UKTV lets viewers play detective with Alibi brand refresh

new alibi ident

Wednesday 1 July 2015

Multi-award winning media company, UKTV, today unveiled a new on and off air identity for its popular pay TV crime channel Alibi.

Adrian Wills, UKTV's General Manager for Alibi said,

We launched the channel six years ago and it's established itself as a loved destination for fans of crime drama, with an enviable mix of high quality British and US content. It is now the right time to mark the next stage in Alibi's evolution by infusing its brand identity with a contemporary edge to reflect its high quality output.

From today, viewers will see changes to Alibi both on and off screen with four new intriguing idents and menus which will rotate daily. Alibi's iconic logo has also been modernised with new typeface and colour texture.

Led by Alibi's Assistant Brand Manager, Stephanie Maas and UKTV's Creative Director, Scott Russell, design agency Art&Graft was brought on board after a three-way pitch to develop the brand's visual identity and tap into what the audience loves about Alibi and its content.

Russell said,

The crime genre is full of clichés but Art&Graft impressed us with their fresh approach and presented a concept that we hadn't seen before. The four idents are all inter-linked and tell the story of one crime; this puzzle solving element is at the heart of what the audience love about Alibi's shows and allows them to play detective. The red string, which visually runs throughout the narrative, acts as a device to help viewers piece the clues together and leads to the crime board menus which, in turn, use the device to link programmes.

Each ident was shot in a cinematic style to match Alibi's quality programming and to mimic the visual look of the live rendered OSP menus.

Art&Graft's creative was inspired by the personality of the channel and plays to puzzle solving with the world's greatest minds; a theme that often forms the centrepiece of a good detective show. Founder and Creative Director of Art&Graft Mike Moloney said,

We considered the process of a crime investigation and wanted the idents to capture it in its most minimal, conceptual form. The red string connects various pieces of evidence within each environment, taking the recognisable image of a crime detective's pin-board and transporting it into a physical space. We ask the viewer to complete the puzzle as if they are the first person to arrive at a crime scene.

The updated brand identity epitomises Alibi's programme schedule which includes much loved favourites Castle, Rizzoli & Isles, Murdoch Mysteries, Luther and New Tricks. Castle and Rizzoli & Isles are the channel's top performing programmes this year, peaking with 483k and 448k viewers respectively, followed by Death in Paradise with 390k.

Next week (7th July) viewers will also be treated to the premiere of international hit drama series Crossing Lines, starring William Fichtner and Donald Sutherland. A unique and exhilarating global action and crime drama, Crossing Lines taps into the charter of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to mandate a special crime unit to investigate serialised crimes that cross over European borders.

To mark the launch of the brand's refreshed look, a two-metre high replica of a human skull was unveiled on London's South Bank this morning. The skull, which took a design team two weeks to create, was cordoned off with crime scene tape as three forensic scientists studied the area for evidence. A tonne of earth was used to dress the scene, making it look as though the huge skull had just been discovered after being buried.

ENDS

For more information, please contact:

Kerry Parker, Head of Network Communications

Lara Feinstein, Corporate Communications Coordinator

NOTES TO EDITORS

About alibi HD

Sky channel 132 and Virgin TV channel 130

Alibi is TV's home of crime drama, promising the best selection from the genre. It premieres hit US series like Castle, Body of Proof and Rizzoli & Isles and Perception.

The channel also features some of Britain's best-known TV detectives such as Sherlock, Inspector George Gently and Luther and welcomes BBC hit, Death in Paradise.

The schedule features favourites including Dalziel & Pascoe, Diagnosis Murder and Miss Marple. The crime scene teams of Silent Witness and New Tricks keep audiences guessing - and there is always murder most foul with the channel's popular co-production of Murdoch Mysteries.

About UKTV

UKTV is the multi-award winning media company that reaches 42 million viewers a month. UKTV's eleven imaginative brands - UKTV Play, Dave, Watch, Gold, Alibi, Yesterday, Drama, Really, Home, Eden and Good Food - include the most popular non-PSB channel in the UK and account for 9% of the British commercial TV market. The company's most recent financial results showed record-breaking year-end revenue of £283m and EBITDA of £74.1m. It invested £123m in programming and related launches last year, and is becoming an increasingly significant investor in UK creativity.

UKTV has a truly innovative model, curating brand-defining commissions, high-profile acquisitions and the very best of BBC, alongside programmes originally shown on ITV and Channel 4. The network embraces technology to deliver inspired channels to audiences through Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media, BT, TalkTalk, YouView and UKTV Play, and distributes its highly valued original programmes to 200 territories.

Now celebrating its 22nd year at the forefront of digital television, UKTV - an independent commercial joint venture between BBC Worldwide and Scripps Networks Interactive, Inc. (SNI) - is proud to be the only British television broadcaster to be recognised by Best Companies.

corporate.uktv.co.uk / pressoffice.uktv.co.uk / @uktv_press