Is British style continuity unique?

AM

amosc100 29 April 2012 7:34am

I was thinking the other day, it's a shame that pre-programme producer idents were done away with in the UK - HBO has become one of the most recognised brands in quality entertainment despite having no direct presence outside the Americas.

But the British perception of HBO is totally different to what it actually is when you're in the US watching it. It's not a channel showing quality drama all day, it's basically a high-repeat Sky Movies with original programming for a few hours in the evening.

Well, over there the perception of the HBO brand is different to the perception of the HBO original programming, which I think is held in high regard. Over here the only exposure to the HBO brand is their original programming.

It strikes me as being significant that Sky Atlantic's main marketing strap-line was "the home of HBO" - would the HBO brand have meant anything over here without the front cap?

We have the HBO channel is Holland and, just like Sky Atlantic UK Sky Atlantic Germany and HBO in US, is mainly full of repeats for most of the schedule except for a few hours in the evening where new programming is the norm.

NI

Nigey 29 April 2012 1:43pm

denton posted:

As for the idents themselves; along side the voice of the channel they should help create and maintain the brand. Recent research I've been told of suggests that a familiar musical signature on channel's idents really does help to bring viewers' attention back to the TV, if they have been off doing other things during a break/junction.

But despite the lack of idents + voiceover-style in the U.S., there is that signature recognition - take NBC for an example:

Network programmes often feature the three chimes or a musical variant, like Nightly News, Today, sports coverage. As does a lot of the local affiliates' newscasts, and considering they are on for 8/9 hours per day in major markets, that's a lot of identification. Meanwhile a lot of network and local trails feature the chimes at the end and of course they all resolve into the NBC peacock, so it's like having an ident.

Meanwhile when there's a major news event the sublime chimes and the Meet the Press theme have signified a Newsflash for years, it's quite a call to attention, as shown here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x59cELagZ0U

The only network pres (on all the major nets) is between 8pm and 11pm and primetime actually starts with a 5" ident, normally announcing 'You're watching NBC in living color', before the first primetime programme starts. Then throughout the primetime block, you're in no doubt you're watching NBC, what with DOGs throughout all shows, constant trails, plus 20 or 30 spots pointing the local affiliate's news programme at 11pm.

There are end credit VOs which either point a later show, or an upcoming new series/stunt. Meanwhile in local presentation periods, e.g. daytime, there are frequent locally-branded (and sponsored) programme menus, plus pretty much every junction a 5" pre-programme ID trail which would be something like 'Next Judy..today 12:30pm on KRYT' or whatever, so that's pretty much what ITV1 does, just in live announcer form.

So the U.S. actually has a well rounded presentation which you could argue is more network by network identifiable than the UK.

DB

dbl 29 April 2012 1:56pm

[quote="Nigey" pid="751524"]

denton posted:

Network programmes often feature the three chimes or a musical variant, like Nightly News, Today, sports coverage. As does a lot of the local affiliates' newscasts, and considering they are on for 8/9 hours per day in major markets, that's a lot of identification. Meanwhile a lot of network and local trails feature the chimes at the end and of course they all resolve into the NBC peacock, so it's like having an ident.

An old version (they've made the NBC logo more 3D since):

Last edited by dbl on 29 April 2012 2:02pm

JJ

jjne 29 April 2012 2:29pm

That second one is the perfect station ident, as far as I am concerned.

This is what British TV companies should be aiming for. Keep the station announcers by all means, but remove them from the pre-programme ident. Use the announcer for programme menus and the like. But at the point at which the programme starts, quick identification of 3-4 seconds and straight into the programme.

(April 2012)