The BBC Three and BBC Scotland channels will close as the corporation seeks to save more money. It is not the first time the BBC has announced the closure of the BBC Three channel to cut costs. Once again, the idea is that programmes will find their audience online.

A combination of previous freezes and inflation-linked increases in licence fees with a reduction in the number of households paying them means the BBC has less money to spend in real terms.

While the cost of a television licence rose to £174.50, the number of number of licences in force fall by half a million, generating £3.88 billion in income, compared to £3.84 billion the previous year.

The BBC said in its annual report that a steeper than projected decline in licence fee sales, combined with cost inflation and a challenging commercial trading environment, has exacerbated the gap between income and costs. It is seeking to find £500 million in savings by 2028, representing roughly 10% of total public service broadcasting costs, cutting up to 2000 jobs, or almost 10% of its employees.

BBC Three will, once again, close as a scheduled channel, although BBC Three commissions, supported by increased investment in content for younger audiences, will be available on BBC iPlayer and on other platforms, including YouTube.

The BBC Scotland channel will also close, although it will remain a channel on iPlayer and some programming wll also be available on BBC One and BBC Two, both of which will have regional variations for Scotland.

The BBC will end Reporting Scotland: News at Seven, which was a shorter replacement for the original hour-long news programme The Nine. Reporting Scotland will continue in the regional news slot on BBC One Scotland.

The BBC is also closing its Radio 4 Extra service, launched in 2002 as BBC 7, which mainly broadcasts repeats from the archive, although programmes will be available on BBC Sounds. Those wanting to listen to the Daily Service, first broadcast in 1928, will still be able to find it online or on their local radio station.

The recently-appointed director general Matt Brittin told staff: “We need to make every pound work harder for audiences as we respond to the immediate cost pressures and reinvent the BBC for a changing world. We all know that means tough choices.”

On the closure of linear broadcast services: “Much of the great content they currently carry will still be found where audiences already enjoy it on iPlayer and Sounds.”

It is difficult to see how much these changes will really save in the context of needing to find half a billion pounds. It is understood that the combined channel closures will save less than £10 million a year.

BBC Three barely featured in the last BBC Annual Report and Accounts. BARB no longer breaks out viewing by BBC channels, but in July 2025 BBC Three had a monthly reach of 9.8 million people, or about 15% of households, but only accounted for about a 0.3% share of monthly viewing.

BBC Three launched in February 2003, aimed at younger adult viewers. An early hit was Gavin and Stacey. That ended up on BBC One and the finale shown at Christmas 2024 had 19.3 million viewers, making it the most watched scripted show on any channel since before BBC Three began.

The BBC Three Channel was first closed in February 2016, moving exclusively online to BBC iPlayer, although its programmes were also shown on BBC One and BBC Two. It went on to produce programmes of critical acclaim like Fleabag.

BBC Three returned as a channel in February 2022. At the time, Charlotte Moore, chief content officer for the BBC, said: “The BBC needs to back success and make sure its programmes reach as many young people as possible, wherever they live in the UK. So regardless of the debates about the past, we want to give BBC Three its own broadcast channel again.”

So now it seems it will go online again, in the hope that it will find an audience there.

The BBC Scotland television channel officially in 24 February 2019, replacing the BBC Two Scotland opt-out with an autonomous, free-to-air public broadcast channel focused on Scottish programming. It had an initial budget of £32m a year. At the time, the then director general Tony Hall said: “It’s a channel that will be bold, creative and ambitious, with a brand-new Scotland-edited international news programme at its heart.”

The BBC Scotland channel featured a mix of documentary, factual and entertainment, comedy, drama, news and current affairs and sport programming reflecting Scottish life and culture. It has a weekly reach of 12% of the Scottish population, down from 13% the previous year.

Scotland contributed £313 million in licence fee income to the BBC last year. The BBC spent £65 million on Scotland television programming, down from £80 million the previous year.

These changes have been announced without any consultation, presumably on the basis that they do not constitute a material change to its public services.

Interestingly, when BBC Scotland was launched and when BBC Three was restored as broadcast channel having previously gone online only, those were considered to be material changes and required a public interest test and an independent consultation from Ofcom before approval was given.

It seems that closing a broadcast service is primarily a financial and operational governance decision for the BBC Board.

This all draws attention to the challenges that the BBC faces as it negotiates its future with the government, which is expected to publish a white paper on policy decisions on the BBC Royal Charter by the end of 2026.

www.bbc.co.uk

The Soarsat service that provides free-to-view satellite services in Ireland will close in early 2028. The satellite that is used to deliver the service is reaching end of life and will not be replaced. The announcement brings into sharp focus the future of other satellite services, including those of Sky and Freesat.

Launched in 2012, Saorsat has provided coverage in areas where digital terrestrial television through Saorview may be challenged. It currently delivers services from public service broadcasters RTÉ, TG4, and Oireachtas TV.

