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We’ve been promised a distinctively Australian version of Top Gear, so far though it resembles a distinctively franchised version of “regular” Top Gear.

As with the British version of the show, they’ve used the beginning of the first episode to tease us with what’s in the season ahead, which should give you a good idea of what kind of show we’re in for. As always, judge for yourself.

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Everyone seems to have an opinion about the multicultural broadcaster SBS, which is certainly a better position to be in than having nobody care about you either way. So I’m sure we’re all bound to have something to say about this mornings relaunch of its on air image and logo. As for me, I think its pretty great, and well overdue.

The broadcaster refreshed its still very effective former logo based on the Mercator map, with a slightly more modern interpretation to create what is easily one of the best logos on Australian television (as it battles it out with the Lissajous).

SBS hasn’t been everyones favourite public broadcaster of late, especially thanks to the insertion of advertisements midway through shows, previously only allowed before and after programs. That aside though the network is growing a stable of quality alternative programming, including but not limited to South Park, Mythbusters, Big Love, Skins, Top Gear, and later this year Top Gear Australia. And while the network is still rooted in the obligations of its charter, perhaps this new look is all part of play to become Australia’s equivalent of Channel 4.

Branding was beginning to seem like an after thought to SBS in recent times, with no actual idents on air we were starting to get worried, especially considering the mini masterpieces that had once graced our screens. But it looks like sanity has resumed with these beautifully crafted on air images, a graceful modern logo, and a whole new website.. now if only we can get rid of the ads.

The multicultural broadcaster is now also blogging, with an explanation about the new brand from the networks Director of Marketing available here.

More videos from the relaunch after the jump…

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If there is one show that quite deservedly gets a lot of banging on about on this blog, it’s Top Gear, and here I go again.. Tonight at 7:30pm SBS is airing the special North Pole race that I first mentioned back in July when it went to air on BBC Two. While I’m not sure it quite topped the American special in February, from sheer adventure alone, no other episode comes close.

And you’ve still got a few weeks left if you want to apply to host the Australian version of the show, the local production is bound to receive a lot of scrutiny and criticism so lets hope the it’s a little more American Office and a little less Amanda’s.

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I realise I’m probably giving this show a disproportionate amount of attention, especially considering I’m not even sure I like it, but its always had fairly cool promos, and really, at least it looks interesting, something thats been lacking lately on Australia’s prime time schedule… Whacked Out Sports? Really?!

Skins starts from season one tonight on SBS, and a new season starts soon on E4.

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If I can’t do something for the public good, what the hell am I doing?

For more on the life and work of Anita Roddick read the BBC’s obituary, her Wikipedia entry, or her own blog.

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SBS have had some sweet idents in the past, but lately.. nothing. With Big Love and Top Gear both on air at the moment I’m watching SBS more regularly than ever before, but seeing no idents.

The closest thing they seem to have is this Cadbury’s ad that incorporates the SBS logo. I hope they have something planned, because when a channel gets the kind of scrutiny and criticism that SBS gets, a solid on air brand, that reinforces whatever it is the network wants to be, would probably be a good thing.

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If you flick over to SBS right now, you’ll catch Big Love, a show that I’ve already gone on quite a bit about. The opening sequence however, deserves a mention. It’s classic HBO, a little surreal, a little very symbolic, accompnied by what Paul McCartney calls the best song ever written “God Only Knows” by The Beach Boys.

Update: Get some insight into the symbolism of the opener with this comment.

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The HBO drama Big Love starts on SBS tonight at 8:30pm, and while its up against Life on Mars and Grey’s Anatomy among other things, it will be interesting to see how it goes. Like the Chaser, it may bring a new audience who would otherwise not be watching television, as opposed to eating away at another networks viewers. As you’ve probably already heard in the promos above, or seen in the print ads that appeared in today’s papers the show stars Bill Paxton as a practicing polygamist living in Salt Lake City.

SBS is really growing on me of late, and I’ve already gotten over the fact they have in-program advertising. The Indonesian News was never going to be a draw card for me on SBS, but programming like Top Gear, the new News, and now potentially Big Love, the Special Broadcasting Service is becoming a bit of a More4, and hopefully a good environment to foster alternative programming that isn’t getting shown elsewhere.

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Tonight on SBS at 9:30pm is a film called Sommersault. Released in 2004, and directed by Cate Shortland, the film stars Abbie Cornish and Sam Worthington.

