NBC logo

The logo was also incorporated into the corporate emblem of the network's parent company, NBCUniversal, then became a part of a redesigned Comcast mark at the end of 2012 after it was acquired by the latter a year before.

[1][2] NBC debuted as a radio network in 1926, with a logo depicting a microphone surrounded by lightning bolts, superimposed over a map of the United States.

Lightning bolts were also part of the logo of corporate parent RCA,[5] as well as that of one-time sister company RKO Pictures.

[6] There is some indication that the xylophone logo was used at 5:32 p.m. Eastern Time on December 17, 1953, to announce the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) approval of the new color standard, which would go into effect 30 days later.

As a result, the peacock became a marketing tool, in the hopes that people tuning in to NBC would purchase color TV sets.

According to Game Show Network executive David Schwartz, the first announcer who spoke those famous words behind the Peacock graphic logo was Ben Grauer, who had been a familiar voice on NBC since 1930.

A slide with the letters "NBC" in red, green, and blue respectively and with "TELEVISION" underneath appeared at the end of every color telecast.

[7] Several versions of this exist; the first is the snake forming in front of a multicolored background while an RCA TK-40 or TK-41 camera passed by with a jazz rendition of the NBC chimes, while the second consists of the snake forming against a color-changing background, going from blue to green to red, on each note of the regular, automated NBC chimes.

[11] The "Laramie Peacock" made special appearances throughout the ensuing years, mostly in a retro-kitsch context or to commemorate a significant broadcast event on NBC.

[12][failed verification] On December 6, 2024, in celebration of the 60th anniversary of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the "Laramie Peacock" logo made a brief return during the broadcast.

NBC updated its image in 1975 with the introduction of an abstract "N," a bold, bright and contemporary design consisting of two trapezoids – one red and one blue.

[6] One of the technological innovations of this logo was its use in the first electronically animated ident for an American television network; the trapezoid "N" was previewed in a print ad in October 1975, before it was officially used on-air on January 1, 1976, at the start of the Bicentennial year.

[16] An out-of-court settlement was reached[5] in which NBC gave Nebraska ETV over $800,000 worth of new broadcasting equipment, including a color mobile unit.

This decision was influenced by research conducted in 1977 by Peter H. Kliegman from NBC's corporate planning department, which recognized the Peacock's value in identifying NBC-TV, and recommended its use as a logo.

In 1980, just one year after the "Proud N" was introduced, NBC hired renowned design firm Chermayeff & Geismar to create a new brand identity for the network.

The peacock's head (implied by the negative space cutting into the side of the purple feather) was now flipped to the right – this was done to suggest as if it was looking forward to the future, not back to the past.

This new design remained unused for several years – NBC was ranked last among the Big Three television networks in ratings at the time, and wanted to hold off on the expense of rebranding until it had returned to the number one spot.

A new network ID sequence was introduced, with the NBC logo reflecting through very huge glass feathers; this identity was used until the end of the 2001–02 television season.

The smaller logo was reintegrated at the start of the 2007–08 season on all widescreen programming, including pre-recorded standard definition broadcasts in order to insert graphical promos during the show.

Live finale episodes of The Biggest Loser continued to use the version with the NBC name titling below the peacock until its September 2009 conversion to HD, due to that program's standard definition production being based out of Burbank instead of New York City.

The network's logo bug incorporated the text starting in August 1995, and it becomes colorized on September 18, 2006, NBC Nightly News finally began using the 2006 on screen bug starting on March 26, 2007, to coincide with the program's first high-definition broadcast, with the web address for MSNBC (and since 2012, NBC News) later added to the right side during the program.

[21] On September 14, 2009, with the introduction of the network's "More Colorful" image campaign by design agency Capacity Studios, the network incorporated a flickering effect for a gradient version of the NBC peacock – seen at the end of promos and ID sequences – in which the logo cycles through all six colors before switching to the standard multi-colored logo, usually displayed next to a clip featuring a main character or host of a particular program.

In April 2013, NBC altered and modified their 3D logo and changed its wordmark to use Sweet Sans Pro, which officially came out on September 30, 2013.

This is evident with such 1960s programs as Hullabaloo using both archived Kinescope footage with rare color videotape finds, which was later re-released for home video on VHS and DVD.

For the first American television broadcast of The Beatles' black-and-white film, A Hard Day's Night, on October 24, 1967, NBC replaced the peacock with a penguin: a caption showing I Dream of Jeannie and The Jerry Lewis Show (the programs NBC was pre-empting that night) was pushed off-screen by an animated, waddling penguin adorned with a top hat and flapping its flightless wings (imitating the peacock), accompanied by announcer Mel Brandt drolly saying "I Dream of Jeannie and The Jerry Lewis Show will not be seen tonight.

At the end of the sequence, the penguin is shown taking off its top hat and unzipping its chest, with The Beatles jumping out and performing, before running away while being chased by fangirls.

This clip was later re-used in 1985 to open an episode of TV's Bloopers & Practical Jokes, and in the 2002 special The Most Outrageous Game Show Moments 2.

In 1993, NBC commissioned several artists such as Al Hirschfeld,[30] Peter Max,[31] John Kricfalusi,[32][33] J. J. Sedelmaier,[34] David Daniels,[35] Joan C. Gratz,[36] and Mark Malmberg[37] to devise abstract variations of the peacock for promotional use.

[39] Animated versions of the Hirschfeld, Sedelmaier, Gratz, and Kricfalusi peacocks acted as stings, and continued to air on the network until 2002.

[40] In 2017, The New York Times released a TV advertisement at newspaper that showcased NBC Peacock in flipped beak in red side, to symbolize its claim as a "Number one Television Network".