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Viacom Channels Could Go Dark On DirecTV
DirecTV is currently fighting with Viacom over their carriage agreements. If a settlement is not reached by tonight, 20 million DirecTV subscribers will lose 26 (including SD and HD) Viacom channels.
The 17 networks affected (without their corresponding HD channels) are:
- Palladia
- Centric
- Tr3s
- CMT
- Logo
- NickToons
- VH1 Classic
- TeenNick
- Nick Jr.
- Nick@Nite
- Spike
- BET
- VH1
- TV Land
- Comedy Central
- Nickelodeon
- MTV
For DirecTV’s side of the argument, check out directvpromise. Viacom’s view can be found on the company’s blog and whendirecttvdrops.
Logopalooza: TV Land Edition
On May 9, TV Land debuted a new logo for the first time since the networks launch 16 years ago. While TV Land has made minor tweaks to its logo in the past, the latest change is major and marks a new direction for the network.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, TV Land’s president Larry W. Jones says, “The logo feels more modern, but it’s not a complete abandonment of what our heritage is. ”
The Hollywood Reporter also reports that TV Land’s demographic has changed. TV Land’s target audience is 40-somethings, who used to be members of the baby-boomer demographic. Now that the baby boomers have aged, people in there 40s are members of Generation X, who TV Land believes want to see “the kind of multi-camera sitcoms on which they were raised on,” so the logo change is meant to show the change in the network. Jones says, “This was opportunity to signal to the new 40-somethings that is the new TV Land.”
Logopalooza: Lifetime Edition
On May 2, Lifetime introduced a new yin yang logo with the tagline “Your life. Your time.”
In a press release, Lifetime’s Senior Vice President of Marketing Time Nolan said, “Great experiences build successful brands. Expanding on Lifetime’s 28 year legacy, our vision balances the equity the network built while breathing new life into the viewers’ experience. This new logo marks the next step with a distinctive new look and attitude. Embracing everything we love about life, Lifetime strives to be as brash as it is honest and always entertaining.”
While I applaud Lifetime for taking more steps away from its former image as the channel with movies about battered women, my initial reaction to the logo was that it would not seem out of place on a feminine hygiene product and seemed borderline ridiculous. The pink yin yang would fit perfectly on a package of Poise, which was probably not what the Lifetime executives intentions. As I thought more about the logo, I realized that Lifetime was probably going for the balance between work and having a family, the yin and yang in a woman’s life. The problem is that a network logo should not require someone to analyze and get existential.
I prefer the old logo because it did not have an unnecessary symbol and got straight to the point in feminine script. You knew you were watching Lifetime. There was no glancing at a irrelevant symbol before you read the print underneath it. The channel name was the logo.
My dislike of the new logo definitely has a lot to do with the fact that it is new. Since 1995, Lifetime’s logo has deviated little until the most recent change, so I grew up with one variation of the above logo or another gracing the lower right-hand corner of my television screen. Maybe the pink yin yang will become Lifetime’s thing, an iconic logo for an iconic network. The yin yang may end up like the NBC peacock, forever associated with a network despite having nothing to do with the content of what the network airs.
What to know what more of Lifetime’s former logos look like? Business Insider takes a trip down memory lane with this slideshow.
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