"BBC3" redirects here. For the BBC radio station, see BBC Radio 3. For other uses, see BBC3 (disambiguation).
For the internet service of the same name, see BBC Three (streaming service).
Television channel
BBC Three
Logo used since 2022
Country
United Kingdom
Broadcast area
United Kingdom
Isle of Man
Channel Islands
Network
BBC Television BBC One (2019–2022)
Headquarters
London, England
Programming
Language(s)
English
Picture format
1080i/1080p[a] HDTV (downscaled to 576i for the SDTV feed)
Ownership
Owner
BBC
Sister channels
BBC One BBC Two BBC Four BBC News BBC Parliament CBBC CBeebies BBC Scotland BBC Alba S4C
History
Launched
9 February 2003; 21 years ago (2003-02-09) (original) 4 March 2019; 5 years ago (2019-03-04) (block on BBC One) 1 February 2022; 2 years ago (2022-02-01) (relaunch)
Replaced
BBC Choice (2003) BBC Three (streaming service) (2022)
Closed
16 February 2016; 8 years ago (2016-02-16) (original) 31 January 2022; 2 years ago (2022-01-31) (block on BBC One)
Links
Website
BBC Three
Availability
Terrestrial
Freeview
Channel 23 (SD) Channel 107 (HD; England & NI only)
Streaming media
BBC iPlayer
Watch live (UK only)
BBC Three is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, covering all genres including comedy, reality shows, documentaries, news, current affairs, adult animation, and drama series.[1] The television channel closed down in 2016 and was relaunched in 2022 after being replaced by an online-only BBC Three streaming channel.[2] The channel broadcasts daily from 7:00 pm to 4:00 am, timesharing with CBBC (which starts at 7:00 am)
BBC Three is the BBC's youth-orientated television channel,[3] its remit to provide "innovative programming" to a target audience of viewers between 16 and 34 years old, leveraging technology as well as new talent.[1] Unlike its commercial rivals, 90% of BBC Three's output originated from the United Kingdom. Notable exceptions were Family Guy and American Dad (both of them originating in the United States). It and sister channel BBC Four also carry occasional BBC Sport programming as an overflow for the BBC's other channels.
Following budget cuts at the BBC, the first iteration of BBC Three ceased operations on 16 February 2016, despite public opposition, moving to a BBC Three-branded streaming channel on the iPlayer.[4] It returned to broadcast television in the form of a late-night strand on BBC One on Monday to Wednesday nights since 4 March 2019. On 2 March 2021, the BBC confirmed that it planned to relaunch BBC Three's linear television channel in 2022 subject to regulatory approval,[5] which was approved in November that year.[6]
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
^ ab"BBC Three Service Licence" (PDF). BBC Trust. September 2013. Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 16 November 2013.
^"T-Minus Three weeks until BBC Three is on TV". Media Centre. British Broadcasting Corporation. 11 January 2022. Archived from the original on 11 January 2022. Retrieved 27 January 2022.
^Alex Ritman (1 June 2015). "BBC TV Boss on Youth Network Going Online: It's a "Risk" – The Hollywood Reporter". Hollywoodreporter.com. Archived from the original on 3 February 2022. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
^"BBC Three to move online from February". BBC News. 26 November 2015. Archived from the original on 25 August 2017. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
^"BBC Three to return as a broadcast channel in January 2022". BBC. 2 March 2021. Archived from the original on 2 March 2021. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
^"BBC Three to return as TV channel in February". BBC News. 25 November 2021. Archived from the original on 25 November 2021. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
BBCThree is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes...
BBCThree Counties Radio is the BBC's local radio station serving the counties of Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire. It broadcasts on FM...
January 2015. "BBC "does not trust" Top Gear". BBC News. BBC. 16 January 2015. Retrieved 16 January 2015. "In The Flesh cancelled by BBCThree after budget...
BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music...
2014. "BBC plans to launch BBC One +1". BBC News. 8 October 2013. Retrieved 8 October 2013. "BBCThree online move approved by BBC Trust". BBC. 30 June...
for stage-three blood cancer". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 17 March 2023. "Sam Neill diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma". BBC News. 17 March...
as a late schedule for BBC Two, before it received its own channel, along with BBCThree. BBC Four was launched before BBCThree as a result of the government...
BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC television, radio and online. The BBC holds the television and...
BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER) is a video on demand service from the BBC. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including...
BBC Weather is the department of the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) responsible for both the preparation and the broadcasting of weather forecasts...
employed by BBC Television and BBC Radio. Presenters and journalists appear across BBC television, radio but also contribute to BBC Online. BBC News provides...
BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a...
BBC Two or (previously) BBC2 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject...
The BBC World Service is an international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception...
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and...
Sands in the BBC's supernatural comedy-drama Being Human, Rudge in both the stage and film versions of The History Boys, Steve in the BBCThree sitcom Him...
rebroadcast on BBC One seven days after the BBCThree broadcast. "I Spy Apocalypse" was rebroadcast on BBC One two weeks after its original BBCThree broadcast...
the first two series of Impractical Jokers UK from 2012 until 2014 on BBCThree. In 2015, Dommett was a team captain on ITV2's comedy show Reality Bites...
the BBCThree sketch comedy Tittybangbang with Jill Parker. The programme starred Lucy Montgomery and Debbie Chazen, with Tony Way, and ran for three series...
BBC Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: BBC Alba) is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Scotland. It is one of the four BBC national regions...
series, produced in the United Kingdom by Sid Gentle Films for BBC America and BBCThree. The series follows Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh), a British intelligence...
(2024). In 2022, she presented the dating series Love in the Flesh on BBCThree and a year later, she competed on the twenty-first series of Strictly...
the channel with the higher-profile BBCThree, which, after some delay, began broadcasting in February 2003. When BBC Choice launched, no digital TV receivers...
2013 when BBCThree, BBC Four, BBC News, CBBC, and Cbeebies began high definition simulcasts. On 5 September 2016 BBC Two began broadcasting BBC Parliament...
Global Information