Four years after it moved online, the BBC is considering a full return to terrestrial screens for youth-skewing channel BBC Three.
A report in the Daily Mail on Friday that discussions had taken place was described as “speculation”, but not denied.
The original removal from DTT, satellite and cable services was part of a £100 million savings bid in 2014. Shows including Fleabag, Stacey Dooley Investigates and Ru Paul’s Drag Race UK are carried on the BBC iPlayer and later screened on BBC One and BBC Two.
A move back to linear transmission would seen counter intuitive in the age of Netflix and Amazon Prime, but many regard the channel to be at its creative best, and help the BBC recapture younger metropolitan audiences.
Any additional cash – either for new shows or spectrum – will undoubtedly require savings elsewhere with arts channel BBC Four a likely target.
BBC Three opened on 9 February 2003, it followed on from BBC Choice that with BBC Knowledge had been the broadcasters first take on what were then described as side channels.