The story starts in the “unreality” of Canberra, where a 15 year old incredibly naive Heidi makes a pass at her mothers boyfriend, only for her to walk in on it. Heidi flees Canberra for the snow town of Jindabyne, where she meets Joe…

I realise thats probably the worst summary of a movie in history, but I’m really more a TV guy. That said, its a beautiful film, with its soundtrack by Decoder Ring, so if your not doing anything else tonight, give this Australian made, official selection for the Cannes Film Festival movie a chance.

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(The above videos are Jimmy Carr looking behind the scenes of the Emmy award winning Top Gear. It was originally part of a “best of” episode.)

This isn’t the first time I’ve gushed over Top Gear, and probably won’t be the last. But when Jeremy Clarkson asks the world what should become of the show I thought it was probably worth bringing up.

And although Jeremy questions the recent direction of the show, I’m sure he’s well aware his little car magazine is reaching a television nirvana, not just for motoring programs, but for any type of broadcast on the medium.

It puts us on level terms with Eastenders. It means we are, give or take, the most watched show on the BBC. And that’s just in Britain. Factor in the rest of the world, and TG is effing massive.

When a show can give you goosebumps, makes you pace with excitement, giddy with laughter, silent in awe, and turn little more then three journalists into something more akin to the cast of Seinfeld, it seems the Orwellian prediction of televisions future is a little less Big Brother, and a little bit more cocking around with your mates (albeit filmed better than most movies).

So let Jeremy know what you think, but the shows natural evolution has, and will, continue to serve it better than any focus group could.

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SBS World News Australia relaunched on Monday last week. The above is a selection of tonights episode to give you a feel of what its all about. The new opener (with Google logo in tote) makes good use of satellite imagery, and the weather, aptly I guess uses a Google Earth feeling look, which while realistic is also distinctive enough to feel fresh compared to the rest on your television screens.

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I’m in Hong Kong waiting for my connecting flight to Paris and moderating comments… when my new best friend “SBS dude” commented this video from the relaunch of SBS news, which starts Monday.

Also, Sam from zspace, the folks behind the new ABC1 idents also commented here. Thanks everyone!

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Crikey has already weighed in on the soon to launch one hour SBS World News, and while I’m not a fan of more ad breaks (although it further justifies keeping the ABC ad free if nothing else), I have to congratulate SBS on introducing someone too young to have ever heard of Roger Whittaker to his ‘New World in the Morning’.

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Apple announced the iPhone early yesterday morning Australian time, and like every other Mac toting 21-year-old I obviously want one. The only problem is it won’t be released here until 2008.

That didn’t stop SBS, Seven, Ten and Nine all covering the story in their evening bulletins (what, too good to plug an unreleased product ABC?). I’m unashamedly an Apple fan (heck I own shares), but I just can’t think of another company that makes this big of a positive splash (see videos) a year out from release.

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While Channel Ten has taken the stock photography/video route for their summer branding, SBS has retooled their entire look with this fresh and “cheeky” series (in quotes because its not a word I would normally use but can’t think of a better one).

Last summer however, SBS brought insects into our living rooms with a redesign that remains one of my favourites.

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I’m a relative new comer to Top Gear, I’ve only been watching it for about a year, but it has blown my mind, and my love for it has nothing to do with cars…

There are three major reasons I watch the show, and for each of the reasons I have a catalyst point. The first reason is the phenomenal style and production that the segments are shot in, my first introduction to this was when Clarkson drove a Land Rover Discovery up a mountain in Scotland. My second reason for watching the show is the drama of the races, the first one of these I saw in full, and probably the reason I started to religiously watch the show is airing next week on SBS, and its the race to Oslo, with Clarkson in a Mercedes, and May and Hammond in a boat, so don’t miss it.

(And the third reason? I’ll get to that soon.)

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I’ve had this sitting on my desktop for a few weeks, its from Broken News, the BBC comedy currently airing Monday’s on SBS. It’s funny, as is the whole show, but I feel Jeremy Clarkson got it best with his commentary on modern news.

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SBS have been running this 60 second look back at their coverage of the World Cup, they’re rightfully proud of the whole thing, and I’m not sure if it would work as well as it does on any other network.

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Sorry I didn’t get around to grabbing more of these, but here is what SBS ran for a bit during the World Cup as their idents. To see the more extensive SBS World Cup themed idents click here.

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I have to admit I’m not that big of a soccer fan, but if SBS’s enthusiasm is anything to go by its hard not to resist its lure. The network has gone all out for the World Cup, and why wouldn’t they, its got to be the most exciting quadrennial event the station gets to air, and the craziest ratings month they are likely to see until South Africa hosts it in 2010.

