1997-99 1999-2003 2003-08 2008-date

Thanks to the latest BBC power cut, the long-awaited relaunch of BBC News 24 was postponed by one week; it was finally unveiled on 8th December 2003.

The new title sequence included a globe which spun to where the main story is taking place, with the headline scrolling around the screen.

The title sequence was altered on 5th July 2004, the fiftieth anniversary of BBC News, with a smaller, silver '24' and a red, rather than orange, globe.

Louise Minchin and Jon Sopel presenting in a snazzy new set, with a somewhat busier-looking newsroom in the background. The relaunch also saw the first new DOG in the channel's history, which in a departure for BBC channels, is displayed at the bottom of the screen along with the clock. This large box, aka 'the tower', contained a slowly rotating globe, which spent the first few days rotating the wrong way! These graphics were removed during trailers, the weather and the top of the hour sequences.

The half hour headlines (top left) and the sports news (top right) are both presented standing up, in a BBC London News-stylee; and there were some massive on-screen graphics (below right), which left room for a scrolling headline ticker which soon became a permanent feature. Here, veteran weatherman Jack Scott is interviewed 50 years after the first in-vision weather forecaster.

The countdown survived, still 90 seconds long, with a greater range of clips from around the UK, some pinched from the opening titles of regional news programmes. Unfortunately the music was a rather watered down re-recording of the original. The trailer design, with the red box, remained unchanged. Watch a different, 55 second countdown

A new countdown was introduced on Easter Monday 2005, with another reworked version of the music. The focus was now on BBC correspondents reporting from around the world, beaming the news back to Television Centre. The full sequence was now only 60 seconds long. Watch this 30 second countdown

In May 2006 the music was remixed yet again, with an extended three minute version available on the BBC News website, along with an invitation to viewers to produce their own remixes! The best entries were used to lead into the Six O'Clock News on Fridays (by this time the three main BBC1 bulletins had begun to be simulcast on BBC News 24).

Shortly after the start of BBC News 24's tenth anniversary year, on 22nd January 2007, the channel received a revamp of its graphics, along with those on BBC News on BBC1. The opening titles were refreshed (above), while the 'tower' was demolished and replaced by a neater and less intrusive set of graphics (below). Watch a clip

Note that the clock was now positioned outside the 4:3 'safe' area...

...however due to viewer complaints this didn't last long, and within weeks was moved to the other side of the BBC News 24 logo (above). Quite why the clock is so important is a mystery to me - haven't we all got clocks all the over the place anyway?

Talking of time, the countdown was updated once again on 18th June 2007. Note that what appear to be hundredths of a second are in fact nothing of the sort - they count down from 24 to 00 because the sequence only contains 25 frames per second.
Watch 49 seconds of a different countdown

BBC News 24 celebrated its tenth birthday on 9th November 2007 by completely ignoring it.

1997-99 1999-2003 2003-08 2008-date