You can see the main graphic element here.

Lambie Nairn, which has been responsible for much of the BBC’s branding, developed the new identity, and the “BBC News” brand now covers all of the Corporation’s news output, including the domestic 24 hour news channel, News 24, renamed BBC News Channel this morning. BBC World, which you can see internationally, in Canada, and on a tiny number of cable systems in the US, is now BBC World News. David Lowe composed the now iconic theme for BBC in 1999; he’s varied the theme through several iterations since then.

The BBC blogs the change, giving its rationale for the change, as well as a few interesting tidbits: viewers apparently associate the color red with BBC News. Red was introduced in 1999, but became the primary color for the BBC’s graphics and sets in the early 2000′s.

If you’re like me, you’ll enjoy this look at BBC News presentation over the past 50 years.

UPDATE: My good friend David, otherwise known as DJDeedle, has just created a mix based on David Lowe’s great title themes for BBC News, with a little BBC history thrown in for good measure. You can listen here.