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Sydney based broadcast design outfit Tactic have been busy filling the screens of Australian subscription television channels with some great promos lately.

From the canvas to comedy, and crime to classics this diverse bunch of work is a great sample of the local creativity and the local industry.

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One of Australia’s longest running subscription television networks TV1 began broadcasting in widescreen for the first time last week (sounds quaint I know).

To mark the occasion they refreshed their look with a heavy emphasis on branding the various day parts, and further reinforcing the retro yet modern feel.

TV1 have maintained a consistently strong on-air brand without actually straying too far from their core look as you can see in this 2006 post.

- Thanks to Jackie from zspace for the videos.

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Bondi based Where Theres Smoke have updated their previous work for Channel [V], extending the concept while taking the whole thing in a slightly darker direction.

There is a whole set of idents based around this new look and feel, which went on-air yesterday. This is just the directors cut 30 second version.

As for the song in the clip, it’s Solitude is Bliss by Tame Impala.

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Channel [V] recently relaunched its branding under the banner ‘We Are [V]‘. The new look was developed by WTSTF, and is meant to be create “a surreal place – a world of pure imagination. A place where anything and everything is possible. Possible because of the inspirational music we bring you.”

And as for the song, its We Are The People by Empire of the Sun.

- Thanks to Jeremy for the videos.

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The Sci Fi Channel in Australia launched a new set of on air idents last week. Being the thematic channel that they are, these idents are very much “on message”, reflecting the channels programming, but also through the use of the CCTV concept, creating a strong and unified image for the channels brand.

Speaking of the channels brand, the Australian off shoot of Sci Fi are yet to commit to adopting the recently announced Syfy rebrand, which although heavily criticised, I personally think is one of the more elegant and creative name changes of late.

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Discovery HD rounds out the new HD channels from the recently launched Foxtel HD, it joins National Geographic HD, BBC HD, and Fox Sports and ESPN HD.

The network is yet to adopt the new look Discovery branding, which is a shame because although this is an HD channel it looks like it just stepped out the nineties.

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Since my constant shilling for all things Foxtel HD apparently knows no bounds, I figure the least I could do is post the advert for the new high definition service too.

The commercial is a trip through Australian television history, from the first transmission in 1956, to the introduction of colour in 1975, right up to the launch of Foxtel HD, which I’m afraid probably won’t go down in history with the kind of reverence that they were probably hoping for, but it is an ad after all.

The song featured in the video is ‘Lost in Time’ by Melbourne artist Whitley.

- Big thanks to Christian for the video.

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As the Foxtel HD roadshow continues, we’ve already seen BBC HD, and the sports channels, now its onto National Geographic HD who have launched a simple yet dramatic series of idents to celebrate their jump into the world of high definition.

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Foxtel’s expansion into the HD world will no doubt be of particular interest to the sports fans out there, with ESPN and Fox Sports both launching high def channels.

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Foxtel officially launches its high definition service today, and although content wise there isn’t much on the new HD platform yet, with only five HD channels available at launch, BBC HD is one of them, and almost makes it worth it.

It would seem Australia is the first market outside of the UK to recieve the BBC HD brand, but won’t be the last, with plans for expansion into Poland, and the US later this year. The two videos are taken from the newly launched BBC HD Australia and show an ident for the network, and an extended promo.

For more from BBC HD check out this cimematic promo for the UK version.

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MTV Australia have launched local idents, ditching the generic international look for an Australian skew on this generational phenomenon that is Music Television.

And while the networks programming has over the years ranged from the inane to the influential and the socially aware, its brand has for better and/or worse always had an enourmous impact on popular culture.

The powerful MTV brand gets deconstructed in these new idents showing the importance of remaining an “evolving creature, something new and slightly unusual”, especially important with the fickle tastes of your target audience.

I really like the new look, instead of embracing whatever trend the kids may be going for this very second, the idents take a more natural approach, showing the MTV logo as being fluid and always adapting to its surrounds.

For more design from MTV, check out the “narrative and visual break” created for the South American arm of the network here.

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While the Discovery networks in the US have been busy getting a rebrand, in Malaysia viewers of Discovery Science are being reminded that the number on the dial has changed in this short, NASA inspired spot.

- Thanks to Alex from Motion Foundry for the video.

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The Bravo inspired new look Arena is now on-air, and while its all very bright, its also very much linked to those few big name shows the network happens to air.

