television channel and the programme budget reductions envisaged.

A spokesman for the BBC said: “BBC3 is not for sale because it's not closing. The proposal to move it online is part of a bold move to reinvent the BBC’s offer for young people.”

In a blog, Damian Kavanagh, BBC3 digital controller, said the corporation planned to make its content available on platforms including Snapchat, Tumblr, Facebook and YouTube. He said BBC3 programmes would continue to be screened by BBC1 and BBC2.