BBC Sport - new graphics (Reith font)

It could do if it wanted to, but it would cause issues. When promoting content across both BBC One Northern Ireland and BBC Two Northern Ireland (which occasionally happens on trails, and regularly happens on credit squeezes)... which channel would you ascribe the "Northern Ireland" to?

Personally, I preferred the 'NI' branding on BBC One and BBC Two. What they have at the moment just looks a mess.

As you say, it's been many years since the Sport dept was referred to as BBC Sport Northern Ireland. When the NI branding first came in, the original logo was a bit of a mess. Even the updated version was a botched job, with the 'NI' letter height matching neither the 'BBC' or the 'SPORT'.

I quite like the new BBC Sport NI logo though - as shown in that earlier screengrab. Inverting the colours for the regional identifier - the full width of the box - looks so much better. Quite nice looking. Unlike that horrid BBC News NI logo, with the large 'NI'.

But if you think the BBC Sport logo looks rather small on the new name straps on the national sport programmes, take a gander at Final Score Northern Ireland next Saturday. The BBC Sport NI logo is simply not legible. It just doesn't work. That programme has a rather nice virtual set though.

If it is a Northern Ireland trail, it wouldn't be referring to anything other than the NI variations. And wouldn't be seen by anyone other than a NI audience.

But they could have a Northern Ireland logo at the bottom of the screen, and just use the normal BBC logos everywhere else.

I have to agree with you on all those points. Though for BBC ONE I think NI would work best on the box version of the logo, it would be rather lost on the boxless lower 3rd and centre screen versions.

For viewers in Northern Ireland the output of BBC One Northern Ireland isn't a variation, it's the channel itself. Likewise, the BBC One Northern Ireland logo is the normal logo for the channel.

Very well said.

I didn't realise BBC One Northern Ireland and BBC One NI were the same thing. I thought BBC One NI was for the knights who say "ni"?

A SHRUBBERY!!

Yep, sadly there's not much that can be done with the boxless BBC One Northern Ireland logo. An 'NI' wouldn't work very well there, as you say. The fact that we ended up with a logo as hideous as that just goes to show the lack of consideration for the regional brands during the design process for that logo. From a design perspective, the BBC One Northern Ireland boxless logo is very poor - particularly the lower third. We've just had to get used to it and accept it.

Indeed. And I'd go a step further and say long may the BBC continue with regional branding and continuity in the Nations and a firm commitment to quality, local programming. Culturally, each of the Nations are quite different and fully deserve to have their own respective versions of the main BBC channel in particular. I would not like to see a day where we had vanilla BBC One across the whole country, with continuity played out from London, with no element of local identity.

I am not suggesting removing the name from all logos, from the voice over, or from Idents etc.

But indicating the entire trail is for Northern Ireland, or Scotland - and only displaying either the "one" or "BBC One" in such small positions on the screen.

So... you would have a co-channel trail pointing to Proms coverage on both BBC Two Northern and BBC Four... with on-screen branding consisting of BBC Two and BBC Four logos, plus a "Northern Ireland" lying by itself at the bottom of the screen?

From the perspective of a tourists to Northern Ireland, watching TV in their hotel room... what would they imagine the "Northern Ireland" is for? Would they know it was supposed to be attached to the BBC Two? Might they initially think it should go with the BBC Four? Or perhaps they'll look at it and wonder if the concert is taking place somewhere near their hotel?