BBC3 flops again

The BBC's new £97million digital and satellite channel is still proving a turn-off, with a flagship show featuring Vinnie Jones watched by only 10,000.

Despite bringing in big names including Dom Joly and Johnny Vaughan, the latest figures show that BBC Three has failed to find viewers - winning only 0.7 per cent of the audience.

Ratings for a fly-on-the-wall documentary in April about ex-footballer turned movie star Jones, and seen as a ratings winner, struggled to reach five figures.

The channel - aimed at 16- to 34-year olds - has had few takers for its diet of comedy, chat and BBC1-2 repeats since its highly publicised launch in February.

But new viewing figures from BBC market research show the channel's 7pm News Show failing to register on the audience scale even during the Iraq war. On other days the audience fell to 1,000.

Channel controller Stuart Murphy admitted that BBC Three news "did not rate as well as it could have done" during the war.

"Our news is skewed towards our audience, so we talk about mortgages - 70 per cent have them - and drugs is a big issue. The bulletins have BBC news values: 1.4 million watch our news every week."

BBC Three has now unveiled a host of new shows designed to improve ratings including model Jerry Hall interviewing her ex-husband Mick Jagger.