The biggest of those shows is Project Runway, which recently become the first reality show to win a Peabody award for excellence in broadcasting, but is also jumping ships to Lifetime in the US. The president of Bravo recently described the brand (which Arena is now piggybacking on) as “a consumer-immersed environment”, which to me sounds like a bad thing, but maybe its just not my style.

Speaking of subscription television though, one of the best spots I’ve seen continues to be this video from the Bio. channel.

Keep reading for a look at how Arena used to look, before getting Bravo’d.

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The 80th Academy Awards is scheduled for the 24th of February, and to celebrate these eight decades of excellence in cinema Turner Classic Movies is holding 31 days of Oscar programming across its network.

Produced by Fresh Paint, this stunning promo melds classic moments from movie history with live action and animation to create a truly creative and refreshing take on the old programming song-and-dance.

The simple yet beautiful music composition is incredibly effective and transcends the varied movie genres represented in this stunning piece of television promotion.

- First discovered through the Motiongrapher, check them out.

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The W Channel (the W once stood for “women” I believe) is taking a step back from its gender specific focus to broaden its appeal. The channels line up still contains a lot of Oprah and The View but is just as heavily reliant on the gender neutral likes of Law and Order and The West Wing.

The new on air look launched last year and was the work of Tactic, also responsible for other subscription television creations including spots for Movie Extra and The Comedy Channel.

- Thanks to Nathan from Tactic for supplying the videos.

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Australian’s welcomed a new channel onto their subscription television platforms today, that new channel is Showcase. Available to subscribers of the Foxtel, Austar and Optus networks the new channel is being described as the home of “dramatically different TV” while extolling the old chestnut that “TV is the new hollywood”. I’m a huge fan of what you might call “alternative” or “cult” television, with most of my favorite shows not even airing on Australian television, at least not with any regularity or respectable time slots, unfortunately for this post though, I haven’t watched any of the shows making their local premier on Showcase.

Series like Dexter, The Riches and The Tudors are all finding their way uncut, and uninterrupted to Showcase, however I’ll have to leave it up to you guys to let me know if they’re worth a try. Documentaries and movies will also fill some of the Showcase schedule with Little Miss Sunshine and An Inconvenient Truth some of the first to air.

Showcase, along with its sister networks Showtime and Showtime Greats are jointly owned by NBC Universal Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, 20th Century Fox and Liberty Global International, and although this channels free to air debut would make for much more exciting news its still nice to see television being treated with a similar respect to films, even if you’re going to have to pay for it.

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Bio. (formerly The Biography Channel) is an Australian subscription television station owned by the A&E Television Network, however the brand is fully licensed to Foxtel who produce, broadcast and program the channel locally.

While the content can be a bit of a mixed bag (Entertainment Tonight.. really?), the network does have some gems in Iconoclasts, Letterman and their live award show coverage.

This 60 second station identifier has always caught my attention whenever it ran, the use of “The Time Is Now” by Moloko in conjunction with the historical images is surprisingly creative and well executed, I guess it shows how much creative mileage you can get out of just some photos and a catchy tune.

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Fionnuala Sweeney, the host of CNN’s International Correspondents talks to Deputy Director-General of the BBC Mark Byford about the 2800 jobs being cut from the corporation, along with plans to sell of the broadcasters iconic headquarters, Television Centre in London. All the cost cutting is due to a £2bn budget shortfall, the outcome of a decision not to increase the license fee as much as had been requested.

In other BBC related news, international visitors to BBC.com will soon be presented with online advertisements for the first time, the rationale being that foreign users of the service don’t pay the license fee that British residents do.

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Last month Motion Foundry completed this promo for the Discovery Channel. Promoting the ‘Behind the News’ series (unfortunate name for those of us with primary school memories) the promo uses no footage from the actual show and instead relies on ink drop dramatisations. (Thanks for the video Alex).

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Movie Extra, part of the Movie Network available on subscription television is the channel that “dares you to expand your view with compelling and diverse movies and television series that will stay with you long after the movie ends.”

These short idents created (and supplied to me) by Tactic visualise the quotes of some of Hollywood’s famous, specially Britney, Christina, Tarintino, Ebert and McGregor. Tactic also did some stuff for the Comedy Channel not too long ago.

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Motion Foundry have once again been nice enough to forward me some their latest work. This time its a 15 second ident for The Discovery Channel, whose only brief for them was that it feature ‘moments of discovery’.

To see some of Motion Foundry’s other work check out their Channel Ten refresh.

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Thanks to Nathan from Tactic for sending me their latest creation… scribblings of various penis euphemisms, created for The Comedy Channel (which I recently got sent some other stuff from too).

