Year: 2008

Categories
American TV Videos: Promos

Welcome back NBC.

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The Office, Scrubs and 30 Rock are three of the best shows on television, they’re all broadcast by NBC on Thursday nights, and they all made their post-strike returns to our screens just a few days ago.

These three shows have all received Peabody Awards in recent years, and given the chance I’ll happily go on about how important good comedy is.

NBC has a strange place in my heart, and although its unfair to judge any network by the sum of its parts, its undeniable that NBC has some amazing individual programs, and from this outsiders opinion appears to foster quality in its programming, sometimes at the expense of immediate ratings gratification.

Whether its The Office, 30 Rock, Scrubs, Friday Night Lights, or Saturday Night Live, no other network delivers as much of my television content as NBC, which is quite an achievement, and also a little sad that its not an Australian channel.

Categories
BBC Two Videos: Broadcast News Videos: TV

What do you reckon? I know I don’t care.

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Mitchell and Webb poke fun at the maddening world of television news “interactivity”, because really..

What possible reason could there be for you not to email us, certainly ignorance shouldn’t be a bar.

News parody has filled many posts on this site, including Jeremy Clarkson’s commentary on the state of news, Melanie Bellamy with the standing news, Dead Ringers high brow jab at Newsnight, and of course all that Chaser stuff.

Categories
ABC1 Web Misc

Playing with ABC Playback.

While I was recently reminded of, and amused by the success of the BBC’s video-on-demand iPlayer service in the UK, it did get me thinking about the ABC’s digital ambitions, in particular the National Broadcaster’s recently beta launched iPlayer-like service ABC Playback.

What follows is my take on the ABC’s latest step into the future…

Continue reading “Playing with ABC Playback.”
Categories
BBC Three Videos: Idents

The new look BBC Three… idents etc.

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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.

Continue reading “The new look BBC Three… idents etc.”
Categories
BBC One Videos: Promos

Penguins can fly on the BBC’s iPlayer.

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UPDATE: Added the “making of” video above.

While the ABC is still busy getting its Playback service off the ground, the BBC’s iPlayer is already a huge success with over 17 million downloads and streams since its Christmas day launch.

To celebrate April Fools Day and further promote the iPlayer platform the BBC produced this very funny and creative promotion that ran yesterday across BBC television, and generated the kind of 1st of April newspaper stories we’ve all come to expect, with the Mirror reporting: First-ever images of the world’s only flying penguins.

The Guardian has reported that the spot was likely well worth the money for the coverage it received, and while the BBC is certainly raising the bar on the digital future, I can’t wait to see what the ABC delivers.

– Thanks to Craig for the video.

Categories
Videos: Idents

Is that a screenshot in your lightbox?

This is admittedly a very small and fairly simple new feature of the site, but since its a fairly small and simple blog I figured it probably warranted a mention.

Try clicking on an image from the last few posts, and a full size screenshot will appear in one of those fancy lightboxes. Enjoy!

Categories
New Zealand TV Videos: Idents

New Zealand’s new look Sky Sport.

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The New Zealand arm of Sky Sports got a rebrand recently, with a new logo, and some new idents. Designed by Brandspank, the new look is intended to capture those milliseconds of sporting greatness “when something spectacular occurs in sport that jolts us typically laid back Kiwis out of our seats and cause us to show our passion”.

– Thanks to Steve from Brandspank for supplying the videos.

Categories
Seven Network Videos: Idents

The very polished Seven HD.

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Among the commercial networks Ten HD appear to have gone to the most trouble with their branding, and the slow, steady and lackluster look of Nine HD isn’t anything spectacular.

For Seven HD however the current look is a sublime and creative execution of the networks slogan “the difference is clear”, and a huge leap forward from the ident that opened the network back in October.

Categories
BBC Three Videos: Idents

BBC Three says buh-bye to the blobs.

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BBC Three relaunched its whole brand last month, and these are a selection of the old-look idents, including the first video above, which is the “blobs” final adieu just before the new look arrived.

These Aardman inspired spots have been on-air since the networks launch in 2003, and while I’m not often a fan of purely CGI idents, as they often create stale nothingness, these are quite an exceptional concept, often funny and beautifully executed.

BBC Three is the network responsible for bringing Little Britain to television, along with the short lived but awesome architecture series Dreamspaces.

– Cheers to Andy for supplying the videos.

Categories
ABC1 Videos: Promos

Summer Heights headed for HBO and BBC Three.

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It’s just been reported that the Australian mockumentary Summer Heights High has been sold for international broadcast to BBC Three in the UK, and none other than HBO in the United States.

Chris Lilley won a Rose d’Or for his previous show, We Can Be Heroes, and will no doubt garner even greater attention with these new distribution deals. And while various other Australian productions have made their way onto American television, this will certainly be one of the most high profile.

Continue reading “Summer Heights headed for HBO and BBC Three.”