SBS makeover coming

SBS will rebrand its logo and presentation across all its platforms in May.

The map logo will be retained in a refined form, and the broadcaster will reintroduce a tagline, “Six billion stories and counting”, a phrase that by default rather than design follows the SBS acronym.

SBS managing director Shaun Brown, recently re-appointed to 2011, said the response to the phrase from the SBS board, community advisory committee and staff was very positive. He said listeners would notice a different soundscape and “a brighter, more vibrant and consistent (TV) channel”.

And the network is determined to avoid the bad reaction by ABC viewers to the fumbled launch of ABC1 and ABC2 watermarking.

“We don’t really want people to be hit in the face with this,” he said. And the Mercator map, like the ABC squiggle, is unlikely to be dumped.

“Why get rid of it?” Mr Brown said. “We love it anyhow, and the research has confirmed it’s widely admired, so we were only going to make it a little bit more contemporary.”

Mr Brown said SBS undertook the rebranding to ensure the SBS brand was consistently represented across its platforms and to give the logo more of a contemporary feel.

But the network, still under siege for allowing advertising within programming, will be accused of window-dressing an increasingly Anglocentric and commercial TV schedule. This week, lobby group Save Our SBS Inc sent a petition with more than 7000 signatures to Communications Minister Stephen Conroy requesting SBS cease interrupting programs with ads.

“To focus on content rather than marketing issues, that plays to the old-fashioned view that public broadcasting is just about content,” Mr Brown said. “Well, it isn’t. It’s about connecting to your audience.”

That audience is growing across SBS’s platforms, he added. Television viewership was up slightly year-on-year.

SBS will also revamp its website, reflecting a growing online audience in May.

Source: The Australian