Tag: abc1

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ABC1 Videos: Promos

The red, the white and the blue of ABC1.

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While the new idents make up just part of the ABC1 look, another major factor is the on-air branding of promos and other broadcast materials. The task of developing a new look was left up to Tactic who came up with “a ‘toolkit’ of over 200 channel branding elements including colour palette selection, font selection, on-air promo packaging, supers and menus… The new branding provides the foundations for the ABC to create and produce their own promos and on-air elements.”

Tactic didn’t come up with the new logos, they were supplied by the ABC, but they did do the rest, and while the red, white and blue initially confused me a bit, its beginning to sink in. It’s certainly distinctive and very clean, qualities I tend to find appealing.

Check out the new on-air branding from Tactic for ABC2 here.

UPDATE: It turns out the ABC has never had a unifying channel brand like they’ve just adopted, and as mentioned in comments earlier whats on-air right now isn’t the gold standard that was intended, 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.

Continue reading “The red, the white and the blue of ABC1.”
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ABC1 Videos: Idents

It begins with 1: The new look ABC1 idents.

Download the whole H264 bunch in one swoop here (129mb *.zip).

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I was desperate for the ABC to do something exciting when they relaunched their on-air brand today, but as yet I’m not sure if they’ve done it. While its a no-brainer that the national broadcaster needed to bring its channels into line with each other through a name change, the actual substance of the new look is where I am slightly less convinced.

From a technical and production standpoint the idents for ABC1 are on par or better than the rest of free to air to Australia, and while conceptually anything is deeper and more meaningful than ‘We Heart TV’, I guess I was expecting something grander and more profound than what I saw when I turned on the television at noon.

Visually the idents share a couple of characteristics with a series Channel Five in the UK ran early last year to celebrate its ten years of existence. In a similar style to what ABC1 has done they mixed live action with animation and in the case of Five contrasted the realities of life working in television against an evolving backdrop of child like imagination. And while the Five series cleverly aligned a networks tenth birthday to that of a child’s birthday through the animation, I’m unclear as to what the ABC is trying to achieve with a similar concept.

With all that said however, any criticism of the collection so far is from a perspective of international comparison, a comparison the average viewer will not be making, and when compared solely to local competition these idents and the new look in general is simply stunning, and will strike a chord as uniquely ABC.

I couldn’t agree more with Kim Dalton’s assertion that the national broadcaster is “embracing true multi-channelling”, and by taking an alternative path to that of other Australian networks is truly building a future and extending the longevity and purpose of the ABC in a landscape where other media organisations are looking downhill towards their own demise and irrelevance.

(The idents were produced by zspace, who have previously worked with the ABC to produce this earlier set of idents as well.)

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ABC1 Videos: Idents

The network that would be ABC1.

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The ABC launched its current “There’s more to..” campaign on December 21st 2005, and with tomorrows impending shake up and name change it seemed the time was right for a short retrospective.

The above videos are just a selection of the many, many variations on the theme that have been broadcast over the past few years, including the original 60 second video that began the rebrand back in 2005.

While there have certainly been varying levels of quality, some of the stand outs from the series include the “genre collection” released early last year, and of course The Chaser’s directors commentary, noting the series obscurity and pretension.

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ABC1 Videos: Idents

February 8th 2008. Change is Here.

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The ABC continues to tease us, with the latest promo promising that “Change is Here”, and that its all happening on February 8th. For more from the ABC’s rebranding saga check out my previous coverage here and here.

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ABC1 Videos: Broadcast News Videos: TV

New look ABC from February 8th (with lissajous).

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This morning The Australian was reporting (on page one no less) that the ABC was set to drop the famous lissajous symbol from its on air broadcasts in favour of a new logo. It didn’t take long for the ABC to deny the reports however and assure us all that the new look will include the famous logo.

ABC’s midday and evening news’ covered the story, giving kudos to the blog that leaked it, and clarifying the ABC’s position on the rebrand, which will officially take place on February 8th. They also spoke to ‘media expert’ Harold Mitchell about the impending changes (second video).

