The BBC has been told it must wait until September, at the earliest, to hear if the Department for Culture, Media and Sport will allow the rebranding of its digital channel BBC Choice to BBC3, taking it officially down the youth channel route. Some thought Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell would announce a decision at the TV Festival in Edinburgh later this month, but the minister has now confirmed she will not be attending the event, putting back any announcement to next month. The government worried BBC3 would pitch a licence funded station directly against commercial channels like E4, and that the station would therefore not fulfil a public service remit. But having added more programming for the older end of the youth market into their proposals, including more current affairs, coupled with the brownie points the BBC scored when it came to the rescue of terrestrial digital TV, most expect the new proposals to get the green light. Then again, as we’ve said before, with a three cube logo and heavy youth content, BBC Choice is pretty much the Beeb’s youth station already.
Aug 13, 2002
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1 min read
BBC has to wait a little longer for youth channel go ahead
Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell will not attend the Edinburgh TV Festival, so a decision on rebranding BBC Choice as BBC3 is delayed until at least September.