Cost aside - given how much channel 85 in particular has been bouncing around in format and name since HD Jade became redundant, I’m sort of not surprised something like this is going to happen between their “extra” Cantonese channels.
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I agree - this is the same model behind i-Cable’s Hoy Info (Ch.78), and the daytime market analysis can fill up the dead hours of on-the-hour news.
But the bigger problem IMO is the lottery and racing rights - putting them back to Ch.82 reverts the new channel back to the unclear state in 2016. Maybe 81?
To be fair, I’d argue they sort of found their niche in financial programming, but the identity is just a mess:
- J5 (2016-17!): I think they tried to follow the same formula as J2 - building the J prefix as a younger brand from TVB, but financial analysis and documentaries never appealed to young adults. IMO the brand was also tarnished among those politically-local crowds, after their Mandarin newscasts are panned of using Simplified Chinese subtitles. The quick change of graphics proved their uncertainty to the brand too.
V1:
V2:
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TVB Finance Channel (2017): Perhaps the clearest one they made in the channel’s later history. They oriented themselves with the freshly-rebranded TVB News Channel right down to the wordmark and positioned themselves as ‘the only 24-hour free financial channel’. But…
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TVB Finance and Information Channel (2018-22): … adding ‘Information’ to the mix is like gilding the lily: Reverting back to a J5-era lineup, just under a different name. The two used the same graphics package - this was the later version.
- TVB FSI Channel (2022-24): The current name is just convoluted and stupid. Aside from racing, sport wasn’t an option for cost-cutting TVB to go into - international rights often go into Now/ViuTV’s hands. I suspect the in-house advertising people also got the point - their pre-launch slogan further emphasized its information aspect while sport was actually the newcomer.
TL;DR: It’s just a mess, and they’re more and more irrelevant each time they changed. Rant over
Now, onto the other stuff: Japanese commercial network TV Tokyo debuted a new corporate identity, ahead of its 60th anniversary.
The new symbol drops the quarter-century-old globe motif, but maintained the blue and pink colour palette, with a pink arrow symbolizing 7 (their digital TV channel number), an arrow “into people’s hearts”, and a heart “looking forward to a better tomorrow”.
The new identity made its debut two weeks ago. This is the main channel, TV Tokyo’s signoff:
And this is their satellite channel, BS TV Tokyo, signing on:
https://twitter.com/Aoi_Tomoe_02/status/1723764230497919419
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A happy 2024 to all of you! A big rebrand coming this month in the Nordics: The WBD channels in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland are having a unified, snooker ball-like symbols, designed by DixonBaxi.
In their own words:
We have clear and unique channel brands in each of the Nordic markets. By synchronizing their look and expression, we tie them together and strengthen the brand identity of our channel portfolio. The time had come for a refreshed and unified brand experience across the Nordic countries, and we hope that this will delight the audience and elevate the viewing experience.
Our goal is to make it easier for viewers to find the programs they want. We wanted to create a system that flows from the power of the flagship channels and gives the secondary channels a clear direction. With a new and playful look, it’s easy to identify the local Warner Bros. The Discovery channels, not only when you sit at home and watch, but also if you visit another Nordic country. The flagship channel in each market will have the same colour, and so will the various secondary channels, based on their program offering.
Norway: TVNorge, Max, Fem and Vox
Sweden: Kanal 5, Kanal 9 and Kanal 11
Denmark: Kanal 5, Kanal 4, 6’eren and Canal 9
Finland: TV5, Kutonen (Channel 6) and Frii
This was the moment of the transition last month:
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Ecuador police confirmed the assailants had been captured.
“As a result of the intervention in @tctelevision, our police units have so far managed to arrest several subjects,” it wrote (on X/Twitter), alongside images of several men lying face down with their hands tied behind their backs.
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WBD’s Nordic channels are now rebranded, breaking up the ball symbol to small parts on both sides a la TNT Sports. This is TVNorge’s promo endboard:
I dag har fire norske tv-kanaler - TVNorge, Max, Vox og Fem - fått ny design. https://t.co/T4i9gJZTXJ pic.twitter.com/w15gGqfzlX
— Mediablikk direkte (@MEDIABLIKK) January 15, 2024
Promo from Kanal 5 Denmark:
The continuity on Kanal 5 Sweden:
And that on Frii Finland:
Over in the Netherlands, public broadcaster NPO rebranded their main channels, focusing on the core rounded diamond shape and differing animations. This came after their children’s channel Zapp updated their identity last year.
NPO 1:
NPO 2:
NPO 3:
And NPO Zapp last July:
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Staying with Dutch TV, some big news: a wide-ranging report into a hostile work culture within the Dutch public broadcasting system was published today. Titled Niets gezien, niets gehoord, niets gedaan | De zoekgemaakte verantwoordelijkheid (“Nothing seen, nothing heard, and nothing done/The lost Responsibility”), the report shows that three-quarters of the over 2,000 public broadcasting employees who completed a survey said they had been a witness to or subject of inappropriate workplace behavior.
