BBC Studios Home Entertainment

From the Audiovisual Identity Database, the motion graphics museum


Background

BBC Video (later "BBC DVD" and "BBC Home Entertainment", now "BBC Studios Home Entertainment") was formed and established in 1980 as a division of BBC Enterprises (later "BBC Worldwide") to distribute BBC television programmes for home video, with John Ross Barnard as head.

In 2004, BBC Video merged with Video Collection International (VCI), to create 2 Entertain, although as of 2020, BBC Studios uses their own logos on releases of their material, with the 2 Entertain branding being used on non-BBC releases the company distributes.

In the United States, the BBC released their products through CBS/Fox Video/20th Century Fox Home Entertainment from 1985 to 2000. The license was taken over by Warner Home Video in 2000. However, their logo was phased out on actual releases as of 2007, instead using just the standard UK logo or the 2 Entertain logo except on Charlie and Lola (only the print logo is shown). As of 2017, the BBC self-distributes their releases in the United States.

In Australia, their videos were originally distributed by PolyGram Video, before Roadshow Entertainment and ABC Video (the Australian "ABC") took over in 1996.

Logo (25 June 2017-2022?)


Visuals: Several white lines, with dots adorning the tips, stretch and form into a star-like shape. The lines then retract into the dots and float around more, before they retract into the centre and leave the dots floating as the BBC logo fades in (the boxes also grow in size), also in the centre. The dots rotate in a ring around the logo until they shrink and disappear after a few seconds.

Variants:

  • A five-second variant which starts with the "explosion" exists, which can be seen at the start of 2017-2021 episodes of Doctor Who whenever they are shown, as well as streaming and international prints of some BBC shows such as Top Gear.
  • A three-second variant also exists.

Technique: Simple 2D computer animation made in Adobe After Effects, designed by Matthew Henry, Eunjung Ahn, Rafaela Perera, Gavin Leisfield and Nick Meikle made in-house at BBC Worldwide (now BBC Studios). Production wrangling by Jen Lane.

Audio: A snap sound accompanied by an orchestral theme. Composed by Matthew Herbert.

Availability: Seen on some of the last BBC DVD releases during BBC Worldwide's era and later BBC Studios-era DVD releases until around 2022.

  • This logo can be found in Doctor Who, Hey Duggee and Bluey DVD and Blu-ray releases, among others.
  • One of the last DVD releases to contain this logo was the 2022 UK DVD release of Ghosts: Series 4.
BBC Home Entertainment
BBC Studios Home Entertainment
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