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Exclusive: “Bringing BBC Three back to linear TV” would have been far down former BBC Director General Tony Hall’s list of predictions for his successor’s first major piece of business.

In 2014, having only just become Dg, Hall took the first forward-thinking decision of his own rein by making BBC Three a solely online channel, knocking a hefty £50M ($67.4M) from its budget (the money was diverted to drama) and acting ahead of the curve of the viewing habits of BBC Three’s younger target market, who were showing a greater propensity to watch programing on streaming platforms at a time of their choosing.

Fast-forward six years and Hall’s successor, Tim Davie, dramatically U-turned, giving the greenlight to a plan that had been in the works for several months and announcing that BBC Three was to return to traditional TV sets. Just as crucially, the channel would be given its £50M back.

Filmmaker Steve McQueen has revealed that he was about to boycott the BBC if the network had persisted in refusing to apologize for a reporter’s use of the N-word over the summer. During an interview with the Radio Times (via Deadline), McQueen was outraged when the BBC News channel took 12 days to apologize when its social affairs correspondent, Fiona Lamdin, used the epithet in reporting on a racially motivated hate attack that took place in July. Lamdin works for BBC news service Points West.

Following the use of the slur, the BBC stood by the remark, stating, “This was a story about a shocking unprovoked attack on a young black man. His family told the BBC about the racist language used by the attackers and wanted to see the full facts made public… A warning was given before this was reported. We are no longer running this version of...

Small Axe and 12 Years A Slave director Sir Steve McQueen has revealed that he was prepared to boycott the BBC if it had refused to apologize after a journalist used the N-word.

Speaking to the Radio Times, McQueen said he was incredulous after the BBC took 12 days to say sorry after social affairs correspondent Fiona Lamdin used the offensive word in describing a race hate attack during a report in July.

The BBC’s decision to stand by the remark prompted 18,656 complaints and the resignation of BBC Radio 1Xtra presenter Sideman. Former BBC director general Tony Hall did eventually step in, telling staff: “The BBC now accepts that we should have taken a different approach at the time of broadcast and we are very sorry for that.”

Reflecting on the matter, McQueen said: “That they didn’t react on the N-word is ridiculous… I can’t tell you what I did.

Demands for change and representation across the U.K.’s film and TV industry are being heard loud and clear, and opening doors and dialogue with the BBC, Netflix, Amazon, Working Title and Film 4.

As revealed by Variety, a recent open letter signed by more than 5,000 members of the U.K. industry called on gatekeepers to make “strategic commitments” to reshape the landscape and improve representation. It appears some of these gatekeepers have begun listening.

Nisha Parti, producer of “The Boy with the Topknot” and one of the organizers of the letter, tells Variety that the initiative garnered an “overwhelmingly positive response” across the industry, and calls have so far been arranged with the likes of BBC director of content Charlotte Moore and drama boss Piers Wenger, Film 4, Netflix, Working Title, and more.

“I feel really optimistic that the industry wants to help and that they are talking to me,...

Exclusive: The UK’s Bame TV Task Force has held talks with the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, and is preparing for meetings with Netflix and Amazon just days after publishing a letter demanding action on racial equality.

The group, which sprung up last month amid the Black Lives Matter movement, is lobbying for fundamental change in the television business to stamp out racism and improve representation for diverse storytellers on-screen.

They wrote to the government and all the major networks in the UK demanding action, and the letter gathered 1,200 signatures from industry influencers including former Doctor Who star Peter Capaldi and Charlie Covell, the showrunner on The End Of The F***ing World.

Deadline understands the group has already met with BBC director general Tony Hall, director of content Charlotte Moore, BBC Two controller Patrick Holland and June Sarpong, the public broadcaster’s diversity chief. Around the same time, the...

When eight years ago an internal crisis propelled the then head of BBC Worldwide, Tim Davie, into the job of acting BBC director general, he was criticized for not wearing a tie.

The criticism didn’t stick and Davie, now CEO of BBC Studios and director of global, is emerging as the favored candidate to replace Tony Hall, the outgoing director general, who announced his planned departure in late January.

Under ordinary circumstances, the announcement of Hall’s successor should have been imminent, but the coronavirus pandemic appears to have put the brakes on the recruitment process.

It is possible that headhunters may delay the search for the next head of the BBC still further owing to anxieties that the reported shortlist of four candidates includes only one woman.

