The BBC saw a drop of almost 20% in younger viewers to its TV channels in the months after shutting the youth-focused BBC3, according to commercial rivals.

TV marketing body Thinkbox, which has shareholders including ITV, Sky, Channel 4 and UKTV, conducted an analysis of total viewing in the period from March to May.

This time period was chosen to reflect TV viewing after the BBC3 TV channel was closed in February but before the start of Euro 2016 in June, to keep a reasonable year-on-year comparison.

According to the figures viewing across all the BBC’s broadcast TV channels – including viewing up to a week from first broadcast on catch-up services but not devices such as tablets and mobiles – showed that the 16- to 34-year-old audience declined by 18%.

This younger audience was BBC3’s core audience; the BBC Trust had warned the corporation before it moved to take the channel online-only that as many as 750,000 viewers who use no other BBC TV service could be lost.

Commercial TV companies say they have benefited from TV viewing since BBC3’s closure with more youth-focused rivals ITV2 and E4 experiencing uplifts.



ITV2 has been boosted by snapping up shows such as former BBC3 programmes Family Guy and American Dad, and having a strong second series of Love Island.

E4 has ratings stalwart Big Bang Theory and has seen good showings by programmes including comedy Brooklyn Nine Nine and Tattoo Fixers.

Overall the BBC’s total broadcast TV viewing for the period analysed fell by 8%.

BBC3’s focus is no longer linear TV, although some shows do air on BBC1 and BBC2, instead focusing on online viewing.

However, figures show that overall iPlayer viewing has remained almost flat year on year.

According to the BBC’s own iPlayer performance pack the combined number of iPlayer requests for TV shows was 673m across March, April and May 2015, and slightly down at 656m in the same period this year.

BBC3 is now about taking creative risks, its controller Damian Kavanagh has said, and shows such as groundbreaking kidnap thriller Thirteen.



Thirteen has proved to be the single most popular show on the iPlayer this year, with about 3m requests, beating the England v Wales Euro 2016 clash at 2.8m.



The BBC claims that the BBC3 shift online, where increasing numbers of its young audience prefer to watch shows, has been a success.



Before the closure of the TV channel and the focus online BBC3 shows accounted for about 4% of total iPlayer requests. Now they account for about 11%.



“TV is thriving on all screens, but the importance of TV channels on TV sets cannot be overlooked,” said Matt Hill, research and planning director at Thinkbox.



“They remain the first port of call for the majority of people of all ages. The apparent boost that commercial TV has received from BBC3’s disappearance from the schedules underlines this fact – a strategy that is in stark contrast to the imminent arrival of Viceland on commercial TV.”