CBS Unveils Unified Rebranding Effort

CBS has unveiled a new brand identity that evolves, simplifies and elevates the look and feel of all its divisions across platforms while creatively featuring iconic elements of the brand’s rich history, it was announced today by President and Chief Marketing Officer Mike Benson.

The updated brand identity for entertainment programming debuted on the Network this week in advance of the upcoming fall season. Viewers can expect to see it rolled out across CBS News leading up to the 2020 election and for CBS Sports by the Network’s broadcast of Super Bowl LV on Sunday, Feb. 7, 2021. Similar iterations are being developed for CBS Television Stations and CBS Television Distribution.

The strategy and execution, developed by Benson and his team with agency Gretel, unifies the CBS brand while differentiating it in an increasingly crowded media landscape. It is designed to create stronger continuity and clarity from the core brand to the subsidiary brands while driving attribution for CBS’ content, whether on the brand’s platforms or others – live, on demand or streaming.

Mike Benson

“CBS has long been one of the most unifying brands in media, bringing people together from all walks of life. Vibrant, trusted, inviting, inclusive – a connector with heart. We needed to make that clearer and more consistent at every consumer touchpoint,” said Benson. “We are defining every aspect of the CBS brand to make it more meaningful for existing and new consumers, regardless of where they encounter the brand.”

The brand identity draws upon CBS’ 91-year history, with key visual and audio elements from the past integrated into the new aesthetic. The ubiquitous CBS Eye logo remains central to the new identity in a unique animated way. The voiceover “This is CBS,” which was used for decades in the Company’s radio and television broadcasts beginning nearly a century ago, is another example of memorable legacy elements playing a strong role moving forward.

In addition, to reflect its role as a prominent content creator for all platforms more accurately, CBS Television Studios, one of the industry’s leading suppliers of programming with more than 70 series currently in production across broadcast and cable networks, streaming services and other emerging platforms, has been renamed CBS Studios.

New elements of the CBS brand strategy and its evolved look, feel and sound:

• The iconic CBS Eye will be used across the brand identity in a flexible style that elevates it as a standalone logo and leans into the shapes and elements that make it up – separating and rejoining in unity via lively animation.
• Brand attribution will be applied to programming and promotion that drives better connection between the CBS core brand, its sub-brands and our premium content available across CBS-owned and third-party platforms.
• Content on CBS and CBS-owned platforms will be tagged with “CBS Original,” “CBS News,” “CBS Sports” or “CBS Presents” to reinforce its role as a leading creator and content provider for its platforms and many others. For example: “CBS Presents The 56th Academy of Country Music Awards.”
• Content produced by CBS Studios will also include “A CBS Studios Production” and CBS Studios branded marks.
• An audio expression of the updated brand identity comes to life in a five-note mnemonic written by assigning musical notes to the historic “This is CBS” voiceover slogan, creating a new melody and animation that will appear at the top of the hour during primetime programming on CBS.