
The
National Broadcasting Company
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
(NBC) has used several corporate
logo
A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name that it represents, as in ...
s over the course of its history. The first logo was used in 1926 when the
radio network
There are two types of radio network currently in use around the world: the one-to-many (simplex communication) broadcast network commonly used for public information and mass media, mass-media entertainment, and the two-way radio (Duplex (teleco ...
began operations. Its most famous logo, the
peacock
Peafowl is a common name for two bird species of the genus '' Pavo'' and one species of the closely related genus '' Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae (the pheasants and their allies). Male peafowl are referred t ...
, was first used in 1956 to highlight the network's
color
Color (or colour in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, see spelling differences) is the visual perception based on the electromagnetic spectrum. Though co ...
programming. While it has been in use in one form or another for all but four years since then, the peacock did not become part of NBC's main logo until 1979 and did not universally become the network's sole logo until the fall of 1988 (although the peacock as the sole logo was unveiled in 1986). The logos were designed by employees of NBC, rather than by an
advertising agency
An advertising agency, often referred to as a creative agency or an ad agency, is a business dedicated to creating, planning, and handling advertising and sometimes other forms of promotion and marketing for its clients. An ad agency is generall ...
. The first logo incorporated design from then-parent company
RCA
RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westinghou ...
, and was a unique logo not related to the NBC radio network.
Recent logos have been themed for different holidays during the year (such as
Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...
,
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in October and November in the United States, Canada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Germany. It is also observed in the Australian territory ...
,
Halloween
Halloween, or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve), is a celebration geography of Halloween, observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christianity, Western Christian f ...
,
St. Patrick's Day
Saint Patrick's Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick (), is a religious and cultural holiday held on 17 March, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick (), the foremost patron saint of Ireland.
Saint Patrick's Day was made an official Chri ...
,
Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring a Christian martyrs, martyr named Saint Valentine, Valentine, and ...
, and
New Year's Day
In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Day is the first day of the calendar year, January 1, 1 January. Most solar calendars, such as the Gregorian and Julian calendars, begin the year regularly at or near the December solstice, northern winter ...
), in observance of its upcoming or ongoing broadcasts of the
Olympics
The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competit ...
, as well as an American flag-themed logo following the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
. The logo has been adapted for
color television
Color television (American English) or colour television (British English) is a television transmission technology that also includes color information for the picture, so the video image can be displayed in color on the television set. It improv ...
and
high definition
High definition or HD may refer to:
Visual technologies
*Blu-ray Disc, the universal optical High Definition disc format
*HD Photo, former name for the JPEG XR image file format
*HDV, format for recording high-definition video onto magnetic tap ...
as technology has advanced. As NBC acquired other television channels, the logo branding was adopted to other networks including:
CNBC
CNBC is an American List of business news channels, business news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group, a unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The network broadcasts live business news and analysis programming during the morning, Day ...
,
NBCSN
NBCSN (also known as NBC Sports Network) was an American sports television television channel, channel owned by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It originally launched on July 1, 1995, as the Outdoor Lif ...
,
MSNBC
MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Launched on July 15, 1996, and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the channel primarily broadcasts r ...
,
Golf Channel
Golf Channel (also verbally referred to as simply "Golf" or "NBC Golf") is an American sports television network owned by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Founded in Birmingham, Alabama, it is currently ba ...
, and
NBC Sports Regional Networks
NBC Sports Regional Networks is the collective name for a group of regional sports networks in the United States that are primarily owned and operated by the NBCUniversal division of the cable television company Comcast. The networks were origina ...
. The logo was also incorporated into the corporate emblem of the network's parent company,
NBCUniversal
NBCUniversal Media, LLC (abbreviated as NBCU and Trade name, doing business as NBCUniversal or Comcast NBCUniversal since 2013) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media and Show business, entertainment conglomerate (comp ...
, then became a part of a redesigned
Comcast
Comcast Corporation, formerly known as Comcast Holdings,Before the AT&T Broadband, AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, not th ...
mark at the end of 2012 after it was acquired by the latter a year before.
Radio network logos (1926–1943)
1926–1937

NBC debuted as a
radio network
There are two types of radio network currently in use around the world: the one-to-many (simplex communication) broadcast network commonly used for public information and mass media, mass-media entertainment, and the two-way radio (Duplex (teleco ...
in 1926, with a logo depicting a microphone surrounded by lightning bolts, superimposed over a map of the United States. The "NBC" letters appeared in an arc above the graphic.
1931–1943

In 1931, NBC introduced its second logo – a square with a diagonal NBC text in it, and lightning bolts around the "B." This logo was later adopted in 1941 for use as the original logo for the newly formed NBC television network.
