New three no blobs

The BBC Three blobs are going, they’re being squashed, axed, dropped - whatever - they’re not going to be there from next month. I have to admit I’m going to be a little upset - they were one of the only current TV idents with any real character or humour.

But I can’t say I’ll be that bothered, or that my disappointment will last long - they will soon fade into nostalgia and I can enjoy them more as a fond memory.

Plus, I don’t really see them that often anymore as I watch almost everything on demand or time shifted - a side effect of having a new born baby and a short attention span.

I don’t know exactly what the blobs will be replaced with - but given the direction the channel seems to be going in - it might well be some god awful series of clips involving ‘real people’ - I mean what bloody hell have ‘real people’ ever done?

If I want to watch ‘real people’ making tits of themselves I’ll go an look for it on You Tube - I don’t want it shoved in my face on a linear television channel.

Except it isn’t a linear television channel anymore, not as such anyway. According to Danny Cohen, Controler of BBC THREE, the Channel is to “become the first BBC channel to change from a linear service to a fully joined-up multiplatform venture.”

Which on the surface sounds like utter bollocks. But if you get past the babble you soon realise that - what it actually means is that - all the shows will be available on demand from bbc.co.uk/three at the same time as they’re shown on the TV - there will also be a simulcast of BBC THREE online (you’ll need a TV licence for that).

But it also works the other way. This bold new multiplatform plan will see a number of new shows where the content is generated online and moved to the Television if its good enough.

One example of this is Upstaged (a virtual talent show) and the other is Unseen (a place for people to upload 15 second clips of them introducing BBC Three shows that might get shown on air).

Then there’s the Lilly Allen show where people upload videos to YouTube that might get played during the show and pushes the sites community out to places like Facebook, My Space, You Tube and Flickr - instead of keeping it all in house.

This is all pretty brave and I’m sure will actually end up being pretty successful with the channels core audience - but I’m still gonna miss the blogs.

I also love the new logo. Pink suits the TV and should be used more often. Add to that the prospect of some new more intelligent dramas and comedy, a selection of clever reality stuff and all the ground breaking multiplatform stuff and there’s a good channel on the horizon.

There needs to be something radical for BBC THREE to lose the title ‘Three Pints Channel). That and bring it up to a similar quality level BBC FOUR currently enjoys. I know more people in their twenties that watch BBC FOUR than BBC THREE - although that might say more about me than it does about BBC THREE.

Oh and there is going to be a big chunk of embedding (video and apps) and widgets to put BBC THREE content in other places (like my blog or My Space.)

Of course the most interesting thing for me is the fact that, at least some, sites on the BBC other than the new look homepage seem to be moving towards the wider frame and dropping the gray bar.

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