The rebrand, taking place on 22 November will retain the familiar colouring of the channel brands, which will be brought together by a ‘signature open box branding’.
CBS Reality, which has been the UK’s number 1 factual entertainment channel amongst adult women since 2016 and has been airing popular original, expert-led true crime programming, will be renamed to True Crime, and streaming brand True Crime from CBS Reality will change from to True Crime UK. The FAST channel is available through multiple platforms including Amazon Freevee, Rakuten TV and Samsung TV + services initially, with more major platforms rolling out shortly.
Entertainment channel Legend, which features action, sci-fi, adventure and western series and movies, and which was renamed from Horror Channel in 2022, will also go through a brand transformation.
On-demand content from both the True Crime and Legend channel brands are available currently on free on-demand player CBS Catch Up Channels UK which will become Watch UK. Watch Free UK is accessible directly via Freeview, Freesat and Youview, and downloadable via IOS, Android, and all major device and manufacturer stores.
Other channels in the portfolio to rebrand include Legend Xtra and True Crime Xtra, and time-shift versions Legend XTRA +1 and True Crime +1.
Sam Rowden, VP, Content Group said, “With such a vast array of content available across so many platforms, we wanted to elevate our UK portfolio to be more easily recognisable and accessible, and to clearly reflect our content offering. This rebrand closely aligns with our aim to provide carefully curated services catering to both existing and new audiences, wherever they choose to watch our programmes.”
The new look was developed with Second Home Studios alongside AMCNI UK’s in-house creative team led by Creative, Marketing and Communications Director Matt Stott, and the updated identity is supported by a marketing campaign including on air and digital media elements.
CBS Reality's demise in the UK means that the CBS brand name on linear TV has come to an end and similar to CBS Justice these would continue to function in Africa and other parts of Europe which begs the question as to what fate awaits these channels.
CBS Reality has been a crime filtered channel in the UK so the switch to True Crime makes sense. These channels had felt more AMC than Paramount so the names kind of makes sense which begs the question on the fate of its international counterparts.
Considering True Crime seems more permanent my guess is that CBS Justice in Africa will likely fold under that brand name and CBS Reality considering there's been not much put out there in terms of branding my guess would be, True Entertainment or True Television or weirdly enough True Reality.
Seeing as AMC International UK also manage the feeds seen across EMEA this rebrand is likely to be duplicated elsewhere.
