FoxtelCopied

In August 2018 Foxtel quietly dropped the dots from its logo. TV Tonight reported that at the launch of its new 4K channel and iQ4 set top box in Sydney, the dots were nowhere to be seen, with new chief executive Patrick Delany flanked by a simple Foxtel wordmark on an orange backdrop. A spokesperson confirmed the dots were no more, just 14 months after they appeared.

ChannelNews told the same story from the launch: the dots had gone, killed off by Delany a year after they arrived as part of a major makeover by his predecessor, and the message was now all about premium and high-quality content, with 4K sport and entertainment delivered over satellite.

TV Tonight noted that the 2017 refresh may have been an expensive exercise given its short life, and that the dotted mark bore a striking resemblance to the logo of a UK print company, Team Impression. It added that the remaining simple wordmark echoed earlier Foxtel branding, which referenced the historic 20th Century Fox searchlight logo.

This is a textbook case of a new chief executive signalling a new era by removing the visible traces of the old one. The dots were the previous regime's brand, and erasing them cost little.

Whether the dots were a bad idea matters less than the fact that they never had time to earn recognition. Fourteen months is not long enough for any mark to bed in, which makes the whole episode more a lesson in governance than in design.