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A new channel launched in New Zealand this week called Jones! that embraces the world of classic television with a modern slant and very upbeat branding.
Created by NZ based Brandspank its a nice spin on the traditional look and feel generally associated with channels filled with Colombo and Cheers reruns.
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British network Virgin 1 launched in 2007 as the flagship general entertainment channel of the newly rebranded Virgin Media (formerly NTL Telewest).
However with Virgin Media offloading its channel group to British Sky Broadcasting earlier this year, the new owners decided to ditch the Virgin brand (perhaps understandably from their point of view) and relaunch it as simply Channel One.
Before, after and during videos above.
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The way a network presents its news, both visually and editorially says a lot about the channel. For the sake of comparison lets look at how ITV, BBC, Sky and Channel 4 covered today’s Ash-attack.
I’ll avoid making comment on the various broadcasters editorial skills, but to summarise the look and feel of each news bulletin:
– The BBC is the straightest, clean lines, serious look.
– Channel 4 is the edgiest, feels a touch alternative.
– ITV is the glossiest, very shiny, little to CGI heavy.
– And Sky News is by far the least interesting.
For some historical perspective, check out my 2007 edition of this exact same post.
With the launch of ABC News 24 getting close, I look forward to seeing how the ABC takes on the task of branding a whole news channel. Hopefully nothing like Sky.
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Sky One, Two and Three launched a revamped look in the UK last month. All three networks now share the same set of idents, with just the colours and giant animated numbers setting them apart.
Each network is also embracing a “theme” in their design; solids, liquids and particles, with Sky Three taking on the latter. The new branding is a shift in the right direction, away from the old entirely CGI approach.
Have a look at the solids of Sky One, and the liquid Sky Two variations as well.
– Big thanks to Andrew for sharing.
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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.
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Considering the last seven posts on this blog are all ABC related, its probably time for something different. Thankfully a new look Sky Three went on air last week in the UK.
Sky Three is a free to air digital network available throughout the UK, and is meant to be an accompaniment to the subscription only Sky One and Sky Two channels.
While it seems an odd proposition for a subscription service to launch a free to air channel, presumably its programming and promotion is meant to encourage take up the pay only services, I guess it would be like Australia’s Fox8 launching a free to air Fox9 in a bid to increase subscription television take up?
Check out Sky Three’s old look, and more of the new look here.
– Thanks for the videos Craig.
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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.
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Update: The ABC explains everything slightly more eloquently here.
The fight for the next Prime Minister of Australia is well underway, and this evening the current PM John Howard faced his rival Kevin Rudd in the first (and possibly only) debate of this election campaign.
The debate was telecast on the ABC, as well as commercial network Channel Nine and news channel Sky. And while the debate was largely an exchange of speeches between the two men, there was some drama behind the scenes. Basically the event was being recorded by the ABC (for the first time since 1993), under an agreement with the organisers of the event, the National Press Club. The ABC agreed to supply a clean feed of the debate to any broadcaster that wanted it, however when Channel Nine included the worm in its broadcasts against the wishes of National Press Club there feed was pulled, forcing Nine to “pirate” a feed from Sky News.
Unfortunately that technical back and fourth (further explained in the videos above) was about the most interesting thing about the evening, for a slightly more interesting, if only fictional election debate, check out The West Wing’s live debate from the shows final season after the jump..
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Virgin 1 launched last night in the UK, it’s the new flagship channel of the Virgin Media group. Available on terrestrial, satellite and cable services, its set to compete directly with Sky One.
The best of whats available on Virgin 1 currently seems to be Seinfeld and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (watch if you haven’t!). The networks slogan is “proper telly”, and I’ll be interested to see how they follow up that claim. The build up to the launch didn’t exactly blow me away, and the magnetism theme of the first ident kind of reminded me of this, that said, its all early days still.
For another launch of a television station that I thought was pretty impressive, check out the first five minutes of Five US.
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There’s nothing quite like a natural disaster to compare news broadcasters, and with the flooding going on in the UK, and journalists standing knee deep in water all over the country, it seemed like a good time.
Above is the coverage from the BBC, Channel 4, Sky News and ITV.
– Thanks Craig for the videos.