The image below is the screenshot of the new sky interactive features that will be available with the new show 'Walking with Beasts' Looks kinda cool doesn't it. ITV Digital will have similar services.
So the chances of any new idents on BBC1 or BBC2 are continuing to diminish!
(Edited by RW at 10:15 pm on Oct. 29, 2001)
RW
RW
And thinking about the BBC2 idents in particular, I still firmly believe they will continue, and will still be around this time next year.
Imagine the TV Forum had been in existence, say, 2 1/2 years ago, in the spring of 1997. At that point:
1) The current idents had been in use for six years, the average lifespan of BBC2 idents in the past.
2) It was over two years (February 1995) since any new regular idents had been introduced (Steam and Diary).
3) There was the imminent launch of a brand new BBC logo.
Three factors which, you might think, would point towards forthcoming new BBC2 idents in the autumn of 1997. WRONG!!
This time round, the evidence is much more flimsy. 1) BBC3 and BBC4 are supposed to launch next year. 2) Lorraine Heggessey doesn't like the BBC1 balloons very much, so they MIGHT change. And...well that's it.
Hardly firm evidence that BBC2 will change as well. If the BBC2 '2' was going to be dropped, it would have been in 1997 when everything else changed. But it stayed. The BBC2 '2' has become an icon, and, in much the same way as the Channel 4 '4', I think will run and run for many years to come, just in ever more new and different forms.
(Edited by RW at 11:05 pm on Oct. 29, 2001)
BB
BBCnewsemployee
And since the 2's have been such a success, and 10 years old, they're a brand which will not be hastily removed.