Cable Rebranding Scorecard

[Jess 1110]

Because so many networks have either tweaked, changed, or overhauled their look so far this year, I figured it was a good idea to keep track.

 

My criteria: a network has to have either changed their logo or branding scheme significantly within the last year. I'm gonna count late and mid 2007 debuts. I'm not going to count news looks, as many of them are individualized by show now and it's hard to keep track. The premium channels are largely organized by the mother network as many of them share common looks.

 

Current network names are in bold: if a channel has changed or altered its name, the old one is in italics. If the change is upcoming, I've just bolded both old and new. Where applicable, I'll list the company responsible for the on-air look, bearing in mind that the company responsible for creating the on-air aspect is often not the same company responsible for, say, the logo redesign. The new Starz look was split between four different companies, each handling a different part of the campaign: I've only listed Troika.

 

I'm going in order of my local channel lineup of Comcast Northeast Philadelphia. We don't get every channel so I'm sure there's a ton of them I've missed.

 

QVC: New logo and branding style as of September 2007.

 

AMC: Same logo, but the movie people have been dropped for an effective look using simple color and typography.

 

Discovery: A new logo, tagline ("The World is Just Awesome") was introduced in spring 2008. Much-needed update by 72 and Sunny.

 

A&E: New logo and tagline ("Real life. Drama") introduced on May 25th.

 

Lifetime: New logo, seemingly fresh out of 1995, was introduced in spring of 2008.

 

Nick at Nite: Abandoning all pretense of being a retro network, a new logo based on the mother network's logo was introduced.

 

Comedy Central: Still with the graffiti-inspired stuff, but tweaked with new fonts and more colors early in 2008.

 

Animal Planet: The less said the better.

 

FX: To underscore the network's new tagline "There Is No Box", the box featuring the trademark Fox klieglights was removed from the logo.

 

TV Land: Trollback and Co. refreshed this network's design to fit in with a new, general "Baby Boomer" programming strategy. The logo and distinctive promo sounder remains, but it sounds like Harry Shearer has been dropped.

 

History: Logo was modified in early 2008. The shortened form of the name is used in all promotions, replacing the old The History Channel moniker. The whole rebrand is to fit in with new programming that does not have a strict grounding in history.

 

truTV: Rebranded from Court TV on January 1, 2008. Troika is responsible for the on-air look.

 

Weather Channel: New HD studios to launch in June.

 

TV Guide Network: Formerly the TV Guide Channel until June 2007. Quite why the small name change was merited is a mystery.

 

ESPNEWS: Completely revamped on-air look to coincide with the launch of its HD simulcast.

 

Science Channel: Recieved its nifty "element box" logo in December 2007.

 

Investigation Discovery: Rebrand and refocus from Discovery Times in January 2008.

 

Planet Green: The first eco-friendly network. Rebrand and refocus from Discovery Home as of June 4.

 

Discovery Health will become Oprah Winfrey Network in 2009.

 

BBC America: In April 2008, imported the BBC One idents and presentation from the UK.

 

bio.: New on-air name for the Biography Channel as of last year.

 

History International: Adopted a logo similar to the new main History Channel look as its bug, but all other presentation remains with the older logo.

 

Lifetime Movie Network: Promos are now showing an adaptation of the new Lifetime logo, but the bug has not changed as of May 28.

 

Noggin: Became a 24 hour channel in 2008; formerly shared channel space with The N.

 

The N: Became its own 24 hour channel in 2008, displacing Nick GAS.

 

GSN: The strict teal on black scheme has been dropped for a variety of color and "skin" treatments. The bug changes color every so often, for example. The one that seems to be closest to the official treatment (as it's currently on the website) is orange and white.

 

Oxygen: New look upon NBC Universal's acquisition of the station.

 

MOJO HD: Formerly shared space with INHD before taking over the space totally.

 

UNIVERSAL HD: NBC redesigned this early in 2008.

 

CBS College Sports: Renamed from CSTV in March 2008 to reflect CBS ownership.

 

Cinemax networks: Slick CGI has given way to text on black background. All networks have gotten revised logos with "HD" stuck on them. No voiceovers are used, but the main channel logo now simply appears as "Max".

 

Showtime networks: Bumpers were redesigned with light effects and blur. Showtime Too is now SHO 2.

 

Starz networks: A new corporate logo was unveiled in April 2008. All of the Starz networks now use identical presentation (as opposed to one style tweaked for each network), but Troika's on-air redesign is stunning.

 

WGN America: The new name for the former Superstation WGN. WGN Chicago is unaffected.

 

Phew... anything else?

[Sam Horn 78]

Forgot Food Network, they're getting a new logo soon, right?

[qunewsguy 376]

Are they? It looks like they launched some new ID's and promo donuts last week.

[first on fox 18]

That's what Broadcasting and Cable said.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6561788.html

[Ntropolis 593]

Was that intentional?

 

Yes... a donut is a term for a promo where something is inserted, like when you have a national ad with some local tag at the end. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

[qunewsguy 376]

That's what Broadcasting and Cable said.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6561788.html

 

If those are the changes, they hit air last week. Paula's new show debuts on Sunday. The logo is clear with a beveled rim (except for the in-show bug which hasn't changed), and in a lot of cases you see water or flames within the circle in promos.

[jestbiteme 13]

Yes... a donut is a term for a promo where something is inserted, like when you have a national ad with some local tag at the end. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

 

 

Nathan, you missed the mark on that one.

 

On the subject of the scorecard, I have to say that the History Channel loses points in my book. In it's future-centric rebrand, they've lost the focus of their primary viewers. And they're desperate. I hate to bring up an old topic, but there seem to be a few History Channel viewers on here, and my rant probably fits with the other topic, so if your interested, I'm moving over there.

 

 

http://www.packofseven.tv/tvnt/showthread.php?p=36969#post36969

[LoadStar 363]

While WGN America's logo is simply weird and tagline less than creative, in my opinion it still isn't the worst station on this list. In my opinion, that title would fall to Universal HD. Over 3 years since they transitioned from Bravo HD+, the whole station still has the feel of being a timid experiment rather than a bona fide attempt to run a cable network, and the on-air branding and graphics reflect this. They're incredibly unimaginative and breathtakingly dull. Worse yet, they amplify neither the Universal HD nor the Universal brand name.

 

It will be interesting to see what becomes of the network after 8/8/08, the date this year's Olympics begin. It was the winter olympics 2 years ago that caused many cable providers to pick up the network, so one would hope that NBC-Uni would take advantage of the exposure that this year's olympics should give the network.