NBCUIN’s 13th Street Gets Brand Refresh With Music From Hans Zimmer

03.06.2017

NBCUniversal International Networks (NBCUIN) announced on Monday a refreshed brand identity for 13th Street, a crime and thriller channel brand in Western Europe and Australia.

On March 5, NBCUIN began rolling out the brand refresh with a soundtrack by multi-award winning producer Hans Zimmer. Composed by Bleeding Fingers, Zimmer's international TV and film audio production partners, the soundtrack underscores a series of brand idents created for digital and on-air use, forming part of a comprehensive refresh with innovative social, digital and on-air packaging.

The 13th Street channel brand refresh was developed via collaboration between NBCUniversal International Network's Central Marketing team, and the award-winning creative agency Red Bee, who established the unique typography and new brand design fundamentals.

13th Street is a well-performing pay-TV channel in Western Europe, localized in each of the markets where it airs: France (13ème RUE), Spain (Calle 13), Poland (13 Ulica) and Germany. Each market will support the brand refresh with local premieres beyond the multi-territory acquisitions. In France, for example, beginning on March 5, 13ème RUE will feature the premiere of Shooter (Ryan Philippe) and the final season of Bates Motel.

"Our aim was to evolve our top-performing crime channel 13th Street from a linear channel into a multi-platform crime brand," says NBCUIN chief marketing officer Lee Raftery in a statement. "We took a fan-first approach and leveraged the brand's social and digital elements as our starting point. Alongside the ground-breaking creative design was the brilliance of Hans Zimmer and Bleeding Fingers' soundtrack, providing the distinctive ingredients to deliver a unique brand experience for our fans."

"Contributing my own audio fingerprint to a network brand has been an amazing experience for me," says Hans Zimmer in a statement. "Having created numerous scores for TV shows and films, I was particularly intrigued to have the opportunity to help set the 13th Street mood and produce an evocative soundtrack, reinforcing the channel brand's thrilling identity."

Psychological thriller Chance has been acquired for 13th Street channels in Western Europe. The ten-part series stars Hugh Laurie as Eldon Chance, a San Francisco-based forensic neuro-psychiatrist who reluctantly gets caught up in a dangerous and violent realm of mistaken identity, police corruption and mental illness.

Later in 2017, Loch Ness, a six-part murder mystery following a monster that walks amongst men; a serial killer who has to be found and stopped, starring Laura Fraser () and (), among many others, will join the 13th Street line-up in France, Spain, Germany and Poland.

READ MORE: The Hollywood Reporter