[dwibs93]

Oneness is not a good set of idents, but at least the worst they get is boring.

These on the other hand?

youtu.be 

Not only are they just ripped straight from an ident from 2 years prior, but the animation is really cheap looking, the music and sound are a boring drone and irritating scratches and the colour scheme is incredibly garish.

What do you think?

[VMPhil]

Well, I don’t think anyone would disagree with you. They were garish and cheap looking at the time, and still look like that today!

This was when Stuart Murphy had taken over and was transforming the channel from more of a side channel to BBC One and Two to a channel aimed specially at young people.

He clearly wanted to make his stamp on the channel, and this must have been the quickest and cheapest way to do so.

That would have been more acceptable if it didn’t then take a whole year for a proper new look, the actually very good orange cubes look, to appear.

However, at the same time, the BBC were struggling to get approval from the government to replace Choice with BBC Three. It’s possible they wanted to just wait until Three launched, but it took so long that they went ahead and gave Choice a new look anyway.

But the problem is that it made Choice look really poor next to ITV2 and E4, and the ratings reflected that.

[dwibs93]

I really liked the “Under construction” idents, makes me wish more channels did transition idents more often.

[arbrax]

The heart ones are quite bad, but I always liked the rest of the Choice idents, especially this last one from the "Under Construction" set, the cup resting on the BBC logo blew my mind as a young one (timestamped in link)

youtu.be 

[WillPS]

Well, I don’t think anyone would disagree with you. They were garish and cheap looking at the time, and still look like that today!

This was when Stuart Murphy had taken over and was transforming the channel from more of a side channel to BBC One and Two to a channel aimed specially at young people.

He clearly wanted to make his stamp on the channel, and this must have been the quickest and cheapest way to do so.

That would have been more acceptable if it didn’t then take a whole year for a proper new look, the actually very good orange cubes look, to appear.

However, at the same time, the BBC were struggling to get approval from the government to replace Choice with BBC Three. It’s possible they wanted to just wait until Three launched, but it took so long that they went ahead and gave Choice a new look anyway.

But the problem is that it made Choice look really poor next to ITV2 and E4, and the ratings reflected that.

I always got the impression that the 'three blocks' era BBC Choice was essentially BBC Three in all but name. A big fanfare was made of the relaunch but really it just felt like more of the same - the 'BBC Three' style commissions were already landing; Two Pints, a series of Shooting Stars, 60 Seconds etc. The budget was clearly significantly higher post rename but really there wasn't an awful lot to separate them in tone/style.

BBC Knowledge -> BBC Four was a much sharper change

[Stuart]

I always got the impression that the 'three blocks' era BBC Choice was essentially BBC Three in all but name. A big fanfare was made of the relaunch but really it just felt like more of the same - the 'BBC Three' style commissions were already landing; Two Pints, a series of Shooting Stars, 60 Seconds etc. The budget was clearly significantly higher post rename but really there wasn't an awful lot to separate them in tone/style.

BBC Knowledge -> BBC Four was a much sharper change

I always got the impression that was the original idea. After all, BBC Four launched first because they were still struggling to agree what BBC Three was supposed to be all about.

It was all rather lost by the time the "THREE is a magic number idents" came along. Rather a wasted opportunity.

[VMPhil]

I always got the impression that the 'three blocks' era BBC Choice was essentially BBC Three in all but name. A big fanfare was made of the relaunch but really it just felt like more of the same - the 'BBC Three' style commissions were already landing; Two Pints, a series of Shooting Stars, 60 Seconds etc. The budget was clearly significantly higher post rename but really there wasn't an awful lot to separate them in tone/style.

BBC Knowledge -> BBC Four was a much sharper change

Nail on the head. As I say, it's like they were waiting for the governmental approval at first, but when it was delayed, it seems like all the things that were earmarked for Three started on Choice anyway.

[Rolling News]

What did people think of the CBBC On Choice idents? This side of the channel was of course replaced by CBBC and CBeebies in February 2002.

m.youtube.com 

[Jonny]

Oneness is not a good set of idents, but at least the worst they get is boring.

They're not great and clearly an Art Attack job from bits they had lying around. But I'd argue it did somewhat succeed in transitioning the channel away from its original pitch towards the BBC Three direction discussed above.

The Forest ident, the seldom used sombre ident during the Oneness era, takes the accolade of worst BBC ident for me. A real low point.

[chris]

They're not great and clearly an Art Attack job from bits they had lying around. But I'd argue it did somewhat succeed in transitioning the channel away from its original pitch towards the BBC Three direction discussed above.

The Forest ident, the seldom used sombre ident during the Oneness era, takes the accolade of worst BBC ident for me. A real low point.

Hang on sec - we’re all forgetting the BBC Two tagging idents!