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Staff fear BBC Three closure and BBC Scotland axe will be announced next week
BBC staff fear Matt Brittin will announce next week a BBC Three closure and the end of BBC Scotland's TV channel, as the corporation runs a redundancy process across its TV and streaming division ahead of a plan to save £500m and cut up to 2,000 jobs.
By Haut Monde Post
• October 2, 2026
• 5 Min Read
Voluntary redundancy drive across TV and channels
This week Dan McGolpin, director of the BBC iPlayer and Channels division, which includes all of the corporation's TV stations, invited staff across the department to register their interest in voluntary redundancy. It forms part of a redundancy process covering the broadcaster's television and streaming division.
His email framed the measures as a way to limit compulsory job losses and asked whether employees would consider other arrangements:
- •job-sharing
- •a reduction in hours
- •moving to another BBC base elsewhere in the UK
Sources said the exercise fuelled speculation that the two channels are about to go online-only, with Brittin targeting TV and radio output that offers the least value for money. One insider said BBC Scotland and BBC Three are openly known to be costly per viewer, a metric under examination, and have not delivered what was hoped.
BBC Three: the numbers behind the closure fears
Coming off linear television a second time would not be unprecedented for BBC Three. The youth-focused channel launched in 2003 and produced Gavin and Stacey, Fleabag, Killing Eve and the lockdown hit Normal People. It went online-only in 2016 to save costs, and since returning to linear TV in 2022 it has struggled as viewers drift to streaming services and platforms such as YouTube.
Its recent performance:
- •It has scrapped the high-profile RuPaul's Drag Race UK, citing financial pressures.
- •On Tuesday the channel's top-rated programme, Stacey Dooley Sleeps Over, aired in the 9pm slot yet drew an average of just 74,000 viewers.
- •About 4% of the UK population typically watch the channel live in a week.
- •Its cost per user hour was 26p in 2023-24 and 18p in 2024-25, the final year the BBC published figures for individual services, against 10p for BBC One, 9p for BBC Two and 6p for BBC Four.
- •The budget doubled to roughly £80m on its linear return, reached £90m in 2023-24 and fell to £66m in 2024-25.
BBC Scotland channel's reach and cost
The channel launched in 2019 as a dedicated outlet for Scottish programming, separate from the Gaelic-language BBC Alba. It has received about £250m in funding since its launch without drawing large audiences, and its flagship news magazine The Nine was dropped two years ago after some episodes were watched by as few as 1,700 people. In June the BBC announced plans to cut 60 jobs in Scotland, to save £10m.
The corporation's latest annual report, covering the year to 31 March, says just 12% of people in Scotland watch the channel live, against 54% of the adult population consuming BBC Scotland content each week across TV and iPlayer, radio and online. The channel had a budget of £42m in 2024-25, while its cost per user hour was 13p. One source believes full closure would be politically too difficult, making an online-only future the cost-effective and acceptable route.
Brittin's review and the wider savings plan
Staff fear Brittin will announce the closure of both channels next week. Appearing on BBC One's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, he argued that when most of an audience is watching on demand, the value and the cost of each service have to be examined. On the same programme he put the question directly:
"When's the right time to migrate that service fully to being on-demand?"
He added that "part of my job is to safeguard value for money for the licence fee payer".
The corporation's director general has repeatedly warned that linear TV and radio services may have to shut as audiences move online. Brittin has also suggested axing radio services, with between 350 and 400 hours of audio content to be cut by the end of the next financial year. Radio 4's Today is permanently reducing its presenter roster after the departure of Amol Rajan, and the evening news programme The World Tonight has been axed after more than 50 years.
There is precedent for failed closure proposals: in 2010, then director general Mark Thompson proposed shutting the Asian Network and 6 Music, and both survived after a backlash. The Asian Network was relocated to Birmingham last year, and its dedicated news bulletins were replaced by Newsbeat two years ago. By cost per user hour, the Asian Network, Radio 1Xtra and Radio 3 are the most expensive of the BBC's stations.
The director general is expected to tell staff on Wednesday about the next stage of the plan to save £500m and shed up to 2,000 jobs. The BBC declined to comment, saying it does not discuss speculation.
