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Its been confirmed by reliable sources that BBC CHOICE Northern Ireland, the corporation's third channel on this island, will close on Friday 30th March 2001 at midnight (along with its sister services for Wales and Scotland). The channel provided two hours of local programming each day from 10-12pm, including a half-hour Newsline bulitten at 10pm, alongside extra BBC SPORT Northern Ireland programmes such as The Championship Extra. What was unique about CHOICE NI was that it could be recieved accross the UK (though oddly not in the Republic of Ireland - unless it makes an appearence in its final week!). It allowed NI ex-pats in Great Britain to catch up on news from this side of the Irish sea. (Alas, they will now have to go to RTE pay channel TaraTV for that).

The channel is to be temporarily replaced by BBC CHOICE from 31st March (which will move from #964 to #160 on Sky Digital). This will be followed by BBC THREE on a permanent basis from late this year / early next year. BBC THREE will be the new youth / comedy channel from the BBC. Meanwhile a lot of the ex-CHOICE NI programmes are set to turn up on a new "Digital Zone" on BBC TWO NI from the Autumn, according to a BBC Northern Ireland staff member's posts on the Media UK forum. BBC TWO NI is to be available on SkyDigital in Northern Ireland (and probably also the Republic of Ireland) and other digital platforms from April 30th, utlising the bandwith relinquished by BBC CHOICE's three national regions which are closing down.

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