Television network logos (1943–1975)

In 1943, NBC introduced its third logo, a microphone surrounded by lightning bolts, which was a modification of the original 1926 logo used by the NBC radio network. Lightning bolts were also part of the logo of corporate parent
RCA
RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westinghou ...
,
as well as that of one-time sister company
RKO Pictures
RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, is an American film production and distribution company, historically one of the major film studios, "Big Five" film studios of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood's Clas ...
. The waves placed on the left side were meant for the radio network, and the right waves were meant for the television network. A network identification featuring this logo includes a male announcer saying "This is NBC, the National Broadcasting Company," followed by the
NBC chimes
The NBC chimes are a sequence of three tones played on National Broadcasting Company (NBC) broadcasts. Originally developed in 1927 as seven notes, they were standardized to the current three-note version by the early 1930s, and possibly as early ...
. On the network's
flagship television station WNBT (now
WNBC
WNBC (channel 4) is a television station in New York City that serves as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Linden, New Jersey� ...
), this was accompanied by the same announcer saying "WNBT, New York." At the beginning of telecasts, a card was shown with a different NBC logo with the letters in cursive and enclosed in a rectangle (a logo also used at the end of broadcasts in the early 1950s). This was replaced by another card depicting an NBC cameraman operating an RCA camera was shown underneath the text "NBC Television Presents." The letters "NBC", lighting in tune with the chimes, indicated time for station identification or the end of a telecast.

In 1953, a stylized
xylophone
The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Each bar is an idiophone tuned to a pitch of a musical scale, whether pentatonic or heptatonic in the case of many African ...
and
mallet
A mallet is a tool used for imparting force on another object, often made of rubber or sometimes wood, that is smaller than a maul or beetle, and usually has a relatively large head.
General overview
The term is descriptive of the ...
was introduced, symbolizing the NBC chimes, which were first heard on NBC radio in 1927 as a seven-tone sequence.
The current tones – which were first adopted in 1929 as a simplified cue for identification of its radio affiliates because of issues with orchestrating the seven notes properly – are only three notes,
G,
E' and
C' (contrary to popular belief, the selection of the three notes was not intended to represent the initials of the network's eventual owner, the
General Electric Company
The General Electric Company (GEC) was a major British industrial conglomerate involved in consumer and Arms industry, defence electronics, communications, and engineering.
It was originally founded in 1886 as G. Binswanger and Company as an e ...
, which was an early shareholder in
RCA
RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westinghou ...
, which itself founded NBC by creating it as a subsidiary, whose full name was "National Broadcasting Company, Inc." prior to the 2004 merger with Universal).
There is some indication that the xylophone logo was used at 5:32 p.m.
Eastern Time
The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, and the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico.
* Eastern Standard Time (EST) is five hours behi ...
on December 17, 1953, to announce the
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...
's (FCC) approval of the new color standard, which would go into effect 30 days later. This logo debuted in December 1953, during the
Tournament of Roses Parade
A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses:
# One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...
.
Introduction of the Peacock (1956–1959)
John J. Graham John J. Graham (September 25, 1923 – June 12, 1994) was an American graphic artist who designed and created both the NBC NBC logos, peacock logo (1956) and the NBC "snake" logo (1959).
Biography
Graham was born in New York City, where he atte ...
designed a peacock for the NBC television network: an abstraction of an eleven-feathered
peacock
Peafowl is a common name for two bird species of the genus '' Pavo'' and one species of the closely related genus '' Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae (the pheasants and their allies). Male peafowl are referred t ...
indicating richness in color. This brightly hued peacock, which NBC called the "Bird," was adopted because of the increase in color programming.
In addition, NBC's owner, RCA, manufactured color television sets. As a result, the peacock became a marketing tool, in the hopes that people tuning in to NBC would purchase color TV sets. NBC's first color broadcasts showed only a still frame of the colorful peacock. Several modifications were made by NBC before the emblem made its first on-air appearance on May 22, 1956.
In the summer of 1957, beginning with ''
Your Hit Parade
''Your Hit Parade'' is an American radio and television music program that was broadcast from 1935 to 1953 on radio, and seen from 1950 to 1959 on television. It was sponsored by American Tobacco's Lucky Strike cigarettes. During its 24-year r ...
