[itsrobert]

Yes, the Hum Productions website must have been wrong - it may have been a prototype sting or something. My friend was a sound supervisor at BBC World at the time and was responsible for mastering the CDs used in the gallery for production purposes. It quite clearly states "NOT WBR" next to that sting on the track list.

The only change to the WBR music in 2000 was that the opening sting/vamp was extended to accommodate a longer headlines sequence. Prior to that, it was only a 30" or so track as WBR was only a 15' programme back then. They also introduced a new internally edited tag at that point. Those tracks were used until 2013.

Good to know and probably makes more sense than recommissioning an edited version two months before an impending wholesale rebrand. Interesting that they had such similar tracks for the World Business segments and full World Business Report programmes - a bit of consistency that would've been lost when the 2000 BBC World music came in (and lost further when Sport Today was launched in 2001, which was very different to the World Sport sting).

Indeed and it's always baffled me how the 1997 WBR theme lasted as long as it did. Like you say, from April 2000 the main news music was changed to David Lowe's version which included both a business and sport sting. What's more, they had a standalone 'World Sport' programme featuring Lowe's music. Yet WBR carried on with the flags era music. I guess someone in a position of power liked it so it survived.

Sport Today was, I think, composed by Lord David Dundas, if memory serves me correctly. So, that wasn't a Lowe version either!

DTV, can you remember - did 'World Sport' launch as a standalone programme with the Lowe music in April 2000? Or did it use a different theme prior to then? I think Sport Today launched some time in the Spring of 2001.