BBC Three Week

Time for BBC choice about BBC Three? Photograph: BBC

Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV 1st February 2015 at 20:18

I thought that with the impending decision by the BBC Trust to make BBC Three an "online only channel" I would take the opportunity to look the intriguing matters arising from this.

I am going to divide this into 5 articles:

• In the first article I am going to look at the history of BBC 3 in the context of digital television channels generally. This is going in to start with the BBC's extending choice manifesto current situation.
• In the second article I will be looking at the technical challenges to TV in the coming decade: in particular the competition between television broadcasters and phone companies for the use of "the airwaves".
• The third article will look at creative challenges of the coming decade and funding for new creative works and how this impacts on the licence fee, advertising, subscription services and how we pay for broadband.
• On Thursday I'm going to write about what television is going to look like in 2025. Will there still be channels? Will people still be watching live TV? Will personal video recorders be a thing of the past? Will channels like "Dave" be something to our grandchildren, with faint nostalgia?
• The last article on Friday, I will wrap up the above and decide if the BBC's policy for BBC Three is a good one.