The BBC has given its two children’s channels a refresh as part of an ongoing project to update the look and feel of BBC channels.
The original CBeebies logo and rounded ‘bugs’ or blobs, used since its launch in 2002 have been replaced with a new flat logo and square bugs. The new look brings the channel in line with other BBC services that have been updated in the last 18 months.
The new look debuted this morning at 6am.
An hour later, CBBC went live with its own refresh.
The old CBBC logo, last updated in 2016 and made up of circular logo based on an abstract rendition of the letters ‘CBBC’, is replaced by a simpler logo better optimised for online, as it faces a transition to all-online broadcasting next year.
The latest update leaves BBC Parliament as the last remaining BBC channel to be refreshed.
The BBC had its own typeface – called Reith – created to reduce licensing costs. As a result of the cost of rebranding BBC services, the rollout of changes across BBC channels has been phased over multiple financial years. BBC One and Two were refreshed in October 2021, when BBC One introduced its current set of ‘lens’ idents.
Iain Hatton