BBC changes tack in bid for youth channel

The BBC's planned digital channel for youth has swapped triviality for sobriety in an attempt to win the Government's blessing.

After Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary, rejected the original plans for lacking distinctiveness in "an already crowded market", the BBC has raised the public service content for its revised submission.

The new proposed BBC3, which would replace the existing BBC Choice channel famed for EastEnders repeats, would still be aimed at viewers aged 25 to 34, which BBC research has identified as a "lost generation" who are not watching traditional news and current affairs. But it would boast at least 95 hours a year of current affairs, education and arts programmes.

BBC executives were shocked when Ms Jowell blocked their plans for BBC3 in September while sanctioning two equally controversial children's channels and a plan to turn the current BBC Knowledge into an arts and ideas channel, BBC4. They have since privately conceded that there was insufficient public service content in BBC3 to distinguish it from existing services such as Channel 4's entertainment channel, E4.

The BBC presented its new proposals to the Government earlier this week, and yesterday the Department for Culture, Media and Sport released them on its website. Consumers and the industry have until 25 January to let the Government know what they think.