Improved branding for Australian preschoolers.

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The excessively clunky “ABC for Kids on 2” brand has been relaunched as “ABC 4 Kids”. Running from 6am-7pm on ABC2, this channel-within-a-channel has long deserved better positioning, if not its own dedicated slice of the airwaves.

Thus concludes the refresh of the ABC’s suite of channels with ABC1 in February and ABC2 in April.

The new look ABC2: Always Brighter.

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The on-air look of ABC2 has ranged from the interesting to the ordinary. While easily the most intriguing channel on free to air television, ABC2 has always struggled with its identity.

Thankfully this new lime-and-pink design is the most mature branding to grace the network, even if the execution of the new idents is a little sporadic (the fish look great, the knitting.. not so much).

Enter the Lissajous.

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Encapsulating the scope and relevance of the national broadcaster is the goal of this new brand campaign, and having people jump into the embrace of the ABC’s famous lissajous is the approach they’ve taken.

Beautifully produced and visually distinct these new spots have the unenviable challenge of trying to represent an organisation with as much history and depth as the ABC, something any thirty second promo will struggle to achieve.

Created by Sydney agency Moon.

The one thing I hate about ABC News Breakfast. (Plus, all the stuff I like about it).

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ABC News Breakfast has been on air for about six months now, and the more I watch it, the more I find myself enjoying it.

It’s very much ‘radio on the television’, with rolling news, interviews, weather and quite literally radio on the television when they cross to interviews around the country being conducted on various ABC radio stations.

Available on the digital only ABC2, or streamed live online, its a fresh change from the infotainment formats adopted by its rivals. It presents itself as an honest and often frank outlet for news, with the daily look at the front pages of the papers often devolving into an interesting analysis of the media.

The programmes Twitter page; @breakfastnews has become essential tracking during the broadcast, with insight from the shows producer about whats coming up, whose running late, and what’s going on behind the scenes, it’s easily one of the first actually useful applications of Twitter I’ve seen a TV show use.

But now, back to the title of this post.. The one thing I hate about ABC News Breakfast is the entire branding of the programme, and its the one tip of my hat I’ll give to rival Sunrise. “ABC News Breakfast” is not only a clunky name, but the on-air design, sets and graphics don’t do the show any justice.

The whole thing needs a refresh, it could really look a lot better, because if there’s one thing we all know, people judge you on how you look, especially when your taking up 40 inches of space on my living room wall.

ONE new channel from March 26th.

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The free to air digital multichannel revolution may finally-perhaps-kinda be upon us. From March 26th the Ten Network will be the first of the commercial networks to launch a fully fledged 24/7 digital multichannel in the form of ONE, a sports dedicated free to air channel.

Ten’s decision to launch a whole new brand for the channel, instead of simply launching ‘Ten Sports’ seems to be working. The look and feel of ONE is very polished, contemporary and inviting, no surprise though from the only commercial channel that seems to have any idea about how to brand.

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It’s Breakfast time for ABC2, digital gets serious.

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Long time morning television rivals Sunrise and Today will face new competition from Monday morning, with the much anticipated launch of ABC News Breakfast.

The new service fronted by Virginia Trioli and Barrie Cassidy (formerly Peter Lloyd) will run weekdays between 6-9am on ABC2. With the resources, and the reputation of the ABC behind this new program, its likely to carve out an audience under whelmed by the commercial networks offerings.

It should also do wonders for the publics increasing recognition of ABC2 as a distinctly separate offering to ABC1, with the recent Paralympics also helping the networks impressive audience growth.

All this of course showing that one thing, and one thing only is going to drive the take up of digital in Australia: content!