Will there be a BBC1 Rebrand?

As much as I'd like to see BBC One get a fresh look (a mock on here a few years back during the dancers era based on red glass cubes around London was very nice, especially the clock design), I'd divert any brand funding first to BBC Two, who needs it the most.

BBC Two is quickly becoming worthless. And it's worrying. Unfortunately BBC Two has split into BBC Three and BBC Four. What can they do now that all that content has gone? Not sport, because it's gradually disappearing from the BBC. Not children's, because they have their own channels. And nothing else because as soon as it gets popular it gets moved to BBC One anyway. Yet they still cancel shows like Whites (still annoyed about that really). What is going on at that channel?

BBC two is getting worse by 2014 with all daytime stuff going out the window aswell, with it become a repeat channel.
It time we have a proper looked BBC two and maybe force join it back with BBC four? BBC two logo has not change just like Ch4 its just the backgrounds have and there poor!

I have thought about that, but BBC Two and Four did co-exist quite well until a couple of years ago. I'm not sure what's happened really.

I would never argue for BBC Three to be closed or merged. Whilst I don't watch it personally, and preferred BBC Choice for the most part, I think the BBC obviously needs a youth channel, with what little youth content it has left on the other channels.

It's hard to argue for the closing or merging of any channel really, CBBC, CBeebies, even Parliament with its low figures is a key asset to our democracy. BBC Two and Four could be merged but there would be quite a lot of big consequences, I think. Again, BBC Two is planning to repeat Four shows anyway, so who knows, maybe it could get bigger audiences. Shows like the Screen/news/end of year wipe shows from Charlie Brooker and Road to Coronation Street.

A mini-rebrand is underway in NI at the moment, marking the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic.

Currently one trail is on air, starting with a special version of the BBC NI logo made out of steel and ending with a hand drawn BBC One caption with the programme info on it.

I know in most part it's the content that matters, but the 1991 refresh (in which viewers' positive perceptions of BBC Two increased despite the content staying the same), demonstrates that branding plays a part too.

Compared to the 1991 bunch, the 2001 robots 2s were unpopular, but they said more about the channel than this bunch. Unless you were told, nobody would get the 'window on the world' aspect and to most they're just 2s in random places. The robot 2s were quirky and that often reflected the channel's output; something different from its bigger brother.

Content wise, there used to be a lot more comedy on BBC Two I think, such as Dead Ringers (although isn't all the comedy that would have been commissioned for BBC Four supposed to be moving to Two?). I rarely watch BBC Two anymore (apart from Top Gear) and find myself wandering to BBC Four more often, which is a shame given BBC Two's history.

Maybe BBC three should start an hour early at 6pm and try and introduce a few more youth/tenagers shows from 6pm -8pm with more three content from 8pm - midnight with the EastEnders repeat moving to BBC two at 10pm, to free up the slots for more content, and THEN from 1am there could repeat some of the programmes.

I would close Cbbc channel at 6pm. I remember BBC two had a great mix of show at 6pm - 7.30pm, the Simpson, Robot wars, buffy, the simpsons, fresh prince, heartbreak high, Thunderbirds, Ren and stimpy.

I hold BBC four in much higher regrade then Two, Two really has nothing special on it bar News night

That would be madness - BBC3 struggles enough as it is with pre-watershed content, so giving them an extra hour at the expense of CBBC would be madness. If anything it should be the other way round - although talk of CBBC extending it's hours has gone quiet now.

I agree the future of BBC2 isn't looking great - they've all but been reduced to a 6-11.20pm channel at the moment. As for the branding - I'd agree it is more in need of it than BBC1, but to be honest I think they could get away with keeping the idents - it's the endboards etc. which look really tacky at the moment and are really at odds with the more arty idents. We only need to look back to Christmas to see how much better the channel looks without the hot pink and fluorescent yellow.


BBC1 could probably get away aswell with keeping the idents and just updating everything else in the package, which would freshen things up a bit. After all that is all that C4 did a couple of years back and it freshened things up a bit - and it is something ITV have done numerous times over the years too.

How much did it cost to spin a mechanical globe for a few seconds?

If BBC Two were rebranding, we'd have heard by now - so the time has passed. It seems we are stuck with these for the long haul.

By and large, I still haven't connected with this identity like those before, proving a bigger budget does not equal a better identity.

Maybe it was actually part of the problem; I wonder if the results may have been better without so much use of CG, or the overseas filming? Especially with the former, which has allowed 'generic' ident ideas to become quite surreal and detached. Even as late as 2005, I could not have envisaged an ident as horridly out of place as 'Lawn Circles' in my most warped nightmares.

A lot of this set has tilted more toward an extensively edited, slick and commercial style of production & direction, which I still feel does not work for BBC One.

Whereas with, for example, 'Capoeira' and 'English 14' respectively from two eras previous, they are straight live action, with some superbly judged direction. And another plus - especially for the London viewers there - the identifiable backdrops in both; prominence of well-known (and lesser-known) British landscapes or skylines really defined the sequences as 'BBC' but can also be an expression of pride. This attribute came through very strongly in the Balloon era, one of the key reasons for its success, but sadly this has now been all but lost.

If it was to rebrand now, it would be on a shoestring, if that. The money isn't there. They'd probably have to make-do with scraps, what would they do? Dig up some old rotating model, plonk a camera in front of it and cut to it live before every programme...?

At least that had some gravitas - the current lot are sorely lacking and frankly, the R&M era trumps them again. Once upon a time, I'd have thought that impossible - but it just goes to show how far out of alignment things have moved.

A new identity is definitely needed; something more down to earth and real, to restore some pride - something that genuinely says 'This is BBC One'.

I say this every time this topic comes up, but I really think they should just go back to the masters of the 1997 presentation, rework it with the new BBC One logo and get it out. It's been gone long enough to look fresh again.

Same with BBC Two.

Except the shots are now very outdated such as the London Docklands ident.

I'd also like to see them shoot new balloon idents, perhaps with a white and red balloon though instead of yellow and red, and for the end board to always have the balloon the same size, in the centre, with the round BBC one logo overlaid.

Those idents had the ability to introduce any programme correctly, whether it's a sombre breaking news announcement over a sunset, or introducing The Voice with a street carnival. Nothing I've seen the BBC do has matched that since.