BBC3 says goodbye to its blobs

BBC3 said it had spent £380,000 on its new pink logo and idents after ditching the talking blobs that currently appear between programmes because audiences found them "cold and shouty".
The new pink "whimsical" logo and idents, which were unveiled today and which will hit screens in the next few weeks, will be used across the TV channel and its website as part of a new multiplatform approach to BBC3 content.
BBC3's current blue logo and talking blobs have been a mainstay since it replaced BBC Choice nearly five years ago and have become a hit with viewers.
However, a BBC spokeswoman said that audience research had found that many viewers who dipped in and out of the channel found the blobs confusing and "cold and shouty".
A series of six final idents have been filmed featuring the blobs singing goodbye songs.
These include one voiced by Little Britain's Matt Lucas as his character Dafydd from Little Britain, in which he says his "I'm the only gay in the village" catchphrase before bursting into I Will Survive.
Other idents will see the blobs singing the Goodbye, Farewell song from The Sound of Music and James Blunt's Goodbye My Lover.
"They are off," the BBC3 controller, Danny Cohen, confirmed at the BBC3 winter and spring season press launch today.
"We have got some really fun trails where the blobs sing goodbye. The blobs have served us well but it has been five years and the channel hasn't had a refresh."
Cohen said the channel had spent "relatively little" on the rebrand, which was created by Red Bee, costing £380,000 in total.
He added that the new logo had cost £35,000 while each new ident worked out as £50 "in terms if its life cycle", which he said he hoped would be five years.
The price is much lower than the recent BBC1 rebrand, which cost £1.2m.
Cohen said he was still in discussions about increasing BBC3's broadcast hours, which are currently 7pm to 4.30am, although no decision had yet been taken.
"I would still like us to have longer hours and we have had some discussions about that but there are no firm plans," he added.
Cohen said there would not be a big increase in repeats on BBC3, despite £10m being shorn from its and teen content brand Switch's budget.
"We have no particular intention to increase repeats massively," he added. "We repeat a fair amount already. It is a newer thing for other channels."
Meanwhile, Cohen said pop singer Lily Allen would go ahead and film the non-broadcast pilot of her new social networking series Lily Allen and Friends tomorrow night, despite suffering a miscarriage.
"We are very sad she has had that experience," she added. "We have sent her our best."