BBC Choice was a British digital television channel which was owned by the BBC and was launched on 23 September 1998. It was the first British TV channel to broadcast exclusively in

digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Technology and computing Hardware *Digital electronics, electronic circuits which operate using digital signals ** Digital camera, which captures and stores digital ...

format, as well as the BBC's second non-analogue-terrestrial channel launch (following on from the BBC News channel in 1997). At launch, BBC Choice mainly existed to supplement existing programming on BBC One and Two, with some low-profile original programming of its own. However, faced with low ratings for both Choice and BBC Knowledge, in 2000 the BBC's digital strategy changed. Under new controller Stuart Murphy, the channel began to aim specifically at a young adult audience. The BBC ultimately planned to replace the channel with the higher-profile

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, covering all genres including animation, comedy, cur ...

, which, after some delay, began broadcasting in February 2003.

History

Launch

When BBC Choice launched, no digital TV receivers were available to the general public as Sky Digital and ONdigital had not yet launched. Instead, the launch programme was broadcast over the internet, with the first day's schedule including a ''

Tomorrow's World ''Tomorrow's World'' is a former British television series about contemporary developments in science and technology. First transmitted on 7 July 1965 on BBC1, it ran for 38 years until it was cancelled at the beginning of 2003. The ''Tomorro ...

'' guide to digital television and repeats of the very first episodes of ''

EastEnders ''EastEnders'' is a Television in the United Kingdom, British soap opera created by Julia Smith (producer), Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the Ea ...

'' and ''

Monty Python's Flying Circus ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' (also known as simply ''Monty Python'') is a British surreal sketch comedy series created by and starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam, who became ...

''. The main format of the channel was a mix of BBC One and Two programming as well as original programming such as ''Backstage'', broadcast live each weeknight, which took viewers behind the scenes of different parts of the BBC. The channel also provided exclusive coverage of music festivals such as

Glastonbury Glastonbury (, ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels, south of Bristol. The town, which is in the Mendip district, had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census. Glastonbur ...

and extended live coverage of sport, for when either BBC One or Two have to end their coverage early or their schedules are unable to provide live sport action. BBC Choice also introduced an innovative programme format known as 'Hotlink', which expanded on popular shows. Examples included '' Watchdog Extra'', where viewers could contact the show by phone or e-mail with either questions or feedback on the issues discussed. '' Crimewatch Extra'' provided follow-up detail on the cases involved in the main programme, and ''Row Z'' was a football discussion forum that aired after '' Match of the Day'' finished on BBC One. The 'Hotlink' format has since been adopted by many other channels, particularly both

ITV2 ITV2 is a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the five analogue terrestrial stations, ...

and E4. BBC Choice initially broadcast from 5pm daily; this later switched to 7pm. The 7pm start carried over into its successor BBC Three.

Children's programming

BBC Choice also aired children's programmes; this duty transferred to CBBC Channel and CBeebies when they launched on the 11th of February 2002. For the first year of BBC Choice, children's programming would air on weekend afternoons as CBBC Choice, and included strands like 'Dog & Dinosaur', 'The Crew Room', 'L&K Replay' and 'Re:Peter'. From 29 November 1999, this was supplanted with a daily CBBC on Choice strand, running from 6am to 7pm every day, for programmes aimed at pre-school children, with presentation links pre-recorded by a CBBC presenter. It included repeats of archive shows rarely seen on the main channels, such as '' Mr Benn'', ''

Paddington Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Padd ...

'', ''

Simon and the Witch ''Simon and the Witch'' is a children's book by Margaret Stuart Barry, published by Collins, illustrated by Linda Birch. It also refers to the name of the series, which follows on. Simon is a very sensible young schoolboy, who has a friend wh ...

'', ''

Ivor the Engine ''Ivor the Engine'' is a British cutout animation television series created by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin's Smallfilms company. It follows the adventures of a small green steam locomotive who lives in the "top left-hand corner of Wales" a ...

'', ''

Jonny Briggs ''Jonny Briggs'' is a Children's BBC kitchen sink realism television programme first broadcast in 1985. It revolves around the exploits of a young boy, the eponymous hero (played by Richard Holian), his pet dog, Razzle, and his eccentric fami ...

'', ''

Pigeon Street ''Pigeon Street'' is a cutout animated children's television series, written by Michael Cole, originally shown on the BBC in 1981 as part of its 'See-Saw' strand for preschoolers. There were two series with eight and five episodes respective ...

'', and ''

Bitsa ''Bitsa'' was a British television programme broadcast from 1991 to 1996 on the Children's BBC strand on BBC1. It involved creative arts and "makes" very much like later show ''SMart''. It was repeated for a time on the now defunct digital chan ...

