BBCi / Press Red

I don't know how long this has been the case, so sorry if it's old news, but I notice that the BBCi logo on the split-screen text service on Sky has been replaced with just a BBC one.

I also notice on trails, the BBCi name seems to be being dropped in favour of just 'Red Button'.

Is the BBCi name being phased out?

I noticed this too, seems a bit silly after building up the BBCi brand for the last 7 years, then again that didn't stop the axe falling on News24.

I wonder what the chances are of the digital text pages now being rebranded as Ceefax?

The BBC Weather endboards have been pushing "Red button page 400" for a few weeks now (instead of "BBCi page 400", and the "red button" keeps popping up on the Olympic promos, too.

A strange decision, but then I never really thought the "BBCi" brand caught on anyway.

Wouldn't surprise me at all, though I personally do think the BBCi brand has established itself and sounds a lot better than just "Red Button" or whatever.

Interactive TV seems to have passed it's peak now and things are being scaled back so it's done on the cheap.

The Olympics service this year for example - OK, got the extra video stream but rather than a dedicated text service we have a second rate service integrated within the main sports pages. Now, although integrating the sports pages into the Sport Interactive service was long overdue, the text service for the event itself now seems to have less content and be alot less user friendly too.

I never liked the name BBCi to be honest.

"Press red" makes it more clear for those new to digital tv exactly where the service can be found.

Which while it might have made sense a few years ago - but now considering people are more than used to it, and 85%+ already have digital, why change it?

I'm fed up of recognised branding being ditched in favour of things which state the bloody obvious.

I think the problem was that BBCi was the umbrella name for the website and interactive services.

I wonder how many people when hearing a reference to BBCi still assume they're talking about the website.

I suppose the reasoning, behind this as some less tech savoy people amongst, the audience, may confuse BBCi and the BBC iPlayer.

Is it really as high as 85%? That's a surprise.

Nevertheless, I expect those who haven't yet made the leap are some of the older audience (my 95 year old grandmother is one); and they're probably clueless as to what "interactive" is all about.

I wouldn't have said BBCi was a very successful name, especially after they used it for bbc.co.uk then changed it.

All a bit confusing, I thought.

I'd have thought that would be even more a reason to keep it, especially as they've pledged to look at getting some sort of iPlayer available via Digital TV too, and through cable I believe that is through the red button.


Channel 4 have done something as stupid with their on demand offering. Although the 4oD application still exists, they've named the new browser version just "channel4.com/watchonline" - which is rather dull and unimaginative, and IMO if you're looking for the URL without seeing it advertised, probably less likely to stick in your mind than "4oD".

Yes it is on cable, but its not a very good interface. I can't find a damned thing on it if I look through "genres", so I have to use the search function. Took me ages to explain that to my mum - as she couldn't find Doctor Who on it.

Think I preferred the original Virgin interface.



Yes, I found that odd as well, but watchonline offer the streams as opposed to the downloads.

An unnecessary confusion I think.

At one point "BBCi" was the brand for interactive TV, digital text (which is now kind of lumped in with interactive TV), online etc.

This actually caused quite a few issues - as different outlets had the same name, so you always had to say "BBCi on the web" or "BBCi on digital TV" rather than just "BBCi" (as people wouldn't know which outlet they needed to go to)

I think interactive TV was the last bit to still be branded "BBCi"...

"Press Red" does what it says on the tin - though it presumably should really be "BBC Press Red" - to retain the BBC brand?