Identifying a particular station through an on-screen graphic has been common practice around the world.
Many of the world’s famous television stations feature iconic logos that has stood the test of time. In the United States, there is the NBC ‘peacock’ and the CBS ‘eye’ logo, in Japan NHK has the ‘three eggs’ logo, and in the United Kingdom there is the BBC ‘three squares’ logo.
In the case of NBC’s ‘peacock’ and CBS’ ‘eye’, the logos are so easily identifiable that there is no need to add the name of the network within it. But the same cannot be said for the Philippines’ two top television stations; namely ABS-CBN and GMA.
ABS-CBN is forever identified by the three RGB (red, green and blue) circles and a black bar that masquerades as an antenna. The iconic logo, with a few minor changes, has been in place since 1967.
The network began to implement this logo as a digital on-screen graphic around the mid-1990s. With the exception of the 50th anniversary logo in 2003, ABS-CBN has kept this logo in place ever since.
Since 2011, however, ABS-CBN utilizes the full primary logo complete with the network’s name below the logo on its programs. It is hard to see from a distance, but when carefully magnified, the name of the network can be spotted.
Meanwhile, GMA’s ‘rainbow heart’ logo was first used in 2002, replacing the ‘Rainbow Satellite’ logo that had been in place since 1992. Last week, GMA unveiled its 2018 station ID, but the ‘rainbow heart’ logo, for whatever reason, was kept intact with only a few alterations.
Much like ABS-CBN, GMA started using its logo as an on-screen graphic during the mid-1990s. Yet despite their penchant for celebrating anniversaries every June, GMA has not used a special anniversary logo as an on-screen graphic; in fact, during its 50th anniversary in 2000, GMA kept the ‘Rainbow Satellite’ logo despite celebrating such an occasion.
So what if ABS-CBN and GMA only use the respective ‘three circles and a bar’ and the ‘rainbow heart’ instead of the full logo on its on-screen graphics? Will viewers be able to easily identify which network they are watching?
The answer is a definite yes. In many ways, ABS-CBN’s ‘three circles and a bar’ and GMA’s ‘rainbow heart’ are both famous and legendary, and can stand out on its own without the need of a network name.
Still, it will be up to the braintrust of both networks to see if a simpler on-screen graphic can be helpful to the audience and easier to the eyes. For now, though, the focus is on the preparation for the digital age, but once the conversion is complete, perhaps this topic should be revisited soon.
From the Tube 
While ABS-CBN could probably go for a simplified look that uses just the three circles and a bar, I think GMA’s logo is fine as it is, even for digital. The heart isn’t really overshadowed by the big GMA letters, and besides, letter logos have worked even in digital TV countries (like Japan’s NHK and TV Tokyo, or the UK’s BBC).
NHK and BBC have letters wrapped up in a particular shape or design. Same with ABC’s circle logo, and in the Philippines, Net 25’s ‘football’ logo and UNTV’s ‘square’ logo. GMA is a different case however. Their logo may be fine, but the ‘rainbow heart’ appears to be the more important feature here. It’s what makes the network so distinct. Even without the three letters, viewers can still identify GMA just by spotting the ‘rainbow heart’. Using it by itself would be much better than emphasizing the clunky three letters beside it.
IMO, I think GMA’s letters are too stylized para alisin pag on-screen, unlike sa ABS-CBN na black text lang na actually pwedeng i-eliminate, which they actually did before 2011 nga… What I mean to say is that yung letters sa logo ng GMA was designed to be cohesive with the rainbow heart talaga.
But even without those three letters, using just the ‘rainbow heart’ on screen will do just fine. Alam ng maraming viewers na kapag may ‘rainbow heart’, GMA ang pinapanood nila. There are also other ways with which the logo with the letters can be used. GMA can still use this on other things such as printed materials and social media posts.
Wait explain about logo of TV stations I think TV5 logo in 90s has hurricane logo but in late 2000s to 2010 the TV5 logo has tv with number5 on it The logo of ABSCBN has 3 circles refers the island of the Philippines and a bar is a tv tower
You don’t get the point of this article. What I focused on is the use of on-screen logos during TV programs and on how to improve and simplify such a presentation. Get it?
I like the idea of a simplified logo for recognition like the different logos in the US TV networks. But IMO, I think applying here in the Philippines is quite difficult for Filipinos. For those on antenna, they don’t know what channel is that if there is no indication of the channel name. So I guess, they still need to use the full logo with the name on it for easy recognition. I think it is on the difference of the culture. Anyways, I also prefer for networks to use a transparent logo while the show is going on similar to the US.
You’re probably right. There are still plenty more Filipinos who only use an antenna to watch TV. Then again, many are more than willing to shell out some money to upgrade to digital devices such as the TVPlus box. Such a transformation takes a lot of time, so all we can say is that we need to be patient with this approach.
The simpler the better.
I cannot agree more.