BBC Four & CBBC to close

[Rex]

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bbc4-...-7pn7qwzjq

BBC4 is at risk as the corporation scrambles to plug a £1.5 billion funding gap after the licence fee was frozen for two years.

Several BBC sources have said that the highbrow channel, which shows arts programmes and foreign dramas and was once home to comedy shows including The Thick Of It and Detectorists, cannot survive another round of cuts.

BBC4 has been under threat for years but instead of closing the channel and risking an audience backlash, the BBC has repositioned it as an archive service. Nearly 90 per cent of its schedule comprises repeats. “In a world where you’ve got to make tough choices, it has started to stick out like a sore thumb,” one BBC insider said. Another said: “I’m not sure how it will survive.”

It would be a shame to see BBC Four go but it's been completely neutered with a lower budget, the fact that its original programmes have all gone to BBC Two, and BBC Three taking back overflow programming that Four used to air