The comedian Steve Coogan, and his independent TV production company Baby Cow, have backed Jimmy Mulville and Jon Thoday’s bid to buy BBC3.
Coogan’s support will be one of the central planks of a letter to be sent on Wednesday by Thoday and Mulville to Danny Cohen, the BBC’s director of television.
In an open letter to the two independent producers last week, Cohen set out the reasons why he has said that BBC3 is not for sale.
“We are pleased to report that Steve Coogan and Henry Normal, whose company Baby Cow produced Gavin and Stacey and The Mighty Boosh – two of BBC3’s biggest hits – have agreed to support the project,” Thoday and Mulville will say.
The letter will also display the mischievousness for which Thoday and Mulville are renowned in the TV industry, by challenging both Cohen and BBC director general Tony Hall to a debate on the future of BBC3.
“The subject should be ‘Is a reduced spend on younger viewers by the BBC avoidable and will BBC3 online succeed?’ We suggest this be broadcast live on BBC3,” Mulville and Thoday’s letter will say.
Cohen’s letter last week set out practical objections to the proposed sale, alongside an argument for the principle of reinventing the BBC3 brand online.
Mulville and Thoday’s letter will reply to three of the main objections: the BBC’s inability to license its brand commercially in the UK, the difficulties around BBC3’s electronic programme guides slot and broadcast spectrum, and programme rights.
“We believe, again with your cooperation, that a rebranded BBC3 would be a much better use of the spectrum than the BBC1+1 catch-up channel which BBC management is currently proposing, especially as under our plan there will an increase in original UK production spend of £30m,” the letter will say.
On the subject of rights, it goes on to say: “We are confident that our fellow independent producers would welcome the opportunity to continue to provide programming for a linear television channel rather than see their work struggle for viewers on a much-diminished online platform.”
And on rebranding, it will argue that: “There is a clear and recent precedent; one of the BBC’s own commercial channels was very successfully rebranded to Dave. We have not found anyone who can remember what it was called prior to this.”
The letter will also indicate that Mulville and Thoday are prepared for a long fight. “We realise that you completely disagree with our position and have made it clear that BBC3 has little value and is not for sale,” it will say. “However we consider this issue to be so important that we are not going to give up.”
