SW
That's not entirely accurate because at other times in the past there has been a uniform look for all news bulletins. The Chinese Lantern look in 1981 was taken across all the bulletins, they had slightly amended title sequences - the Evening News had the 5.40 clockface, the Nine the big "9" - but all had the same theme tune and basic set. Before that in the seventies there was a period when the Nine O'Clock News had its own set and graphics but by the end of the decade it was very similar to all the other bulletins, with the same presenters. Indeed in the seventies there were no specific presenters for each bulletin, whoever was on duty would do all the bulletins in their shift, at whatever time of the day.
So the Six O'Clock News in 1984 was very much the exception with its own unique titles, theme tune and set. One of the reasons was that was the case, I'm sure, is because it was replacing the teatime current affairs shows like Nationwide and Sixty Minutes and the current affairs department contributed to it. Presumably the idea was that by giving it its own unique look, it told the viewers that it was going to be more than just The News (indeed, the Radio Times billing for the first one goes on for ages in explaining what it's going to do) and told the current affairs department it wasn't them just being merged into the news but a brand new programme they were going to play an equal role in.
When the Nine and Six were revamped they too got their own unique look, presumably because the Six now had one. But nowadays it's considered more important to emphasise the fact they're all part of BBC News, and I think that's entirely right. There are enough differences in the running orders of the individual bulletins to differentiate them.
Back in the 1970s, 1980s and even the 90s ITN and the BBC had different looks, music and sets for each news programme. Then in 1993 for the BBC and 1999 for ITN a uniform look come in to cover all news bulletins.
That's not entirely accurate because at other times in the past there has been a uniform look for all news bulletins. The Chinese Lantern look in 1981 was taken across all the bulletins, they had slightly amended title sequences - the Evening News had the 5.40 clockface, the Nine the big "9" - but all had the same theme tune and basic set. Before that in the seventies there was a period when the Nine O'Clock News had its own set and graphics but by the end of the decade it was very similar to all the other bulletins, with the same presenters. Indeed in the seventies there were no specific presenters for each bulletin, whoever was on duty would do all the bulletins in their shift, at whatever time of the day.
So the Six O'Clock News in 1984 was very much the exception with its own unique titles, theme tune and set. One of the reasons was that was the case, I'm sure, is because it was replacing the teatime current affairs shows like Nationwide and Sixty Minutes and the current affairs department contributed to it. Presumably the idea was that by giving it its own unique look, it told the viewers that it was going to be more than just The News (indeed, the Radio Times billing for the first one goes on for ages in explaining what it's going to do) and told the current affairs department it wasn't them just being merged into the news but a brand new programme they were going to play an equal role in.
When the Nine and Six were revamped they too got their own unique look, presumably because the Six now had one. But nowadays it's considered more important to emphasise the fact they're all part of BBC News, and I think that's entirely right. There are enough differences in the running orders of the individual bulletins to differentiate them.