Listen to what the director of ABC TV Kim Dalton has to say about the rebrand in the audio below from ABC Radio Melbourne from earlier this morning.

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ABC1 Videos: Idents

New beginnings for the ABC in 2008.

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I’m pretty excited by all things ABC, and the national broadcaster has been giving us plenty to stew over lately. When they’re not broadcasting confusing promos for ABC2, they’re busy dropping hints about changes to come and leaking blurry photos of new logos on the net. So in the unlikely event we needed anymore proof that a new change was indeed coming, they’ve delivered this new promo bizarrely incorporating what I can only assume is the Pan Slavic Flag with the promise of “New Beginnings”.

The song is ‘Brand New Day’ by the cellist for the Foo Fighters Jessy Greene.

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ABC2

What is the 2 in you, and how do I bring it out?

bringout - Twango

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the2inyou - Twango

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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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Videos: Broadcast News

Drunk on election night: How the ABC, SBS, Seven, Nine, Ten and Sky opened their coverage.

abc07 - Twango

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sbs07 - Twango

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seven07 - Twango

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nine07 - Twango

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sky07 - Twango

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Australian’s went to the polls yesterday, and we voted ourselves in a new government. The “Ruddslide” was pretty apparent from early on in the evenings coverage, but the outlook of the incumbent Prime Minister losing his own seat in parliament to a former ABC journalist kept the night pretty interesting.

Of the five free to air networks, Seven, Nine and the ABC offered “non stop” coverage from around 6pm, with SBS and Ten opting to only cover the election through updates and a late bulletin. Sky News also covered the event in full, and I’m pretty sure they haven’t stopped talking about it since.

A very vocal tally room (bloody Canberran’s) no doubt spurred on in part by The Chaser’s presence wasn’t particularly welcome by most broadcasters, but should make for a very good episode next Wednesday of The Chaser Decides.

The ratings for last nights coverage not surprisingly saw the ABC win the night, followed by Seven’s very slick coverage that was actually much better than their own promos would’ve suggested. Channel Ten’s repeat of The Empire Strikes Back came in third beating Channel Nine’s election coverage, which looked and felt like they were broadcasting from the mid nineties.

Update: Get a four minute recap of the whole election night below.

The ABC’s Insiders program compiled a montage of the entire night spanning the various networks coverage, it includes Kerry O’Brien’s ABC/ALP gaffe as mentioned in the comments.

4minrecap - Twango

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ABC1 Videos: Chaser's War

Public Service Announcement: If the Chaser trespass on your property, you have rights!

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Its almost too exhausting to have to defend, but after the Chaser filmed a sketch involving Today Tonight host Anna Coren at Seven’s studios in Sydney.. “there was a bit of a Mexican stand-off with cameras for about an hour and all these Today Tonight executives went berserk and ran off to the Supreme Court” explained executive producer of the Chaser Julian Morrow.

Long story short Channel Seven have obtained an injunction to prevent the footage being aired on tonights episode of The Chaser’s War on Everything. Today Tonight led with this story tonight (first video) in a piece running for 16 minutes (topping an earlier Chaser story they did for 11 minutes). The story is basically one long interaction between Chas and TT reporter Bryan Seymour where he tries to be as offended as possible by the whole thing, while Chas waits to hear from the ABC’s lawyers and continues to point out the enormous irony of the whole situation.

Whatever comes out of this, the fact is that Today Tonight masquerades as a serious news program while doing nothing more then chipping away at our society and culture with the garbage its broadcasts five nights a week. Its understandable then that a show like Today Tonight, the complete antithesis of the Chaser would be so upset by the success of this amazing satire, that so publicly tears apart the role and significance of tabloid television on a weekly basis.

For more on my admiration of this show check out The Simpson’s War on Everything, or download entire episodes right here.

Update: Read the official response from The Chaser and ABC here.

Update 2: Read the interim injuction granted by the NSW Supreme Court here.

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ABC1 ABC2 Videos: Broadcast News Videos: Openings

The blue of Australia, and orange of the Pacific.

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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.