BBC digital youth channel to go ahead after year-long delay

The Government will approve the long-awaited new digital BBC channel for young people today, but with strict conditions that it contains a significant amount of news and current affairs.

A year after Tessa Jowell, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, rejected the corporation's original proposals, she is finally prepared to accept plans to launch BBC3, which will replace BBC Choice. But she will approve the new service only if its controllers agree to dedicate a proportion of airtime to "serious" programmes, sources indicated last night.

Ms Jowell stunned BBC executives last September when she threw out the original plan for a youth channel on the ground that it was too frivolous. But she could face a new row with the corporation over her demands on content.

The Government will insist that BBC3 screens factual and educational programmes such as news and documentaries for a fixed period of air time. It will demand that new programmes do not focus entirely on laddish lifestyles but have a serious educational content.

The Department of Culture was worried that previous proposals for the channel were too downmarket and it plans to warn the BBC that boundaries of taste should not be crossed.

But if the conditions are too stringent, the BBC is likely to complain that the Government is seeking to intervene in programming decisions, in contravention of its supposed independence.

The BBC has repeatedly stressed how the new service would help to win back younger viewers to the BBC and complete a "portfolio" of free digital channels, including the culture channel BBC4.

Executives have admitted its first submission for BBC3, which will have a budget close to £100m, was too woolly and failed to provide solid commitments on public service broadcasting.

A decision on a revised sub-mission became more difficult for the Government when the downturn in advertising revenue damaged the commercial sector, including Channel 4 whose E4 channel is a rival to the BBC's proposed youth service. Eventually the Government called in the Independent Television Commission to assess the likely impact of BBC3 on the marketplace.