BBC bosses will be happy with the first night’s figures for youth channel BBC 3 after the new network won an audience nearing 270,000, considerably more than its predecessor BBC Choice had achieved the previous Sunday (around 44,000). However some might argue that a peak of 270,000, which fell down to 19,000 by midnight, was only a moderate success given the major media advertising campaign the channel undertook, and the huge cross promotion on the BBC’s other channels. And the station’s high profile launch, also screened on BBC 2, only won 1.5 million viewers, half the number who tuned into the snooker that followed it.
With media commentators and some politicians always on the look out for reasons to criticise the BBC’s expensive digital TV projects the channel will need to ensure those figures are sustained and built on in the next few months, and that the channel doesn’t end up relying on advance showings of programmes like Eastenders and 24 to get decent audience share.
However the station performed considerably better than the BBC 4 launch last year and if the network becomes known as the place where the big TV shows of the future originally appear it could quickly build a dedicated cult following – something Channel 4’s youth channel E4 has failed to find - audiences more loyal to the American shows it premieres than the channel itself.