Despite sounding out a number of senior women that run British broadcasters and London-based producers, including ITV’s Carolyn McCall, Channel 4...

Amazon’s UK boss Doug Gurr has emerged as a contender for the BBC director general role, but sources have told Deadline that the coronavirus crisis has complicated the broadcaster’s plans to have the best possible field of candidates.

The Guardian reported on Thursday that Gurr has joined a shortlist of candidates to succeed Tony Hall, although Amazon said it does not comment on “rumor and speculation” and the BBC also declined to comment. Gurr adds to an already known field of BBC Studios CEO Tim Davie, BBC director of content Charlotte Moore, and Will Lewis, the former Dow Jones CEO and Wall Street Journal publisher. Sources suggest there could be other contenders on the list.

It has taken more than three months to get this point and along the way, several high-profile individuals have counted themselves out of the process. Deadline revealed last month that Jay Hunt, Apple...

The coronavirus pandemic has led the BBC to reassess its long-term strategic plans, with the U.K. public broadcaster saying it will place even more emphasis on online viewing and younger viewers as a result.

Publishing its Annual Plan today, the BBC said the pandemic had led to a rapid acceleration of long-term trends toward online viewing and an increase in younger viewers tuning in to its services.

“We will need to accelerate the shift of spend across our video content, to provide more value for younger audiences and to support the growth of iPlayer,” said the BBC in its Annual Plan.

The broadcaster cited record-breaking usage of the BBC iPlayer video-on-demand platform during the pandemic. Since the U.K. lockdown was announced on March 23, BBC iPlayer has had nearly 1 billion requests – 61% higher than the same seven-week period last year.

The BBC says it has also improved its performance with...

The BBC will today confirm that it is considering reversing a decision to make its youth network BBC Three an online-only service following the runaway success of shows like Fleabag and Normal People.

The British broadcaster will set out its thinking on bringing BBC Three back to television in its annual plan — a document detailing its strategic objectives for the year ahead — after first signaling the idea back in March.

A BBC spokesperson said: “We’d be wrong not to back a service that is doing better than anyone could have ever conceived and reaching a wide audience.

“Our research suggests there is a big available audience on linear television, so we will consider the case for restoring BBC3 as a linear channel as well as an online destination, though no decisions have been taken and this will need to take into account how viewing habits develop during the Covid-19 crisis.

Major broadcasters, Pact, Coba and ITN fire starting gun on return to production.

A blueprint for getting TV production up and running has been unveiled as the industry attempts to get back to business.

The PSBs, Sky, Stv, Pact, Coba and ITN have joined forced to publish the detailed document, broken down into six key areas, which is designed to enable indies to re-enter production. It is designed as complementary to the high-end TV guidelines published by the British Film Commission earlier this month.

Titled TV Production Guidance: Managing the Risk of Covid-19 in Production Making, it provides suggestions for producers across travel,...

British broadcasters and producers have joined forces to publish coronavirus safety guidelines for TV production.

The 15-page document (which can be viewed in full here) is the work of the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, ViacomCBS, Sky, Pact and others, and is designed to supplement protocols that will be published by the British Film Commission.

It follows the government green-lighting a return to production last week, meaning that shows shut down by the Covid-19 pandemic — such as BBC drama Line Of Duty — can theoretically begin shooting again.

The guidelines state that producers and broadcasters must make provisions in six areas before commencing production on television projects across all genres. These include:

Specifically consider people at higher risk of harm Heighten safety precautions for everyone at work Reduce the number of people involved in shoots Consider on-camera requirements, such as changing scripts to encourage social distancing Consider mental health and wellbeing of...

U.K. broadcasters have published a 15-page set of industry guidelines for TV production to get back up and running safely.

The measures have been set out to provide a framework for producers to help them risk assess before going into production.

ITV, BBC, Sky, Channel 4, Channel 5, Stv, ITN, the Association for Commercial Broadcasters and On-Demand Services (Coba) and U.K. producers trade body Pact joined forces to introduce the new industry-wide guidelines for producing television safely.

Titled “TV Production Guidance: Managing the risk of Coronavirus (Covid-19) in Production Making,” the guidance covers the broad range and scale of all TV programme making in every genre for TV.

The guidance is complementary to protocols being developed by the British Film Commission on managing the risks associated with film and high-end TV drama production.

The guidance details six areas that producers, in conjunction with the commissioning broadcaster, must consider...