SBS totally rebranded its on air presentation for the World Cup and these are the new idents they’ve been running.

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Oli commenting from the previous post suggests its a bit Academy Awards meets Mastercard, I tend to agree..

And whats with the sign in the background saying “I told you so”? (screen capture below).

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Just to complete the set I started earlier, here are the openers for the ABC and SBS News’ from last Friday night, similarly dominated by the Snowy Hydro news, although SBS not quite as much.

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It was a few months ago when I wrote my 100th post, and I’m not sure if this is slow or quick, but here we are at the 200th. To celebrate I thought I’d “re-release” my favourite series of Australian idents thus far in the year-and-a-bit that I’ve been blogging.

Its the SBS liquid series created by Sydney agency Inkproject, they’ve done a lot of really amazing stuff for SBS, and samples of all of it are on their website.

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(Before I went overseas I pre wrote a few posts to fill the empty space while I was gone.. this is one of them.)

This promo from SBS about digital TV has been around for a while, but its a cool take on it.

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When it comes to the extra channels available on digital TV, ABC2 is pretty the extent of it for me. But, SBS do offer their World News Channel, and it’s a pretty awesome resource of international news broadcasts, and although its not much use to english-only speaking me, I’d imagine it would be pretty sweet for people looking for news broadcasts in their prefered language.

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SBS have gone all out for summer, the idents are very ‘Australian’ without pandering, the top two are my favourite, but I really like the whole theme.

Continue for more SBS..

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All networks in Australia, except the ABC broadcast Electronic Program Guides on Digital TV. For some reason SBS is the only network that broadcasts their EPG in Canberra, on my trip to Sydney however I managed to grab samples from the other three EPG’s.

SBS is my favourite of the bunch (check out their old EPG here). I don’t mind the Seven and Nine EPG’s and the Ten one looks good too but it so horribly out of date its embarrasing. They have icons promoting shows that aren’t on anymore, they have photos of Neighbours cast that have left the show, and I thought Australian Idol was over? Its as if Network Ten don’t realise their even broadcasting it.

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The networks all have their own take on how to present weather, SBS do the whole world in a minute while Nine barely get past the suburbs of Sydney on their ‘National’ broadcast. ABC seem to take the longest, with a weather report that can at times top three minutes. Ten and Seven insist on sending out weather people to locations around town, Tim Bailey on Ten is far more annoying then Seven’s Nuala Hafner though.

From a design perspective ABC and SBS are at the top of my list. Ten is by far the worst with its depressing little sunshine icons. Nine waste too much time with scroll bars at the bottom of the screen and moving the map around from left to right, and Seven’s map looks OK, but is a bit cartoony.

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Along with the new idents, SBS has started to stray away from the subway theme when it comes to their promotions. I really like the addition of the mosquito, and the general layout and design of them is excellent.

I was hoping to upload a promo for Top Gear, which starts on SBS next Monday at 7.30pm but haven’t seen one with the mosquito so far. If you haven’t watched Top Gear before please don’t be turned off just because you’re not that into cars, its so much more then that. It’s a gloriously shot, eloquently produced, witty and engaging show with some of the best filming I’ve seen on TV. The hosts (Jeremy, Richard and James) have an really good dynamic and the elaborate races and set ups they do are amazing. And I don’t just mean races around the track, I mean a Renault Clio vs. a mountain bike through Lisbon, a Mercedes SLK vs. a boat to Oslo and an Ashton Martin vs. the bullet train to Monaco and a plane vs. a Ferrari to Switzerland.

Oh, and please whatever you do, don’t watch Drive TV on Ten, it’s a horrible attempt to copy Top Gear, instead of the Stig, they have the Chip, instead the magnetic leader board on Top Gear, they have the Shell Optimax Hot Lap, and instead of witty intelligent hosts they have some Fairfax hacks.

I like Top Gear for the same reasons I like idents, I hope you get a chance to appreciate the show too, and I hope any of that made sense.

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SBS just celebrated their highest ratings ever with a total of 4.5 million tuning in to watch Australia beat Uruguay in the World Cup qualifying match. So what better time to show off their new idents, although I’m probably still too in love with their old ones to give a balanced opinion on these.

They kind of remind me of the iPod ads (especially the new one), but apart from that they are once again better then anything else on Australian TV (next to maybe ABC2), and at least SBS change them before you get a chance to get sick of them.