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BBC Three got a complete rebrand in February, dumping the old logo and the beloved and iconic blobs. The new look was developed by Red Bee, and although on first glance the whole feel could be mistaken for an SMS ad, on further viewings a depth begins to appear, and you kind of start to like it.
The £380,000 rebrand is part of the channels repositioning to take itself beyond being just a television broadcaster. Red Bee say the idents are meant to “make it feel a more populated and alive place”, basically a visual representation of Facebook-like communities, including their own Sims like characters.
And while the idea of big media embracing user-generated content, and saying stuff like “web 2.0” usually drives me crazy, BBC Three seem to be pulling off a nice balance, and at least their taking a risk, and in the process appearing incredibly progressive.
The six new idents are above, but ten more videos await you after the jump, including promos, the 60 second news and viewer uploaded intros.
Two promos, one for Lily Allen’s talk show, and the comedy Pulling.
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What’s on now, next and later on BBC Three.
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This program contains… consumer advice.
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The end credits, just like the rest of the BBC.
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The 60 second news showing coverage from media organisations around the world.
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User uploaded videos introducing upcoming shows.
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And finally, the first 4 minutes of a day in the life of BBC Three, which starts broadcasting at 7pm and goes through until 4am.
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– And an enormous thanks to Andy for supplying all the videos.
18 replies on “The new look BBC Three… idents etc.”
the last video stole a nine dot xD
Ok, first of all this rebrand was totally necessary: the old BBC3 was aimed at a bizarre audience that was more or less covered by BBC1 so it was right to aim it at 18-30s, plus if you were a regular viewer of BBC3 the blobs and the trailers could get pretty annoying after a while so I welcome this new look. However, there are three things that really ruin the brand and the bits inbetween programmes (well for me at least!):
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1. 60 Seconds used to be a programme that summarised the news in 60 seconds for people who wanted to know but didn’t want to know too much because that would bore them! For some reason they’ve turned it into a trawl around the world’s news networks for information that the core audience will have little interest in. This isn’t the first time they’ve used this format, they had it as a segment on the old 7 o’clock news (RIP). I guess someone really likes the idea, or BBC Monitoring are just looking for a job. Anyway this doesn’t work in a minute long format, it needs to be reverted back to the original format as soon as.
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2. The trailers being produced for BBC3 are often so poorly edited it makes some really decent programmes look like dog shit. Granted, some programmes are dog shit and are purely made to fulfil the BBC’s promise of 95% UK programmes on BBC3 but that’s no excuse for the promotional department. And to top it all off they use that horribly patronising woman’s voice that would even be suited to CBeebies!
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3. And most importantly, the biggest mistake made during this rebrand, and IMO ever in the history of BBC3, was introducing those user generated content. So many channels have tried and failed to integrate this crap into their breaks, eg MTV Flux which has just closed down. UGC is for YouTube and YouTube only. It was never meant to enter the TV domain. What I find most annoying is the way they’ve actually asked people to film themselves saying what’s on BBC3 next (as you can see above) which results in the most horrendous, cheap, tacky and down-right embarrassing “idents” humanly imagineable. I can only assume some idiot in-turn suggested this at a board meeting.
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So anyway, improve all of this and it was a successful rebrand! 😀
In contrast to Sean, I quite like how viewers can upload their own intros. There’s more interactivity, gives a feeling you can get involved somehow. Also the continuity announcer’s name is Lola Buckley the In Vision presenter’s name is Jose Vanders. Lola does make some funny announcements sometimes, I don’t really find it patronising; CBeebies is worse than that lol. I also like how they’ve reintroduced in vision, Jose isn’t too bad on the eye either. 😉 There were more In Vision vids examples but they don’t seem to be included in this post.
Don’t get me wrong, I do quite Lola Buckley. I think she’s on E4 and ITV2 sometimes as well. The high pitched voice on some of the trailers is what gets to me.
Not a lot of people like the rebrand but I love it. I love that the idents are still charmingly surreal
I do wish they’d bring back live entertainment shows though. Would stop the rest of the channel feeling like such a repeat-fest
I liked the blobs, but I like this better. I think it’s awesome how they have the user-generated content and the general look is quite appealing. I especially liked how they put catchy music during the show promos – don’t know if it’s standard in the UK – but that was pretty cool.
The continuity announcer is great too – seriously, when will we get proper idents and continuity announcers in Australia – just menus saying the times of the show don’t have the same feel.
By the way, what was the song in the background on the Pulling promo? Anyone know? It’s catchy. They probably produced it in-house, but still.
The song used during the Pulling promo is a remixed version of The Killers track ‘When You Were Young’.
I believe the particular version is the Jacques Lu Cont Mix.
Although you should check out the original as well if you haven’t heard it, its an excellent song.
Not a fan. These are far too bright, and I am in the target audience so I know what I’m talking about.
Any chance of a ‘download in one swoop’ ZIP file? 🙂
Thanks!
Thanks so much (especially for uploading them)! I love this song now.
Also, does anyone know the song in the other ‘Pulling’ promo in the 4 minute startup video?
Bizarrely two days after this was posted we started learning about the BBC3 rebrand in college as part of our coursework! Needless to say, I was the most knowledged about the channel’s target audience etc! 😀
why oh why oh why oh why do british television channels seem to want to get the public on the tv introducing whats up next. “for the people by the people” NO!
just NO!
it makes me cringe stop it!
Heya, I was just wondering if anyone knows who the director/producer behind these idents was?
They were produced by Red Bee Media; the director and animators all come from Nexus Productions. The music was mostly by Koink Productions.
I love Redbees new design for BBC3- I think it’s targeting it’s audiences brilliantly and is by far the most interactive channel for that age group. The rebrand has definitely worked and must be raising their viewing figures! The only criticism I have is the continuity voice? I think it needs to be younger to fit into the general theme of everything else. There’s a girl doing a lot of their ads at the moment, and I think she’s brilliant!! Does anyone know who I mean?
So, the first of the new clips… where the characters dangle from bungee ropes – is that music supposed to be some sort of commercially made ‘Boards of Canada’ hommage..? Or is it a proper track by a known artist? Anyone got any info on this?
Thanks
BRING BACK THE BLOBS! THATS ALL I HAVE TO SAY!