BBC3 controller Danny Cohen has promised that BBC3 will pick up where the now cancelled South Bank Show left off, and pledges that the channel will provide more innovative arts programming. Cohen was speaking at the launch of BBC3's winter/spring season when he explained that he'd like to feature shows with more radical content, in the same vein as 'Ballet Boyz – the Rite Of Spring', screened in December last year, which attracted an audience of around 200,000. He said of the show: "It was never going to get millions, but we were really happy with it and we want to keep doing innovative arts programmes".

There have been fears in the arts community of late that arts coverage on terrestrial TV might decline with the removal of the South Bank Show from ITV schedules, and a downsized ITV arts department, fears further exacerbated by the departure from Channel 4 of Jan Younghusband, former head of arts and performance, who has now joined the BBC.

Cohen says that Younghusband's appointment is a good thing for the BBC, however, and a sign that the BBC takes the genre seriously. "Jan Younghusband is an amazing woman and does some of the most interesting work in that area - so there is a real signal of intent by hiring her", he said. "Not only are we going to be doing [arts programmes], but Jan does it in such a stylish and interesting and fresh way. I don't think there is anyone quite like her".