Unfortunately, BBC Creative is going to get away with churning out this tripe for at least the remainder of this year. And sadly, no one will care really, as long as programme quality/ratings remain in good shape. And yes, programming should always be priority one. But it really is so terribly disappointing that the branding of the UK's premier television channel has stooped to such an all-time low. I would expect more from an A-Level Media Studies project.
Perhaps it's no bad thing that BBC Two is continuing to use old idents. Goodness knows what carnage would be unleashed on us if BBC Creative got their hands on that channel too.
All of this does pose an important question though - with so little funding being directed at on-air branding now (relative to the past) and no negative impact on audience figures, could the days of the channel ident (as we know it) be numbered?
All of this does pose an important question though - with so little funding being directed at on-air branding now (relative to the past) and no negative impact on audience figures, could the days of the channel ident (as we know it) be numbered?
Judging by Netflix, no. But I suspect that long-winded idents will become much shorter, you really don't need 30 seconds just to push some station imaging* (a very British way of doing things), 5-10 seconds is more than enough, it's the execution that matters. Promo time is more valuable.
*Yes, I'm aware there's generally a CA to verbally plug promotion
Last edited by dbl on 26 April 2017 9:07pm - 4 times in total
:-(
A former member
Just realised the format of the sting has changed - the 'BBC ONEness' logo is now larger and centred on the screen rather than at the foot of the screen.
Judging by Netflix, no. But I suspect long-winded idents become much shorter, you really don't need 30 seconds just to push some station imaging (a very British way of doing things), 5 seconds is more than enough, it's the concept.
That's what I'm getting at - hence the "as we know it". I'd hate to see us going down the American route of what are effectively short, unimpressive stings. There's a happy medium to be had here. Channel 4's durations are excessive. 5 to 10 second globe junctions were pretty common in the 70s, 80s and 90s. The introduction of elaborate soundtracks and visual build-ups has increased the duration of channel idents. Back to basics - but with something visually impressive - is what's needed here.
All of this does pose an important question though - with so little funding being directed at on-air branding now (relative to the past) and no negative impact on audience figures, could the days of the channel ident (as we know it) be numbered?
Possibly, yes. I think with this particular refresh the lack of a sonic logo is quite important. It's interesting that, almost without consciously realising it, you listen to TV as much if not more than watching it. I'd never really thought about it before, but without any kind of ident music I find myself almost ignoring the idents now - they kind of hide away between the trailers (which almost always have some kind of musical soundtrack) and the theme tune of the programme itself. In most cases I couldn't now tell you which one introduced any given programme, whereas in the past the relevant version of the sonic logo meant that you knew which ident had been on even if you weren't paying that much attention to the visuals. In this respect the current BBC One logo set have become wallpaper. Perhaps this is the direction they want things to go in the future?
Last edited by NextBigThing on 11 March 2017 12:35pm
Just realised the format of the sting has changed - the 'BBC ONEness' logo is now larger and centred on the screen rather than at the foot of the screen.
Logo's position works better to the right of centre on this one, for obvious reasons. Have you noticed the
Oneness
tagline, in the idents themselves, now feature a single pulse of boldness running though it.
Yes, but position may have been altered for this one only for obvious reasons. Have you noticed the
Oneness
tagline, in the idents themselves, now feature a single pulse of boldness running though it.