The report was initiated following a 2022 investigative report published by local paper de Volkskrant, which reported on a culture of inappropriate behavior in exchange for job promotions at the popular talk show De Wereld Draait Door (BNNVARA), involving even its main presenter, Matthijs van Nieuwkerk. DWDD ended in 2020 after Van Nieuwkerk signed a new contract with the broadcaster, with his wish to end the show at the conclusion of the 2019-2020 season.
As a result, the Dutch Research Committee on Behavior and Culture of Broadcasters, a non-partisan, independent committee, was specially created by the Board of Directors of the NPO (the Dutch Public Broadcasting Foundation, which administers the three public TV and six public radio channels, plus ancillary services, and regulates air time allocated to the 13 broadcasting organizations integrated in the public broadcasting system) to investigate further.
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A happy Lunar New Year to those who celebrate! Here’s a roundup of festive pres for Lunar New Year on Hong Kong TV…
ViuTV & ViuTV6 (Ch.99/96) went with an abstract 3D background this year, while continued to include their mascots in the animation (specifically the hedgehog introduced last year). The endboard looks a bit empty with minimal branding - maybe there used to be a slogan in the empty space?
i-Cable’s HoyTV & Hoy IBC (Ch.77/76) continued to update their programme junctions with the festivities, using the same template like last year. Unlike last year, their news channel Hoy Info hasn’t adopted the festive look yet.
After putting the great effort of recolouring their new ident pink in 2023, TVB Jade (Ch.81) created festive idents again, coincidentally incorporating two styles of dragons (as a mythical creature and as a recreation paraded by humans) on competing stations into one. The animation is… debatable, though the gold symbol at the end was in line with their past efforts. Sadly, the soundtrack is still from a past package - 2020, to be exact.
Also like 2023, the ident is exclusive to Jade, while Pearl and FSI Channel (Ch.84/85) shared the same pile of gold with Jade on the DOG. J2 (Ch.82), on the other hand, went their own way.
And RTHK Ch. 31 turned to their festive ident on New Year sharp.
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For those who have a Mysat Pay TV service and are wondering what is happening with technical issues which have tsken them off air since last week. The satellite provider (Intelsat) has had a major failure and My Sat is looking for an alternative provider.
They have now provided a live stream of their Italian, Greek, Arabic channels through their My Sat Go website and app. Might be time for them to consider finding an alternative to satellite brodcasting and maybe provide live streaming on Samsung TVs or Fetch boxes instead.
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TVN in Poland had a big rebrand earlier this month - out went the blue and yellow colour palette, and in came the same symbol in a light blue gradient on white and new dynamic package.
The rebrand was designed by Argentine agency Superestudio, who previously revamped TVN7. In their own words:
“Already in the early stages of design, we realized that subtle changes to the logo would make it more appropriate for the brand, but we did not want to lose its iconicity, influence and recognition in the Polish television market. So we simplified the logo, replacing the yellow color with white, and modified the blue color to make the sign more modern, but at the same time retain its heritage," explains Superequiel Rormoser, executive director of Superestudio.
“The whole idea of the new setting is based on the word “United”. Through the graphic design, we show viewers that TVN is a meeting place where different perspectives, cultures and ideas come together. Logo, typography, photos - all these elements are harmoniously combined with each other, creating dynamic and multicolored layouts. The setting is based on photos of stars, because they are authorities for many viewers and they carry a message,” adds the director of the creative and self-promotion department of TVN Warner Bros. Discovery Robert Przyszlak.
Here’s a compilation of the new package:
Sat.1 in Germany celebrated their 40th birthday in January with recreated idents, skipping foward from their origins as PKS (Programmgesellschaft für Kabel- und Satellitenrundfunk).
Their celebrity-studded promo:
And Altice Media, the French company who owns TV and radio stations under BFM and RMC, are to be sold to shipping company CMA CGM.
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Even the mostly-commercialised VTV in Vietnam, a state TV network with 99% of its revenue came from advertising, still play all of these regularly, and I wonder if one day all of these would disappear, that would be really, really sad for me too.
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Hong Kong’s communications authority has approved TVB of merging J2 (Ch.82) and Finance, Sports & Information Channel (Ch.85) into ‘TVB Plus’, which will broadcast on the former’s airspace. The latter, meanwhile, would be handed to China-owned Phoenix TV’s Hong Kong Channel. The changes will commence next Monday (22/4).
Racing and lottery programming on FSI are also moving back to Ch.82 following the change.
After WBD announced Max’s upcoming European rollout in May, its Norway channels have updated their idents. This included REX, newly renamed from the channel MAX.
Montenegrin state broadcaster RTCG has launched their new corporate identity, utilizing bits of coloured triangle.
The bumper seen on general entertainment channel, TVCG1:
Sports channel TVCG2:
and the ident loop on parliamentary channel, TVCG3:
This was originally to be unveiled last year after a public competition, but was postponed after the winner, Zagreb-based Atelier Ivorin, had a main symbol similar to that of Google OR-Tools. You can see the V1 for yourself here.
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I think TVB merged the two channels as part of a cost-cutting measure.
Phoenix Hong Kong channel has been available on the city’s pay TV service Now for many years but will be broadcast as a FTA channel from next week.
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