BBC Trust rejects BBC One +1

The BBC Trust has provisionally recommended that proposals to launch a BBC One +1 channel be rejected. Under the proposal, the catch-up service would have replaced BBC Three as a broadcast channel.
The Trust’s provisional conclusion is that this proposal fails the public value test and should be rejected.

Ofcom has concluded that the launch of a +1 channel would have the greatest adverse market impact of any of the proposals, capturing viewing share for the BBC at the expense of commercial channels and reducing the profitability, in particular, of ITV and Channel 5.

The proposal would have limited public value given the need for 24 per cent of UK television households to upgrade their equipment in order to receive +1; the inability to offer ‘opt-out’ programmes for the nations and regions; the lack of distinctiveness of the proposal; and the limited impact on reach to 16 to 34-year-olds, which means it would be unlikely to mitigate the impact of changes to BBC Three.