[interestednovice]

Considering how difficult the BBC finds it to shut things down, I'd be more surprised if they actually went through with these closures.  Similarly, the closure of Radio 4 Extra is "not a done deal" either, according to comments made by the BBC's director of speech late last year.

Radio 4 Extra costs almost nothing to run. It has hardly any (perhaps now even no) original programming, it’s all speech and drama which is already produced and even the distribution costs are low as it’s a “digital station”. No point axing it, to be honest. It “bulks out” the offering of the BBC for cheap.

Retooling BBC Radio 7 into BBC Radio 4 Extra made sense and saved money, on the other hand. As an “extra” station, audience expectations are set low (and lack of new content can be justified) - and it links it closely into the Radio 4 brand which means more people are likely to give it a try.

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I think the idea of giving a bigger linear outlet for BBC3 programmes was and is good - but I think that could have just as easily been done without bringing back the whole channel. Why not, say, have 10pm-midnight on BBC Two as the BBC Three slot? I know, I know, what about Newsnight - but that programme is sadly on borrowed time anyway. I’ve always thought it should be merged with the Ten over on One. You could then put the CBBC shows on Two during the day - and voila! A whole channel slot no longer needed.

Well, now what you are suggesting is effectively closing down BBC Two!

They tried that sort of idea with BBC Three on BBC One in the evenings, and it did quite well which was part of the justification for bringing it back. There was some evidence that large parts of the audience tuning in to BBC “Three on One” enjoyed the programmes and would not otherwise have seen them, if they were only on iPlayer. I don’t believe ratings were too bad either. I think the point was, though, that the very idea of a multi-focused general entertainment channel has gone out of the window. If younger viewers don’t have a dedicated channel to go to, then they won’t realise the BBC are putting out a “strand” for them.

However, BBC Two daytime is a mess of BBC News Channel simulcasts, Politics Live (sometimes on the NC anyway) and repeats of daytime BBC One content. BBC Two does have in it’s licence a condition to do late-night long form current affairs, so Newsnight effectively can’t be axed. What they could do is bring back closedowns to facilitate a timeshare. Have the BBC Two feed go off-air after early morning sign zone, say at 6am. Then fire up CBBC, on it’s own channel. That could go off again at around 9:30am when kids are at school, BBC Two could show some Politics Live, etc and continue with the schedule. Theoretically, it could close down again in the early afternoon for an after-school slot for CBBC, then open around 7pm. BBC Three could come in around midnight (or straight after Newsnight at 11:15pm) if they switched BBC Two off again, and air for a few hours. Younger people tend to be up later, so it might just work!

I don’t know how they would fit it all in on weekends though.