BBC Four presenters are rallying to save the arts and culture channel which is rumoured to be facing closure as the corporation looks to cut costs and invest in younger audiences. Presenters including Lucy Worsley, art historian Dr James Fox, Oxford historian Dr Janina Ramirez and Waldemar Januszczak have taken to social media to campaign against widespread rumours that it could be shut as a TV channel by the end of this year. BBC Four, which has an annual budget of £44m, attracts a small, niche audience of mostly older viewers to its schedule of shows, although it was responsible for creating the hit comedy The Thick Of It. Rumours that BBC Four could be under threat have been circulating for some time as the corporation has made it clear that its goal is to pursue younger audiences increasingly slipping away to rivals such as Netflix. Speculation intensified earlier this month when it was announced that Cassian Harrison, BBC Four’s long-serving controller, is to move to BBC Studios, the corporation’s commercial arm, on a nine-month attachment. “There are no plans to close BBC Four,” said a BBC spokesman. However, there are several options available as an alternative to a full closure of the channel. One option, which has been floated a number of times over the years, is to merge BBC Four with BBC Two. Another is for BBC Four to follow sister channel BBC Three and cease to exist as a TV channel, instead becoming online-only. Earlier this year it emerged that the corporation’s bosses have discussed a return to TV for BBC Three, which moved online-only in 2016 as the corporation pursued its youth audience, which could replace the slot held by BBC Four in electronic programming guides. BBC Three has flourished during the coronavirus lockdown with youth drama Normal People fueling its best week ever. The corporation is in the process of making major cost cuts to plug a huge hole in its finances, including hundreds of millions of pounds to pay for the end of free TV licences for the over-75s. In addition, the BBC has said the coronavirus will cost it £125m as door-to-door enforcement activity stops and a call centre that handles payments shut down because of the lockdown and physical distancing rules. A decade ago a vocal campaign saved radio channel BBC 6 Music from closure after the then director general Mark Thompson looked to shut it, and digital sister station BBC Asian Network, to cut costs. The campaign raised awareness of the music station, which recorded its biggest-ever weekly audience, 2.56 million listeners, in the first quarter this year.