BBC Nations

Why is it that BBC N. Ireland's production values on trailers always seem to fall short of their Scottish and Welsh counterparts?

Over Christmas, BBC Two NI had a rather untidy looking still version of the festive animating purple box logo on their trailers and idents. BBC Two Scotland and BBC Two Wales appeared to be able to produce their own fully animating versions.

On BBC One promos, we have the 'Northern Ireland' identifier faded up over a Network version of the trail, rather than having it animate on screen with the main 'BBC One' logo in the same style as the logo used on the idents; again, Scotland and Wales seem to be able to manage to get this right. We also have the 'Northern Ireland' text stretching way out beyond the 'BBC One' logo above it, leaving the overall channel logo well off centre on trails and only slightly better on idents. Why on earth didn't they simply abbreviate it to 'N. Ireland'?

Mike. I've replied to this in PM; but thanks for the public vote of confidence.

Mark - this is not intended as an attack on individuals, more the policies or resourcing issues that BBC N. Ireland seem quite happy to operate with. Personally, I find it frustrating that the unit with quite possibly some of the most enthusiastic and creative presentation personnel within the Corporation have to work within what appear to be quite restrictive parameters.

Mark (as in si), I seem to recall you mentioning that Northern Ireland has an older playout system than the other regions.

If so, when would it be scheduled to be replaced or are they not bothering incase HD gets the goahead therefore saving a needless upgrade

Our present playout equipment is the same as that used in the other Nations; we're in the process of moving to brand new kit which is similar to that used in the Broadcast Centre. The biggest step forward for us will be in terms of graphic capability.

I realy like BBC NI.I much prefer it to BBC Scotland .There is something about NI accent .I heard a male announcer say on BBC NI the other day nai or nowwwwwwwwie on BBC One Northern Ireland i love it when they say NOWWWWWWWWWWWW .

I think a valid point is made here - some caps to illustrate would be nice.

Surely if they can't do them themselves, a complete version of the ident could be provided from the network of something - or just play out the network BBC One idents - which though it might upset some nationalists, from a presentation point of view looks better than a cut and paste local effort.


Moving from the nations to the regions, not really seen any local idents or trailers in the new look to comment, but certainly in the previous look the trailers at least looked like they were recreations of the original look done by someone who wouldn't even get rated on the mocks forum, rather than professional looking efforts to match in with the rest of the channel.

The idents are 100% correctly branded. You might want to watch before you comment.

On network BBC TWO trails?

Scotland's animated logo was probably only on trails for local programmes; however, I'm pretty certain BBC Two Wales had a locally branded, animating logo on their version of Network-originated trails.

Whether or not BBC Scotland and Wales managed to produce the animated festive logo on their own versions of Network trails is besides the point. BBC Northern Ireland had that still version on Network-originated trails AND local trails, which I found rather disappointing.

I find this particularly annoying given the fact that BBC Scotland has a very patchy presence on BBC Two. Here we have an outfit that nine times out of ten, allows Network-branded trails and idents through, yet they appear to have the ability to produce (animating) graphics to the same extent that London does.

I also recall similar problems the first year we had an animating BBC One logo box at Christmas. BBC NI had a dreadful green effect on the white text.

Whilst I fully appreciate that staff are working around the limitations of the equipment they have, I just find it ludicrous that a unit that puts so much effort into its presentation has to endure such a handicap whilst a similar department in another part of the country, with what appears to be only a fraction of the enthusiasm/commitment, has such flexible technical gear available to it. If I'm being totally honest, it was BBC Scotland's ability to produce the animation that fuelled my initially mild annoyance at BBC NI.

BBC Northern Ireland is also available to the vast majority of television viewers in the ROI; the 'real' audience catchment for BBC NI would therefore be on a par with BBC Scotland, I would have thought? I'm not sure how evenly budgets are distributed for NI, Scotland and Wales (or whether audience catchment area is considered) for this type of thing but for years I have always been left with the impression that BBC NI is the poor relation.

Don't disagree. However, my personal view on this is that the regional identifier needs to be assessed in terms of the overall logo/graphic. In an ideal world, the generic logo should allow for the full regional title. However, as we saw with the red box logo, it was not possible to include the title 'Northern Ireland' in its entirety, hence 'NI'.

In the context of the new 'BBC One' logo, I believe that an alternative abbreviation, such as 'N Ireland', would have been appropriate. The existing 'Northern Ireland' legend extends well beyond the main part of the logo directly above it, particularly on trails, thus leaving the regional logo well off centre.

I'll no doubt be told that the vast majority of viewers won't care about this, just as they probably won't care how the 'Northern Ireland' identifier is added on trails. But, if a job's worth doing...

Why are you taking this thread as a personal attack - I opened my post by requesting caps.