Comedy Central UK

So let me get this straight, Comedy Central UK are still sticking with the old idents, while Comedy Central Extra are using the new ones in every junction?



Comedy Central Poland adopted the US look in February (as reported in the International Presentation thread). As far as I know, they are the only international version that uses the US logo. In fact, the Swedish and Dutch versions adopted the German look with the "Enjoy Daily" slogan at about the same time that the new US look was unveiled.

Curiouser and curiouser! You'd expect these things to be decided on a pan-European basis by MTV Networks. Stranger still that they'd choose Poland as the launching ground rather than one of the Western countries.

I guess the current branding elements (namely the trail end-board style/animation) could easily be adapted to adopt the new logo, but then you'd think the font used for the new idents would match the logo??

I guess their current logo appeared on New Years Day this year in the States. Going by the lead time between MTV's US rebrand (in Feb 2010) and the UK rebrand at the beginning of this month, it could be another year before it hits our shores.

I would say it has histroically been the opposite. Before the "global" look was introduced across all international MTV channels in 2009, it seemed like every version of MTV had its own graphics package. This still aplies somewhat to Comedy Central, which has slightly different target audiences in different markets.

As for Poland being the testing ground for the new look, it is an increasingly important market for international channel operators like Viacom, Discovery, Turner and Sony. For example, it was recently reported that Poland was Discovery's third largest international market in terms of revenue (after the UK and Brazil). Viacom are also investing in Poland, for example MTVNHD was based there at its launch. Viacom also intends to introduce a new channel brand called Blink globally, and it first premiered in Poland a few weeks ago.

The strong position for thematic channels in Poland is the result of a strong cable/satellite sector, probably helped by the much delayed, and so far diappointing, launch of DTT. There is healthy competition between several operators (Cyfrowy Polsat, Cyfra+ and n on satellite, plus cable operators), giving the channel operarators a better bargaining position than in the UK.

Interesting.

Regarding MTV graphics - there were some notable examples of packages being shared, for example TMF's launch graphics were the same as those used on German MTV2 at the time.

But you're quite right in saying there was no uniformity.

Not quite, it was the bizarrely named MTV2 Pop (as MTV2 was supposed to play alternative music).