History. 5 of 9. BBC Three in 2014, the BBC in 2022, DR in 2018, ABC in 2020 and NPO in 2025 moved a service online or merged it. The World Service in 2011 and ABC in 2014 only closed or cut, and two cases had no list.
Hunch. Brittin's own example on 25 September was moving a channel fully to iPlayer, the BBC's online service, rather than switching it off (BBC News, 25 Sep 2026).
The online-or-merge market resolves YES if, between 25 September 2026 and 31 October 2027, the BBC announces that a named channel, station or service will stop broadcasting while its programmes stay on iPlayer or BBC Sounds, or will merge with another BBC channel or service. A plain closure with no online home resolves NO for this market.
We looked for cases where the head of a large public broadcaster, after the government cut or froze its money, said in public that audiences would lose something: a channel, a station, a language service or a news bulletin. We then checked whether the broadcaster later named what would go. We found nine cases since 2010, and in seven a list of cuts followed. Four of the nine are the BBC. The other five are Denmark's DR, Australia's ABC twice, the Dutch NPO and Austria's ORF, which are paid for by a licence fee or by the state in a similar way.