BBC News Channel

The opening titles from 2002, as they appeared when broadcast in widescreen!

This example is close to the full 90, starting at 75 seconds. It also has no menu overlaid!

To fill in breaks, aside from other channel promos and countdowns, adverts like this were used. Basically, snippets of the days headlines were used, with the slogan 'Because the news never ends' added. They could often be repeated twice in one junction, which was possibly a little overkill.

The January 2003, several new countdown sequences were introduced on News 24. It had the same music, however the visuals now featured that thing that branding people love so much - people! Lots of shots of people, possibly filmed by somebody who just realised how to use time-lapse cameras! This version starts at 35 seconds.

For the war in Iraq in March/April 2003, this set of special titles was introduced to News 24.

Another variant of the new countdown sequence, this time starting at 20 seconds.

A second variant of the sequence, cutting in at 28 seconds this time.

In April 2008, BBC News 24 was renamed. Generally referred to onscreen as just 'BBC News' from this point, although verbally the term 'BBC News Channel' has often popped up to distinguish which part of BBC News is being referred to. The channel countdown sequences continued in a similar style, albeit now branded up as 'BBC News'. Somewhat annoyingly, the music was also initially offset by a few seconds so that it could sync up with the end of an animated BBC News logo, resulting in a countdown starting at 57 seconds, the 10 second part of the music coming in at 7 seconds, and the whole sequence not actually ending at 0. Thankfully this decision would eventually be reversed!

The headlines and titles from the BBC News Channel in 2009, presented by Tim Willcox. Headlines include a terror raid in the North West, reporting on the G20 protest death, and the crew of a vessel retaking control from Somalian Pirates.

After a short interlude for the last weather report from Television Centre (which can be found on the BBC Weather page), Simon and Sophie return to close off the final hour from TVC. The lights dim down on the old studio, before cutting to an exterior shot of Television Centre with a rarely seen copyright caption.

From the 1 O'Clock bulletin, Sophie leads into a pre-prepared piece on news with Nick Higham, before joining him live in the Newsroom behind her as he takes a look around. Nick would be doing this walk many times over the course of the day!

Jane and Matthew link into another report from Nick Higham, this time with him grabbing Rory Cellan-Jones on his lunch to talk to him about what he's working on, and of course his thoughts on the new complex. Before continuing to give a tour of some of the other areas in NBH.

Nick Higham takes another look around the newsroom, this time catching up with Mary Hockaday, the then head of the newsroom. With a somewhat prophetic remark at the end from Jane Hill about how much longer they would have two chairs for the presenters in the news studio too...

In March 2013 the countdown was revised for the move of the BBC News operations from Television Centre to New Broadcasting House in London. The general style of showing 'the news being made' with red lines flying through has been retained, albeit now with lots of smaller white lines spurring off to show their additional mobile reach now. As well as updated footage being used throughout, the finishing shots now focus on the new building at NBH. Additionally music timing has been restored back to the original 'finishes on zero'. This is a long playout of the channel countdown, used to fill the junction between the last TVC report and the first NBH report at 1pm on 18/3/2013.

Another countdown for the BBC News Channel, and it's starting to get a little later in the day around New Broadcasting House.

A brief look at what's still coming up on the News Channel, shown on the half hour.

Although the location shots with the lines flying through them don't change very often, the inbetween news shots are frequently swapped out or reordered over time to keep them current. The countdown sequence from 2017 here still following the same style, and finishing on New Broadcasting House this time as it's getting darker in the day.

An updated BBC News countdown to mark The Royal Wedding between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in May 2018. Aired here into the 4pm top of the hour on 17th May.

At 5.30pm, marking exactly 20 years since the launch of BBC News 24, the BBC News Channel revisits the original launch footage complete with countdown and flags from the very first branding package. Before leading into a retouched studio for the occasion.

To celebrate 20 years of BBC News 24/BBC News Channel on November 9th 2017, a series of old countdowns from the channel were used into various junctions. Here the 2003 version makes a return, albeit complete with some slight zooming.

15th July 2019 saw the long anticipated rollout of the new BBC Reith font across the BBC's news service, bringing with it refreshed graphics. Countdown sequences on the News Channel were also updated to take advantage of the new font, with the first playout at 9am giving a chance to see a long version of the countdown.

A refreshed 'coming up' menu for the BBC News Channel, now using the Reith font.

A number-free version of the BBC News countdown. Featuring all the same footage just usually played out in a longer sequence and without the numerical countdown, this usually appears as a holding device to fill gaps where the news may not hit an exact top of the hour. Most commonly this is the case during specials simulcast with BBC One/Two. Here Simon McCoy introduces a special update on Coronavirus in March 2020.

For BBC News Channel junctions which cannot be timed to fill with trailers and the regular countdown, or which sit off the top of the hour (both of these often the case with short notice simulcasts joining BBC One) a version of the 'countdown' without any actual count overlaid exists. The footage and music in this can be looped for extended periods of time and just faded out when needed, allowing them to fill any length of gap until they can join a bulletin. Here being used for nearly 2 minutes ahead of a news special on October 31st 2020.