BBC News - Presentation Identity

In 1999 and in 2008 when the last big rebrands happened, you had Local News - Regional News - National News - and World News. In 2013 the same branding was re-rendered in HD and refreshed slightly with on-screen graphics, sets, and Music

Now there would be more to consider with a refreshed identity including, Global News services like BBC Mundo, Turkey, An Lá. Global News channels like BBC Arabic, BBC Persian. BBC News Online along with social media video content.

Doing it all in house would be do-able, but with so many outlets and audiences to consider, bringing in an outside agency would probably make more sense, but that does cost money. At a time where the BBC is under attack and pressure.

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I think the brand and identity does need refreshing. BBC Reith Serif will be a very visible change and that will help it stand out where other UK news agencies avoid Serif fonts.

But does it make sense to ditch aspects of the branding that has stuck since 1999, now synonymous with BBC News. It could reduce recognition, potentially alienate viewers. To consider these kinds of changes, would require focus groups and in-depth research as was done in 99. Look at how people see BBC News, and decide how they would like to be seen.

The more involved a rebrand becomes, the more it costs, and the more the BBC would have to defend itself from critics. Maybe after Brexit, they could cite a need to strengthen a British brand abroad, and to compete against larger news sources.

What stands out more?







This is how you can prove that look is great:
https://youtu.be/-IqfTJxj9sg?t=27

I don’t accept that it would be as big a job as is being made out. What does make it a bigger job than it needs to be however is the lack of ownership by one person or team to drive it through, and the multitude of fiefdoms who make up particularly the nations and regions. When the next refresh occurs, whenever that may be, it needs to be strictly enforced.

The infrastructure is broadly there to make it easier to change than in the past. Sets have become full of screens and lighting that are easy to change to match branding. What they really should do over time is follow the ITV approach of matching (but easy to update) sets in regions rather than the often poor interpretations of the national look.

The technology now should mean that updates are easier now than in the past - you only need to look at YouTube to see that it is easier than it has ever been to produce professional-looking graphics with the most basic of facilities.

Rolling out a change once a new branding package has been designed, will be easier now for sure. And rehearsals with new graphics packages, shouldn't take as long.

Researching, Concepting, Designing and Developing those new graphics, titles, etc is what will take the time, and money. And then syncing up the roll-out among the various overseas production facilities, as well as domestic ones is also a consideration based on news schedules, manpower.

Set changes could be minor, depending on how big the changes to how they present the news will be.

I wonder if the BBC would be daring enough to ditch the desk completely? In the Netherlands, the NOS did away with sitting down a few years ago, with presenters now standing up for all bulletins. There's also a lot of walking around, which I guess some may not be so keen on?





I always liked what the VRT in Belgium used to do, which was to give each bulletin a different colour, whilst still maintaining a strong, cohesive brand. Sadly, they did away with this device a couple of years ago. The video below is of their (sublime, IMO) 2008 look:

I do think people are being optimistic that this would happen in the short term. The state of the presentation of their three main channels shows that there isn't really the team or the money behind rebranding like there used to be. Even if there is, like has already been mentioned, the BBC will be under a lot more scrutiny if they do any rebrand - the public and press do seem to struggle to realise that the cost might seem high but forget/ignore that cost would be split over many years so it ends up being good value for money. Even though some would like a rebrand of the news, I would say their mainstream channels are the thing that is most in need of a rebrand.

I wouldn't say the current package is that tired as such. At the end of the day, sometimes you need to consider 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' - I don't think the BBC bulletins have suffered in terms of ratings or public trust so the management at the BBC probably aren't even considering throwing much money at it. I know we're presentation fans, but I think we will have to get adjusted to the fact that presentation won't be updated as often as we'd like it to be anymore. That isn't an excuse for some of the shoddy, cheap examples like we seem to see on screen lately, but times have changed. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised that the BBC Sport rebrand (well, the bits that they've done of it) is smart, professional and looks like time, effort and thought has properly gone into it.

I think the biggest problem is that there doesn't seem to be a clear team or strategy that either pushes any branding out thoroughly, helps to develop it properly, train teams or to enforce its consistency at the BBC. Three recent examples are the use of BBC Reith (which despite some people defending it, I personally believe is taking way too long to roll out), the BBC Sport rebrand (the fact that the new template still hasn't been properly rolled out to all of their coverage and the regions by now is ridiculous) and BBC Parliament (rebranded idents and trailers but having graphics that match BBC News and with the old logo - all seems a bit pointless!).

When they do get round to refreshing/rebranding it, I do hope it's given the attention it deserves. Otherwise, it will be a mess. I do think it's testament to the strength of the branding that it's still being used after ten years of very minor tweaks but it probably is low on the list of rebranding/refreshing priorities at the BBC.

The BBC News branding, with titles and idents - have been in use for 10 years. The on-screen straps and presentation elements are 5 years old.

CNN and Sky News have taken on the White and Red colour palette that the BBC adopted in 2008.

There is a big change coming to typefaces, so I think there is a real scope and need to address how they stand out among their competitors, and provide a visually interesting, and unique visual identity.





This is the only ideas we have seen for what may be coming.

Those images are certainly the sort of direction they should be going in. They’re all website designs though. I hope something similar is being drawn up for TV.

James Mobbs mentioned something on Twitter


https://twitter.com/jamesmobbs/status/1002998848090976256?s=20

I know this is a minor thing, but my biggest gripe with the current BBC News look are the over the shoulder or catwalk screen graphics that always seem to have to be a randomly animated assembly of text and red blocks.

As I understand it, a fairly big revamp of BBC News on screen look is coming within the next year or so. I don't think the titles are changing that much but astons, graphics and Viz templates are all going to be redesigned. I know no more than that, though.

What, they might actually fix the News channel long titles which don't fit the music properly?