BBC plans millennial makeover of flagship shows to entice young away from Youtube

BBC favourites including Masterchef and Casualty are to feature more millennials as the corporation tries to add youth appeal to its flagship channels.

In its annual plan, the BBC said it would be “focusing on young-appeal programmes and genres on BBC One and BBC Two”.

It will be “reinvigorating high-volume shows which provide everyday value to younger audiences, such as Eastenders, The One Show, Masterchef, Holby and Casualty”.

For dramas, this will involve storylines that reflect the experience of young people.

The BBC singled out a recent Eastenders plot that centred on knife crime, and a focus on male mental health in Holby City. In factual programming, it will mean more contributors in the prized 16-34 age bracket.

The average age of a BBC One viewer is 61. It is a year older for BBC Two.

Recent research from Ofcom found that one in eight young people consume no BBC content in a given week, with US streaming services and Youtube eating into their audience.

The annual plan states that the BBC must “refresh our content across all genres and all platforms to appeal to younger audiences”.

The document contains 83 references to the “young” and only a handful of references to older viewers and listeners, many of them regarding the future of free licences for the over-75s.

Changes have begun already on BBC One, where the Ten O’clock News been shortened to make way for a 10.35pm Monday-wednesday slot aimed at younger viewers.

It is currently showing Fleabag, the acclaimed comedy, a dating show called Eating with My Ex, and Glow Up,

‘A lack of response to the [shifts] in the media market inhibits the BBC’S ability to serve [younger] audiences’

a make-up competition hosted by Stacey Dooley.

Sir David Clementi, chairman of the BBC board, said upgrades to iplayer and the creation of a new video-on-demand service, Britbox, were being held up by red tape.

He said: “Every month that goes by without a response to the [shifts] in the media market inhibits the BBC’S ability to serve [younger] audiences properly.”