These services will continue to be available on other platforms, including Saorview, Sky, Virgin Media, eir TV, Vodafone TV, and the online players from RTÉ, TG4, and Oireachtas TV.

Saorsat is delivered via the KA-SAT satellite, originally known as Eutelsat KA-SAT 9A and now owned by Viasat.

It operates from the 9° East orbital position, unlike the 28.2° East position used by services on Sky and Freesat in the United Kingdom.

The Saorsat service uses a highly targeted Ka-band spotbeam. Unlike standard residential satellite television which uses the Ku-band, KA-SAT operates on narrower Ka-band frequencies and focuses a tight “Irish spotbeam” specifically over the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. This design allows for frequency reuse and restricts the signal overspill.

The satellite was launched at the end of 2010. It was originally engineered for a 15-year operational lifespan. This is partly determined by the station-keeping fuel required to keep it in its orbital slot.

Although its lifespan has been extended to early 2028, Viasat has opted not to launch a replacement satellite to maintain this specific service. Other customers, including satellite data services, are being migrated to other platforms. Viasat has launched three satellites at different orbital positions.

The end of service in Ireland foreshadows a similar situation that affects other services delivered to the United Kingdom and Ireland.

SES satellites Astra 2E, 2F, and 2G at 28.2° East were launched between 2012 and 2014 with a 15 year lifespan, which means they are also reaching their nominal end-of-life windows, although it is possible to extend their service life for a few more years.

Astra has no announced plans to replace these spacecraft, which include spotbeams to target signals to the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Although Sky has signed a contract extension to maintain its satellite service for the interim, it is planning to migrate users to online services like Sky Stream and sky Glass.

Freesat, which offers free-to-view services from the same Astra satellites, faces the same challenge, with alternatives available online through the Freely service, although that currently offers fewer channels.

There is the potential to use a robotic ‘space tug’ to extend the mission of existing satellites further by taking providing station keeping propulsion.

Other options could include co-locating an existing satellite at 28.2° East, or using capacity from rival Eutelsat, which operates from the nearby 28.5° East position.

For continental Europe, SES has launched a new Astra 1P satellite at 19.2° East, with 80 Ku-band transponders. It is also due to launch Astra 1Q in 2027, which will include software-defined spotbeams that can be reprogrammed while in orbit.

So while satellite television can continue to serve continental Europe for decades to come, the United Kingdom and Ireland may see them disappear into the sunset.

saorsat.ie

Netflix, which recently announced that it is cutting around a thousand jobs or 6% of its staff, reported that expects to see full-year revenue of $51.5 billion and an operating margin of 31.5%. Netflix stock is down by about 50% on its peak in June 2025. It faces the threat of increased competition for viewer attention in a maturing market.

Netflix no longer regularly reports subscriber numbers, although it said membership growth benefited from continued retention in every region and said its audience is approaching a billion people.

Asked about the role of live events of becoming a general online video portal, Ted Sarandos, the co-chief executive, said the anchor of its strategy was Netflix originals: “differentiated, exclusive, ambitious, professionally produced series and films and live events”.

He welcomed the appointment of Peter Rice as new chief content officer. He was most recently chairman of Walt Disney Television and chairman of General Entertainment for The Walt Disney Company. Before that he was president of 21st Century Fox and CEO of Fox Networks Group.

He said there was no need for a fundamental shift in strategy it needed better execution in the United States, saying “It’s just not growing as fast as it could or as fast as we’d like”.

Asked about the recently announced headcount reductions, he said sometimes the team needs a forcing function. “The company needs a mandate that requires the whole organisation to ask hard questions about where can we be more efficient.”

On the partnership with TF1 in France, co-chief executive Greg Peters said they are very pleased with the early performance. “We certainly believe we can replicate similar positive results with other partners where this approach meets the needs of the parter as well,” he said. “We have a lot going on that we’re going after.”

TF1 said that three months after launch, its viewing hours have increased by 30% compared to the same period the previous year. It said that nearly one in two Netflix subscribers with the integration had watched at least one TF1 programme since the launch.

Claire Basini of TF1 said: “The success of our partnership with Netflix confirms the full relevance of our strategy: by making TF1+ content accessible in a new environment, we are expanding its reach to new audiences and creating fresh opportunities for advertisers.”

The Netflix stock price fell by around 6% on the softer than expected revenue forecast, with analysts commenting the company is transitioning to a slower-growth narrative, noting increase competition for share of viewing and weaker performance form original titles.

With changes at the top, headcount reductions, and slower than expected increase in viewer engagement, investors are looking for clearer signs of growth.

The recent approval of the Skydance mega-merger combining Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery has created a media giant that can compete at scale. Netflix had tried and failed to acquire WBD earlier in the year. It now faces a rival planning to release 30 major movies a year.

Netflix is looking less unassailable, although while Skydance and Disney are carrying massive debt, it has only $5 billion in net debt and massive, highly profitable cash flow. It ain’t over yet.

www.netflix.com