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UK Broadband

BBC to axe BBC Three, BBC Scotland and Radio 4 Extra in £500M cuts

The BBC will close the linear TV channels BBC Three and BBC Scotland and Radio 4 Extra in spring 2027 as it cuts 1,800 to 2,000 jobs to save £500 million over two years, shifting the services to iPlayer, BBC Sounds and YouTube.

By Sarah Whitfield · · 1 min read

BBC Broadcasting House, the corporation's London headquarters
Briantist, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The BBC has confirmed it will close the linear TV channels BBC Three and BBC Scotland and radio station Radio 4 Extra in spring 2027, as part of a cost-cutting programme aimed at saving £500 million over two years, by 2028.

The closures were announced to staff on Tuesday morning. Between 1,800 and 2,000 jobs will go across the organisation. BBC Three and BBC Scotland will live on as digital services on iPlayer — BBC Three commissions also appearing on YouTube, and BBC Scotland programming additionally airing on BBC One and Two in Scotland — while Radio 4 Extra’s archive speech programmes move to BBC Sounds, with The Daily Service also on local radio, Advanced Television reported. BBC Scotland’s nightly Reporting Scotland: News at Seven will end entirely.

BBC News will see a “net closure of just over 100 roles” worth £5.5 million in savings, newly appointed news director Rachel Jupp told staff, on top of around 550 news job cuts and more than 30 BBC Sport roles already announced, The Peninsula reported.

“We need to make every pound work harder for audiences as we respond to the immediate cost pressures and reinvent the BBC for a changing world. We all know that means tough choices,” Director-General Matt Brittin told staff. Scottish culture minister Mairi McAllan called moving BBC Scotland online “wholly unacceptable”.

Read next: BBC pauses civil-service secondments in impartiality row · MPs back BBC licence fee charter review

More on this topic: all UK Broadband stories

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