''. This continued until February 2002, when the

CBBC CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 7–16 ...

and CBeebies channels launched, with the CBBC Channel taking up BBC Choice's daytime broadcast bandwidth, but occupying a separate EPG position.

Post-2000 refresh

In June 2000, the BBC radically changed its digital channel formats. The initial format had seen BBC Choice target a similar mixed audience to BBC One and Two with a general entertainment skew, with BBC Knowledge focusing on educational and informative programming. From 2000 both Knowledge and Choice became targeted to more specific audiences, with Knowledge moving to a broader documentary and culture mix and Choice focusing on developing a stronger relationship with the young adult audience, which historically the BBC had difficulty reaching. BBC Choice abandoned many of its original programmes such as ''Backstage'', and aimed at younger people, with most of the early part of the schedules being made up of fifteen-minute programmes under the banner of "Refreshing TV" or "Micro TV". Entertainment news magazine ''

Liquid News ''Liquid News'' was a daily round up of entertainment news for BBC Three (and before that BBC Choice) running from 30 May 2000 to 1 April 2004. The show was also broadcast weekly on BBC One and internationally on BBC Prime and BBC America. The ...

'', presented by Christopher Price, evolved out of News 24's ''Zero 30'' and became the channel's flagship show.

Announcement of the end of BBC Choice

In August 2000, the BBC announced that it would replace BBC Choice as soon as possible with

, which would be a continuation of the "youth" aspect of the new BBC Choice. But the government delayed approving the relaunch, which formed part of wider plans to reshape the BBC's digital provision, plans which also included the proposed

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

, two children's channels and five digital radio stations. Whilst BBC Three was delayed, the other proposals gained the approval of Parliament and the new channels went on air in 2002, meaning BBC Four launched prior to BBC Three. From October 2001, BBC Choice began screening a significant amount of new, young-skewing programming, the kind of content that had been earmarked for BBC Three. The BBC submitted a revised proposal for the new channel raised the target age range to 25–34 and increased the amount of factual and arts programming, with a nightly 15-minute news programme – it was hoped these changes would better illustrate how BBC Three would differ from rivals such as E4,

and

Sky One Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non- terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989, ...

. This new proposal for BBC Three was given the go-ahead in September 2002, with a set of public-service conditions laid down and a launch date of February 2003 set. The final night of BBC Choice was given over entirely to previews of the new channel.

Programming

Initially, the main attractions of BBC Choice were multi-broadcast TV shows, with the option to choose which programme you viewed. The first broadcast by the BBC with this option was two months after the launch of the channel, showing '' Stressed Eric'', with ''

Naked Video ''Naked Video'' is a BBC Scotland sketch show that was aired on BBC2 from 12 May 1986 to 18 November 1991. The show was created by Colin Gilbert who had previously created '' A Kick Up the Eighties'' and ''Naked Radio'' (the latter being a rad ...

'' as the Digital Teletext option. In addition, BBC Choice also aired new episodes of some series, such as '' Robot Wars'', before their first broadcast on the terrestrial BBC channels. Its single-show programming was mainly concerned with celebrities, including documentary profiles and the nightly entertainment magazine ''

''. '' EastEnders Revealed'' was the only show from the original 1998 channel lineup to survive and outlive the entire life of the channel itself, transferring to its successor, BBC Three.

Regional variations

BBC Choice had regional variations for

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

and

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is #Descriptions, variously described as ...

which were broadcast in place of the network BBC Choice service in their respective areas from 10:30pm (following the ''

'' replay) to circa midnight nightly. At the time the BBC's digital offering included the national variants of BBC One (England, Scotland, Wales, NI) and a single nationwide BBC Two. The regional variations of Choice were discontinued in 2001 in favour of introducing regional opt-outs on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream a ...

to digital services; in some cases, such as

BBC 2W BBC 2W was a digital television channel run by the BBC in Wales until January 2009. It replaced the standard BBC Two broadcast on digital services in Wales — running on weekdays from 8.30pm to 10pm. Launched on 5 November 2001, it had an in ...

in Wales, analogue and digital versions of BBC Two were separately scheduled, but by 2010 all differences between the analogue and digital variants of BBC Two had ceased, and there is now one version of the channel in each area, broadcasting on analogue (until switchoff) and digital platforms. The English regional variants of

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

were made available digitally from 2003. Since the cessation of the BBC Choice splits, all BBC digital TV channels (including Choice's successor

) have operated as UK-wide services with no regional opt-out functionality.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bbc Choice Television channels and stations established in 1998 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2003 1998 establishments in the United Kingdom 2003 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Defunct BBC television channels Defunct British television channels