,'' the peacock became animated and introduced every NBC color telecast until a revamped animation appeared in 1962. Its musical backing was a
gong
A gongFrom Indonesian language, Indonesian and ; ; zh, c=鑼, p=luó; ; ; ; ; is a percussion instrument originating from Southeast Asia, and used widely in Southeast Asian and East Asian musical traditions. Gongs are made of metal and ...
while the peacock began its formation, with a male announcer saying "The following program is brought to you in living color on NBC," while the music crescendoed followed by a nine-note flourish while the peacock's feathers changed color and finally spread out. According to
Game Show Network
Game Show Network (GSN) is an American basic cable channel owned by the television network division of Sony Pictures Television. The channel's programming is primarily dedicated to game shows, including reruns of acquired game shows, along wit ...
executive David Schwartz, the first announcer who spoke those famous words behind the Peacock graphic logo was
Ben Grauer
Benjamin Franklin Grauer (June 2, 1908 – May 31, 1977) was an American radio and television personality, following a career during the 1920s as a child actor in films and on Broadway. He began his career as a child in David Warfield's productio ...
, 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.
Snake logo (1959–1975)

Starting in September 1959, an
animated
Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby image, still images are manipulated to create Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on cel, transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and e ...
logo joined the Peacock, appearing at the end of every telecast. Starting with the "N", each letter would grow from the other, forming a stacked typographic logo consisting of an "NB" ligature with the "C" forming the base. This would be known as the "NBC
snake
Snakes are elongated limbless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes (). Cladistically squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales much like other members of the group. Many species of snakes have s ...
".
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. The logo was also designed by John J. Graham.
''Laramie'' era (1962)
In 1962 on ''
Laramie'', a new version of the Peacock opening logo was introduced in which the bird fanned its bright plumage against a kaleidoscopic color background (with the eleven melded feathers shrinking and separating into the peacock's form). As with the 1956 Peacock, this logo appeared at the start of every NBC color telecast; as all NBC shows eventually began airing in color, it was generally used only to open those shows that were produced by NBC itself, such as ''
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' is an American television talk show broadcast by NBC. The show was the third installment of ''The Tonight Show''. Hosted by Johnny Carson, it aired from October 1, 1962 to May 22, 1992, replacing ''T ...
''. It was, however, seen on the NBC airings of ''
The Wizard of Oz
''The Wizard of Oz'' is a 1939 American Musical film, musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Based on the 1900 novel ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' by L. Frank Baum, it was primarily directed by Victor Fleming, who left pro ...
'' as well as on the broadcast of ''
Peter Pan
Peter Pan is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood having adventures on the mythical ...
'', which had been videotaped at
NBC Studios (NBC had previously telecast live versions of ''Peter Pan'' in 1955 and 1956 on the
anthology
In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and g ...
''
Producers' Showcase
''Producers' Showcase'' is an American anthology television series that was telecast live during the 1950s in compatible color by NBC. With top talent, the 90-minute episodes, covering a wide variety of genres, aired under the title every fou ...
''). The "Laramie Peacock," named for the series which introduced it, used the same "living color" tagline as the first peacock, but the accompanying music was a soft, woodwind-based number, with
Mel Brandt
Melville Brandt (June 18, 1919 – March 14, 2008) was an actor and NBC staff announcer.
Early life
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Mel Brandt’s military records state that he attended college for two years, and his civilian occupation was ac ...
providing the
voiceover
Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique used in radio, television, filmmaking, theatre, and other media in which a descriptive or expository voice that is not part of the narrative (i.e., non- ...
. It was revised further in April 1968, the music having been slightly rearranged and the animation shortened by a few seconds. Another version, with
Vic Roby
Victor Mills Roby, Jr. (November 9, 1917 – September 22, 2011 ) was an American radio and television announcer, voice-over artist and public affairs show host, and served for years as a staff announcer with NBC.
Early life and career
Born ...
announcing, "Now, a special program in living color on NBC," was unveiled for use on
specials during this same period. It was shortened further on December 31, 1975, when the peacock was retired.
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. It was used to promote
the network's coverage of the
NASCAR Cup Series
The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the NASCAR, National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), the most prestigious stock car racing series in the United States.
The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, ...
race held at
Darlington Raceway
Darlington Raceway is a egg-shaped oval track in Darlington, South Carolina. The track has hosted a variety of racing events since its inaugural season of racing in 1950; primarily races sanctioned by NASCAR. The venue has a capacity of 47,00 ...
in the
Florence, South Carolina
Florence is a city in and the county seat of Florence County, South Carolina, United States. It lies at the intersection of Interstates 20 and 95 and is the eastern terminus of the former. It is the primary city within the Florence metropol ...
region from 2015 to 2020, when it was the series' annual throwback round, where many racecars featured a throwback motif. The Peacock also made an appearance before the premiere of ''
The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien
''The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien'' is an American television talk show broadcast by NBC. The show is the fifth installment of ''The Tonight Show'', hosted by Conan O'Brien. It aired from June 1, 2009, to January 22, 2010, succeeding ''The ...
