BBC Four & CBBC to close

[Cando]

Not this thing of merging CBeebies and CBBC again. Give me strength.

Spot on, nobody that is in contact with kids of that age would think merging channels would be feasible.

[Rexogamer]

I'm afraid I don't understand what point you are trying to make.

I was responding to this post:

Not this thing of merging CBeebies and CBBC again. Give me strength.

From what I can see, no one has mentioned merging CBBC and CBeebies in the last few posts?

[CantGetIn]

Daily Mail reporting BBC four will close down, make of that what you will.

[Dylan2001]

Daily Mail reporting BBC four will close down, make of that what you will.

I only watch BBC Four for Rick Stein and that incredible documentary last Christmas of Billy Connolly’s birthday. Shame it’s closing

[RDJ]

It’s understandable. Something’s gotta give, and the backlash from BBC Three closing down and then re-opening means that BBC Four was always next at risk.

With most of the archive material the channel now broadcasts readily available on the iPlayer, it makes less sense for the channel to keep going - especially with viewership not being spectacular.

I would expect the likes of the TOTP repeats and some other programming to transfer to BBC Two. I suspect that’s why stuff like The Story of TOTP series has been broadcast on BBC Two. When the remit of one BBC channel starts to blur into another BBC channel, you just know somethings on the horizon.

[This is UTV]

Not this merry-go-round of BBC want to close something, huge campaign to save it, BBC reverse the decision, rinse and repeat.

There's plenty of fat to cut elsewhere within the Beeb without closing a single radio or TV channel. Closing BBC Four will 'save' next to nothing.

[Markymark]

Daily Mail reporting BBC four will close down, make of that what you will.

I only watch BBC Four for Rick Stein and that incredible documentary last Christmas of Billy Connolly’s birthday. Shame it’s closing

Well, unless Cbeebies is going as well, they are unlikely to save on any transmission costs. When BBC 3 was closed, the bandwidth (that is shared with CBBC) was just left to tred water (except for the two hour evening extension CBBC was given)

[Keith]

Well, unless Cbeebies is going as well, they are unlikely to save on any transmission costs. When BBC 3 was closed, the bandwidth (that is shared with CBBC) was just left to tred water (except for the two hour evening extension CBBC was given)

I guess in Scotland some of the bandwidth freed up could be used for BBC Three HD. In the other nations whilst it could be used as an evening/nightime red button feed I doubt that be much of a saving. If it wasn't for Scottish politics there would probably be a greater saving made by merging the BBC Scotland channel back into BBC Two Scotland.

An extreme saving would be closing BBC Four and then making BBC Two 6pm to 6am and have it timeshare with CBeebies, though I very much doubt that would happen for a variety of reasons.

[AxiosBrit67]

Daily Mail reporting BBC four will close down, make of that what you will.

Surprising move, giving that the channel is the home of archive content in similar role that Radio 4 Extra does for Radio. I actually expected the Beeb to axe large part of Bitesize, which IMO was more unprofitable than BBC4.

[CantGetIn]

I had not put two and two together, but there is an announcement later today regarding a "digital-first BBC" so would make sense if true.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...ategy.html

The mail also suggests changes to the children channels. BBC Four and BBC children channels could be slowly phased out and then closed. That would make more sense. And I must say if true it was as I predicted further back in this thread while being heavily criticised, but let us wait and see. DM could be be wrong!

[Newshound47]

Well, unless Cbeebies is going as well, they are unlikely to save on any transmission costs. When BBC 3 was closed, the bandwidth (that is shared with CBBC) was just left to tred water (except for the two hour evening extension CBBC was given)

I guess in Scotland some of the bandwidth freed up could be used for BBC Three HD.  In the other nations whilst it could be used as an evening/nightime red button feed I doubt that be much of a saving.  If it wasn't for Scottish politics there would probably be a greater saving made by merging the BBC Scotland channel back into BBC Two Scotland. 

An extreme saving would be closing BBC Four and then making BBC Two 6pm to 6am and have it timeshare with CBeebies, though I very much doubt that would happen for a variety of reasons.

They would need somewhere for the daytime live sport BBC Two has several weeks of the year if they did that. Including two of their flagship sport rights.

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They will be massive backlash to closing BBC Four. I think through old v young and it could very explosive as people instead propose closing 1extra and the Asian network.

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It’s understandable. Something’s gotta give, and the backlash from BBC Three closing down and then re-opening means that BBC Four was always next at risk.

With most of the archive material the channel now broadcasts readily available on the iPlayer, it makes less sense for the channel to keep going - especially with viewership not being spectacular.

I would expect the likes of the TOTP repeats and some other programming to transfer to BBC Two. I suspect that’s why stuff like The Story of TOTP series has been broadcast on BBC Two. When the remit of one BBC channel starts to blur into another BBC channel, you just know somethings on the horizon.

The problem is a lot the audience who watch archive stuff don’t use Iplayer because they don’t understand how or they haven’t got it set up (if you use freeview you have to connect your box or Tv to wifi and not everyone does.)

[thomalex]

Daily Mail reporting BBC four will close down, make of that what you will.

"BBC4 could shut to cope with two-year license fee freeze"

This doesn't sound like much has changed

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...ategy.html

[James2001]

Can't beleive people are taking what the Daily Mail says at face value.

[CantGetIn]

Can't beleive people are taking what the Daily Mail says at face value.

But we are not James, hence my "make of that what you will" and "the DM could be wrong!"

I can however state with fact, as above that there is an announcement later today regarding a digital first BBC. Are the two connected? that I could not tell you.

[Matrix]

In some ways, I can see why the rhetoric around closing BBC Four would crop up. It’s largely become an archive channel and in many ways you *could* provide the same offer via iPlayer or focused strands on BBC Two, for example.

That said - and this is now just my perspective - I think it would be incredibly short sighted. Scuppering the ship to save a penny on tar springs to mind.

BBC Four has a genuine public service remit and above all else acts as a fantastic ‘shop window’ for the world of factual and doc productions we have. I fear in the race to save a few pennies to appease the ever more bizarre rambles of DCMS we’re heading down a path which ties off a very clear statement of the Beeb’s qualities.

Of course, whether it comes to pass is an entirely different matter but I fear this isn’t a BBC Three pause type situation - once gone it’ll be very hard to replace.