Best BBC NEWS since 1999

What do you think has been the best BBC NEWS look since the 1999 re-brand

Definitely, without doubt, 100% 1999-2003. The amount of detail in the sets, titles and music was astonishing, and has never been replicated again.

Sets
Clean and simple. None of this bright white glass rubbish we have now which hurts your eyes after 10 minutes. The national studio looked spacious (despite actually being tiny), News 24 had a warm, cosy feel without all the unnecessary distraction of the newsroom behind the presenters. The original April 2000-August 2001 BBC World set was fairly good as well. It wasn't as cold and distracting as the current one is.

Idents
The beauty of that era was that BBC One, News 24 and World all had the BBC News beige and red colour scheme but each channel's idents were unique. Now, they are all identical which is a big shame. The level of detail in the idents was outstanding - right down to the pulsating rings and rotating city names on the beige background, only visible on TV (not visible in internet clips, sadly).

Music
Again, each channel had its own variation of BBC News music, yet they all linked in together. In 2007, they've gone down the easy route of having practically all the same music on all three channels.

Graphics
The graphics were simple, but did the job they were required to. No tickers and initially no red banners for breaking news. And, they weren't huge like the 2003-2007 ones.

So, I'm firmly behind the original 1999 look. The erosion began in 2003 and was made even worse in 2007. Some may argue that by all channels looking identical it strengthens the brand. I would agree to some extent. However, the brand was clearly identifiable pre-2003 despite each channel having its own unique presentation. I hope in the next refresh they put a bit more effort in and make the three channels look a little bit different from one another.

I honestly liked the 1997-1999 set. The new-at-the-time BBC logo made a boring, ugly graphics set look marvellous.

Before and After:
http://thetvroom.com/images-pool/018/main-128.jpghttp://thetvroom.com/images-pool/003-a/main-49.jpg
http://thetvroom.com/images-pool/051-a/main-65.jpghttp://thetvroom.com/images-pool/014-b/main-12.jpg
(From The TV Room)

I think the last time this came up fro the nationals people liked the Music from 1999, with the second version of the 99 set (the one with the dark light rig and red panels) but with the figure of 8 desk. But this IIRC was just before the 06 relaunch.

Yes, I agree. Those titles somehow seemed to improve by 600% when the new logo was placed on them. I think it was mainly because of the pure white, which seemed to blend in well with the daytime titles and looked quite bold against the evening set.

As for the music, there is only one set I love and probably always will - the 1993-9 themes. They were absolutely superb, especially the six.

Yes, I quite agree. From post-May 1999, my favourite look was the first one. However, my favourite BBC News look of all time is definitely the virtual era. As you said, the music was exceptional, especially the Six theme. If you get past the massive glass crest in the studio, the look was very plain and simple whilst also being authoritative. There weren't any flashy graphics which distract the attention of the viewer.

I agree, been trying to get hold of clean beds for ages!! I like the way they transitioned it through the lates 1980s versions and then onto the 1990s. I know there out there, but all I could find was this.....
BBC six beds

100% 1999-2003 for me too the only bad pard of that era was worlds pointles 10 second coundown.But the nationals/n24/world were generally great though i didnt think the 2002 world music was as good as the 1999 world music.I would say the current N6 is the worst national studio the 1999 was the best.

I suppose the first 15 seconds clean is better than nothing though. I was chuffed to bits when I found these. Incidentally, are these in Stereo, because I've got exactly the same one's but in mono?

And they are definitely out there. I contacted someone who posted these short samples a few weeks back and asked very nicely if he was willing to share. In return, I got a no in the form of some lovely abuse.

But I will never give up trying to get hold of them!

I think the 99 era set looked the best after they painted more red on it in December 2001, it looked less bland, yet gave it a more authoritative look to it.

I was never really annoyed by that. It was one of the rare times BBC's crest has been seen at all, and I was quite dissappointed when the crest wasn't used in the next set.

Thats my favorite look aswell if you look at the clip on youtube of huws behind the scenes whenthe camera spins areound dead fast in N6 you can see the new desk in nwraps wating to be installed.