Stay of execution for Oneness idents?

The refresh of BBC One’s on and off-air identity – due to take place on 20th October – may not go ahead as planned, Clean Feed understands.

It’s believed BBC senior leadership is not happy with the new idents produced for the channel.

Other channels and services are due to be refreshed on the same date and those changes are not thought to be in doubt. BBC News won’t be updating its branding until next year.

The news that the live implementation of some elements of BBC One’s new branding may be delayed comes weeks after Clean Feed revealed that the BBC One head of marketing post was being advertised. Other key BBC One marketing roles were also posted on various job sites recently but were later removed.

Some insiders, who have seen the new BBC One idents, recently commented on them in an online forum. One thought they were “stunning” another didn’t find them quite so appealing: “The premise of the new look is nice, however I feel the idents are lacking in the energy and excitement that you get from BBC2’s idents. The visual side of the idents are lovely and flow really well – however they still remind me of Oneness and can feel quite slow.”

So what’s likely to happen on 20th October on BBC One?

The assumption would be that the channel will stick with its current idents, albeit they’d be rebadged with the new BBC One logo and corporate branding.

It’s likely that trail graphics will be updated more or less as planned on the 20th, as there’s a tie-in there with other channels.

The other interesting question that arises – does the deferral of the new idents have an impact on the channel’s Christmas presentation package? Has it been created yet? Is it based around the concept of the new idents? Are they going to have to reuse a previous year’s graphics?

Where the channel’s standard idents are concerned, with a new BBC One head of marketing yet to be appointed, it’s unlikely that we’ll see any new idents appearing on air until next year. So, Oneness could be with us for a while yet.

It’s worth noting that there’s no suggestion the (five) new idents will be binned. But, presumably, the new head of marketing will be tasked with making them work better and potentially producing additional idents.

RELATED ARTICLE: Misjudged BBC One branding risks corporate damage.

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