The BBC yesterday released information about programming on its new youth channel BBC 3 which finally launches in place of BBC Choice on 9 Feb. Needless to say the station almost immediately received criticism for being too populist and not fulfilling the obligations of public service broadcasting.
Controller Stuart Murphy was on hand to hit back arguing his channel would attract target 25-34-year-old viewers and still comply with the corporation's public service duties. "Our audience are not 'yoof'. They are intelligent, young adults looking for intellient young programmes which don't patronise them." He was confident his channel would achieve this.
Reaction to BBC 3’s launch programming was just one of the rounds of criticism the BBC’s digital operations received yesterday.
Firstly outspoken Labour MP Derek Wyatt called on the government to force the BBC to close down its digital channels in order to drastically cut the licence fee. "Do we continue funding this dinosaur from the licence fee or start to hypothecate a smaller licence that only pays for BBC 2 and Radios 2 and 4? Its empire building will cause, as all empires do, its fall," he wrote in a report produced by the Westminster Media Forum to coincide with the communications bill debate in the House of Lords.
Writing in the same publication Conservative culture spokesman John Whittingdale added: "the BBC has launched a plethora of new TV channels, radio stations and other activities - many seem directly targeted at existing commercial products and have given rise to serious criticisms that it is using its name and its products to compete unfairly.”
And if all that wasn’t enough the BBC faced criticism from the advertising standards authority who said a BBC ad that said their eight digital channels could now be accessed for free via Freeview was misleading because it didn’t mentioned a £100 set top box was required. While a formal complaint is unlikely to be made it may well make the Beeb reconsider how it refers to the Freeview service in which it has a major share.