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The excessively clunky “ABC for Kids on 2” brand has been relaunched as “ABC 4 Kids”. Running from 6am-7pm on ABC2, this channel-within-a-channel has long deserved better positioning, if not its own dedicated slice of the airwaves.
Thus concludes the refresh of the ABC’s suite of channels with ABC1 in February and ABC2 in April.
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The on-air look of ABC2 has ranged from the interesting to the ordinary. While easily the most intriguing channel on free to air television, ABC2 has always struggled with its identity.
Thankfully this new lime-and-pink design is the most mature branding to grace the network, even if the execution of the new idents is a little sporadic (the fish look great, the knitting.. not so much).
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When ABC2 switches off at around midnight each night, this somewhat cutesy, yet charming footage rolls. And while there’s probably more creative ideas than this one, at least they’re doing something.
As ultimately useless as it is (like the entire contents of this blog), its the little things about how a channel operates, whether its some awesome idents, a mesmerising test pattern, or some creative programming that creates the connection with a viewer that makes a channel special, and not just a vending machine of trash.
UPDATE: It turns out they have a pretty similar video for when ABC2 turns back on in the morning around 7am, check it out below.
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While I was a fan of some of the old ABC2 idents, and am still getting used to the new ones, something about the network that always left me unimpressed was the murky-green-water theme that dominated their promos and other on-air branding. The new ABC2 however has got a fresh coat of paint, and with its bold use of red, green and orange gives a distinctive look, that for me at least gives the network a feeling of independence, and some even footing with ABC1.
The new look was developed by Tactic, check out what they did to ABC1 here.
UPDATE: It turns out the ABC has never had a unifying channel brand like they’ve just adopted, and whats on-air right now isn’t the gold standard that was intended (the third video above for example), so while whats on-air catches up with what was intended, check out the screenshots below for an idea of what we should expect soon.
Download the whole H264 bunch in one swoop here (81mb *.zip).
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ABC2 got its best bit of PR to date on Friday when ABC TV formally became ABC1 and reminded, or alerted people for the first time that there was in fact a whole other channel available from the National Broadcaster.
Like everything the ABC does, the old look of ABC2 had its hits and misses, some of my favourites from the previous set of idents are here, but again they were far outweighed by all the ordinary ones.
Now though we have a whole new on-air look to dissect, and the first thing I thought when I saw these was… hey, its ITV4! Back in 2005 ITV4 used a similar split screen device to create visual puns, ABC2 on the other hand seem to be using the split screen to highlight various juxtapositions, city-nature, young-old, casual-professional etc. Which is fine, although it completely falls apart about half way through and I find myself wondering what two girls drinking a milkshake is meant to represent..
Comments in a previous post have already pointed out the similarities that the first of these ABC2 idents above have to the video clip of “Concrete Boots” by After The Fall, check it out and see what you think. It’s a good song either way.
Then finally, to dislocate the entire series a little more they’ve introduced two other idents (below) that are based on “parkour“, the ‘art of displacement’ which again is a fine concept for a series of idents, but why only throw in two of them.
I guess what I’m saying is that I like consistency and a central theme to my idents, something that can be explored and developed, not just random images linked at times, but then not at others.
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(The idents were produced by zspace, who also did the new look ABC1.)
Check out the new look ABC1 and ABC2 above, they’re taken from the national broadcasters new TV website here. Also on the site, check out Kim Dalton’s video introducing a “redefined” ABC.
Broadcast quality versions of all of the new ABC1 idents are now available here.
Broadcast quality versions of all of the new ABC2 idents are now available here.
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ABC2, the digital sibling of Australia’s national broadcaster launched on March 7th 2005. Although originally restricted in the content it was able to play, those limitations were removed in 2006 allowing the network to expand its programming options and broadcast “comedy, drama, national news, sport and entertainment”.
Tomorrow, ABC2 will turn another page in the history of Australian multichanneling, as it is rebranded and repositioned as a network focusing on Australian arts delivering unique programming and completely different content to that of ABC1.
The quality of ABC2 branding has been mixed, with idents and on-air looks ranging from the subtle, to the bizarre. The basic premise however that the idents of ABC2 are built on has always been solid, and its delivered some of the most entertaining spots on any Australian network.. above are a selection of those.
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It’s Australia Day today, which means its time to count down the 100 best songs of last year with Triple J. The hottest 100 is one of the largest song polls in the world, and while last year the amazing ‘One Crowded Hour’ took out the top spot, this year perhaps my favourite song of 2007 came in at number ten.
The song is ‘Don’t Fight It’ by Perth band The Panics, you might just like it too.
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I’m not too sure what these promos running on ABC2 are all about, but I can only hope they’ve something to do with a refresh for the network, along with the anticipated rebranding of the original ABC channel to formally become “ABC1”.
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The Australia Network (formerly ABC Asia Pacific) is a free to air satellite television station operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Its available to over 20 million homes across Asia, the Pacific, and India, and although technically not broadcast in Australia, some of its programming is available on ABC2.
The above video comparison shows the opening sequences of ABC News as broadcast locally, and ABC News Asia Pacific produced for the Australia Network.
