Surprisingly, I am not set against Digital On-screen Graphics (DOGS) if they are done tastefully. However, I would prefer that they weren't there at all. But I do object strongly to "coming-up next" banners, garish (ugly, bright and/or animated) DOGs and graphics that generally draw the viewer's eye away from the programme being watched.
The DOG is the station logo that appears at the top left of the screen. Generally, most channels have DOGs that are relatively sutle and I can just live with it, such as BBC Four's:
But some are a little intrusive; BBC Three's pink neon DOG is just wrong as the pink draws the eye towards it (expecially when animated):
But BBC Three's DOG wasn't always neon or pink:
Go back a little further and BBC Three's logo was an equivalent to BBC Four's:
Admitedly, most DOGs are fairly sedate but with constant rebranding and aiming at target audiences (especially "yoof") I can see things getting worse and louder DOGS becoming the norm to make the channel look more 'funky' (as with BBC Three's pink neon DOG). I can only hope that a change of heart of the television executives moves away from DOGs altogether but, in this multi-channel age, that isn't going to happen.
The execs say that DOGs are needed to identify television channels when viewers channel-hop between the multitude. If that's true why do most channels remove their DOGs when they have their advertising breaks?
If we must have DOGs on our screens why can't they be as small as possible and unobrusive?
These really annoy me; especially when it's a drama. The programme hasn't finished and a banner appears accross the screen advertising the programme that is to follow. It has crept into the maintstream channels but the worst offenders are the freeview/satellite/cable stations that run often repeated and small playlists of progammes. A "coming-up next" banner will appear in nearly every programme they transmit. Why can't this be held back until, at least, the end titles?
The oldest example I have is an ITV3 banner from 2005 where the banner rolls out from the DOG (the DOG's too bright too!) "Coming Up Next" appears and fades, "Rosemary & Thyme" appears and fades and the banner rolls back up to the DOG. The banner is designed to attract the eye; therefore, designed to spoil the programme:
"Coming-up next" graphics should never appear within a programme. It is, frankly, insulting to the audience and ruins it.
There are too many examples of bad and optrusive graphics transmitted every day for me to track; but, below, I will post some examples of DOGS or graphics that, while watching, I found a particular distraction or that displayed a contempt for the audience. Hopefully, I won't come accross too many...
This banner, or one similar, will appear on every programme broadcast by the UKTV stations such as Dave, Alibi, UKGold (the most garish), Watch etc etc. That's EVERY programme...
Look everyone, it's NEW! It isn't a repeat, it's new!
A score banner is something we are used to with football, however loud, but to still include the ITV4 logo was a bit unecesessary.
Above is the infamous Doctor Who/Graham Norton incident. Seriously, who thought that this was acceptable? Thousands of complaints were, deservedly, received by the BBC.
A major character, Professor Cutter, has just died and in an emotional scene a banner advertising ITV player takes up nearly a fifth of the screen. Scene totally spoiled. Graphics such as this should never appear within the programme itself.
The DOG isn't too bad but this is UKTV Drama (now Alibi) putting up a promotional banner around a minute before and after each commercial break. Here the annoyance is littered throughout the whole programme and not just the end.