And while I do spend most of my work day drawing willies, I’m not getting explicitly paid for it like the guys at Tactic, I guess its a good thing no one at work knows I have a blog.. and conversely no one who reads this blog knows where I work.

To sum up, they’re short, funny and pretty cool (the exact opposite of me), I look forward to seeing these while I watch my day old Colbert’s over lunch.

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Thanks to Libbie from Sixty40 for sending me their latest creation, the new look, new location Comedy Channel idents.

While the relocation of a channels headquarters usually isn’t that newsworthy, this series of on-air identities has taken Comedy’s move from Sydney to Melbourne to heart. They show the network mascot (the c’fer?) exploring its new home, surrounded by the omnipresent plug for some pretty funny shows (anyone else as engulfed in Arrested Development as me?).

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On the 12th of January 2007, Club [V], the pink-polo-turned-up-collar wearing sibling of Channel [V] became simply Channel [V]2 and dropped any remaining dance music focus.

Apparently people are annoyed because of the introduction of ads on the new channel, but except for a few months ago when I recorded the above video I really haven’t watched anymore of it besides the occasional flick through so I don’t really remember if it had ads or not.

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It turns out there is a German television network also called Arena, but the one we’re looking at today is the Australian subscription television channel available on Foxtel, Austar and Optus.

Among the people I work with it seems to be their channel of preference, and I’m guessing Entourage, Gilmore Girls, Nip/Tuck, Six Feet Under, Project Runway, SNL and Will and Grace have something to do with it.

This sixty second ident incorporates many of the networks shows into an LA backdrop featuring the tune “This Old Love” by Lior.

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Thanks to Duncan for this one, its the opener for ESPN’s coverage of the World Cup, produced by Buck LA.

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I just spent the last two days watching the entire first season of the Foxtel drama Love My Way, and damn it was good. It’s been so long since I got into an Australian drama, it was almost a novelty to see Australian culture reflected in a scripted show, I’m so used to my Six Feet Unders and the like.

It was refreshing that the show wasn’t based around a profession (doctors, cops, ranch hands or whatever it is the McLeod’s Daughters are). The characters are pretty fucked up, but none of it seemed contrived, the situations and storylines grow organically.

I don’t want to spoil the plot if you haven’t seen it, but episode eight was pretty hard to watch, its very emotional, and while the plot turn that occurs may seem like a way to wrap up the season or just generate some drama, its dealt with in such a blunt and raw way it actually works.

Its only 10 episodes so if you have a spare 500 minutes I really suggest you watch it, it will reignite your faith in Australian television.

I read somewhere that the commercial stations wanted to air it, but Claudia Karvan and co said no so unless you have Foxtel, the DVD’s may be your only option.

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In an effort to post some actual idents I thought I’d introduce this semi-regular column.. Better Know a Foxtel Channel (aka Foxtel Friday). So without further ado, Part 2 in this 63 part series…

I’m so glad I called this a “semi-regular” column because gee I’ve been lazy with it, and calling it “Foxtel Friday” didn’t seem to help either, it gets around to Thursday every week and I realise I’ve got nothin.

Anyway this week I got around to doing something, and that something was called TV1 (the fightin’ first). TV1 is one of the oldest channels on Australian subscription television, its a joint venture between Sony, Universal and Paramount and just like FOX8 is best known for The Simpsons, TV1 is probably most remembered for having Seinfeld (in my household at least).

More videos after the jump.

And in case you missed it, FOX8 was the first Foxtel Friday.

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I’m sure you’ve already seen this on YouTube, but now that its been used as the actual opener for this weeks new episode of the Simpsons (the Ricky Gervais episode), I thought I’d share it again in this context.

They cleaned it up for use in the episode by adding the ‘created by’ credits etc. I don’t think Sky could of could have imagined how well this would go.

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In an effort to post some actual idents I thought I’d introduce this semi-regular column.. Better Know a Foxtel Channel (aka Foxtel Friday). So without further ado, Part 1 in this 63 part series…

First channel off the ranks is the networks flagship channel, FOX8 (the fightin’ eighth). FOX8 rebranded itself recently and continues to be the highest rated channel on Foxtel, thanks no doubt to The Simpsons.

Wikipedia also notes that it is “one of the very few channels to have been continuously broadcast since Foxtel’s foundation 10 years ago.”

More videos after the jump.

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(The song is ‘Run’ by Snow Patrol)

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