After six years online, BBC Three is finally being revived for traditional TV sets.
Following the BBC budget cuts, the channel ceased operations in February 2016 and was replaced by a BBC Three-branded streaming service on iPlayer.
However, following the success of shows under the BBC Three banner, including record-breaking lockdown hit Normal People, RuPaul’s Drag Race UK and comedy mock-documentary This Country, the UK media regulator Ofcom approved BBC Three’s relaunch as a broadcast television channel in 2021.
As BBC Three returns to the airwaves in 2022, the BBC has unveiled new comedy, drama, entertainment, documentaries, news and sport for the channel.
Read on for everything you need to know about the relaunch of BBC Three as a linear channel.
How can I watch BBC Three on TV?
BBC Three will be available via Freeview, Sky, Virgin and Freesat.
It can also be watched live on the BBC Three channel page on iPlayer.
When can I watch BBC Three?
The official relaunch will kick off on Tuesday 1st February 2022.
BBC Three will broadcast from 7pm every night of the week.
What channel number is BBC Three?
Conversations with Friends
Freeview, Sky and Virgin Media have already made preparations for the returning channel and reshuffled the channel numbers in their TV Guides.
On Virgin Media, BBC Three is returning to channel 107, knocking BBC Four down to channel 108.
On Freeview and BT TV BBC Three can be viewed on channel number 23 in SD and 109 in HD.
On Sky Q, viewers across most of England, Wales and North Ireland will need to type 117 into their remote controls. Those in London will need to remember a different channel number as London Live channel currently broadcasts on channel 117. Instead, BBC Three can be found on channel 173.
In Scotland, Sky Q viewers need to head to channel 141 to watch BBC Three.
Meanwhile, on the newly-launched Sky Glass, BBC Three can be viewed on channel 118 in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Viewers in Wales need to remember channel 119 to watch BBC Three.
What new shows will be launching on BBC Three?
BBC Three’s launch night on 1st February will see the premiere of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Versus the World, which will see the UK play host as nine international Drag Race stars compete to win the title of Drag Race Superstar.
The channel has also confirmed that during the week of the launch, it will be hosting both the semi-finals and the final of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), which will be hosted by football pundit Jermaine Jenas.
The channel, which is primarily targeted at a young audience, will also have a week-night bulletin produced by BBC News called The Catch Up.
Also on the scripted slate is horror series Red Rose, factual-based drama Life and Death in the Warehouse, black comedy drama Wrecked and comedy series Peacock.
The hotly-anticipated Sally Rooney adaptation Conversations with Friends is also set to debut on the channel in 2022.
Peacock BBC
Speaking ahead of the channel’s launch, BBC Three controller Fiona Campbell said: “In terms of the UK, you can’t be relevant to your audience unless you’re making content that’s very close to your audience.
“I think people’s mobility, in terms of geographic mobility, has obviously gone down in recent years so the relevance of where they come from has gone up.”
She added that the channel has been focusing on creating content across the UK and providing “regional creative opportunities and a pipeline of experience for the future”.
She explained: “That’s where I’m trying to take this channel, because then you’re relevant to people and important to them and you mean something to them.”
In line with this, the channel has already commissioned shows such as The Fast and the Farmer(ish), which sees young Northern Irish farmers racing their tractors.
Talking about the premiere of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Versus the World on the channel, Campbell said: “Drag Race is definitely a core pillar of the channel’s identity, along with shows like Rap Game and Glow Up.”
She added: “Our channel is all about a concentrated experience of how tough it is to be super young in the UK today and that show epitomises and embodies that tough emotion and feeling.”
And that’s not all. Campbell has also said that a BBC Three soap could also be on the cards.
During a chat with RadioTimes.com and other press, she recently revealed: “I think [a BBC Three soap] would be a great opportunity to showcase modern Britain, somewhere very specific in modern Britain. You know, it could be Derry, or Belfast, it could be Aberdeen, it could be Newcastle. I’d want to put it somewhere like that and then showcase a locality like that in all its glory.”