'' in 2009. The "Laramie Peacock" has also been used by local stations: the sequence was shown at the beginning of ''
Pittsburgh Dad's Guide to Christmas'', a special aired on
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
NBC affiliate
WPXI
WPXI (channel 11) is a television station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Cox Media Group. The station's offices and studios are located on Evergreen Road in the Summer Hill (Pittsburgh), Summer Hill ...
on December 19, 2014.
On December 6, 2024, in celebration of the 60th anniversary of ''
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a fictional reindeer created by Robert L. May. Rudolph is usually depicted as the ninth and youngest of Santa Claus's reindeer, using his luminous red nose to lead the reindeer team and guide Santa's sleigh on C ...
'', as well as its return to NBC after over 50 years of annual airings on
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
, the "Laramie Peacock" logo made a brief return as a nod and tribute to its original broadcast, though shortened to 3 seconds. Additionally, the logo also made appearances during that year's airings of ''
Frosty The Snowman
"Frosty the Snowman" is a song written by Walter "Jack" Rollins and Steve Nelson, and first recorded by Gene Autry and the Cass County Boys in 1950 and later recorded by Jimmy Durante in that year. It was written after the success of Autry's ...
'' and ''
How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
''How the Grinch Stole Christmas!'' is a children's Christmas book by Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel written in rhymed verse with illustrations by the author. It follows the Grinch, a green cranky, solitary creature who attempts to thwart the pu ...
''.
"N" logos (1975–1986)
Trapezoid "N" (1976–1979)
NBC updated its image in 1975 with the introduction of an abstract "N," a bold, bright and contemporary design consisting of two
trapezoid
In geometry, a trapezoid () in North American English, or trapezium () in British English, is a quadrilateral that has at least one pair of parallel sides.
The parallel sides are called the ''bases'' of the trapezoid. The other two sides are ...
s – one red and one blue.
One of the technological innovations of this logo was its use in the first electronically animated ident for an
American television
Television is one of the Mass media in the United States, major mass media outlets in the United States. In 2011, 96.7% of households owned television sets; about 114,200,000 American households owned at least one television set each in August ...
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 __NOTOC__
A bicentennial or bicentenary is the two-hundredth anniversary of a part, or the celebrations thereof. It may refer to:
Europe
* French Revolution bicentennial, commemorating the 200th anniversary of 14 July 1789 uprising, celebrated ...
year. On the January 10, 1976 episode of ''NBC's Saturday Night'' (now ''
Saturday Night Live
''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') is an American Late night television in the United States, late-night live television, live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC. The ...
''), ''
Weekend Update
''Weekend Update'' is a ''Saturday Night Live'' sketch and satirical news program that comments on and parodies current events. It is the show's longest-running recurring sketch, having been on since the show's first broadcast and been featu ...
'' host
Chevy Chase
Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase (; born October 8, 1943) is an American comedian, actor, and writer. He became the breakout cast member in the first season of ''Saturday Night Live'' (1975–1976), where his recurring ''Weekend Update'' segment b ...
mocked the new logo and its $1million design cost.
Johnny Carson
John William Carson (October 23, 1925 – January 23, 2005) was an American television host, comedian, and writer best known as the host of NBC's ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' (1962–1992). Carson is a cultural phenomenon and w ...
also discussed the new logo and its cost on ''
The Tonight Show
''The Tonight Show'' is an American late-night talk show that has been broadcast on NBC since 1954. The program has been hosted by six comedians: Steve Allen (1954–1957), Jack Paar (1957–1962), Johnny Carson (1962–1992), Jay Leno (1992–2 ...
''.
In February 1976,
Nebraska ETV (later Nebraska Educational Telecommunications, now Nebraska Public Media), the
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
member network for
Nebraska
Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...
, filed a
trademark infringement
Trademark infringement is a violation of the exclusive rights attached to a trademark without the authorization of the trademark owner or any licensees (provided that such authorization was within the scope of the licence). Infringement may occ ...
lawsuit against NBC. The new NBC logo was virtually identical to the logo that Nebraska ETV had been using since 1974, with the only cosmetic difference between the two designs being that the right trapezoid of the NBC logo had blue coloring. An out-of-court settlement was reached
in which NBC gave Nebraska ETV over $800,000 worth of new broadcasting equipment, including a color mobile unit. It also paid Nebraska ETV $55,000 to cover the cost of designing and implementing a new logo. In return, NBC was allowed to keep the "N" logo.
Proud "N" (1979–1986)
The Peacock returned as part of NBC's branding in September 1979. The "N" and the Peacock were combined to create a design called the "Proud N."
This marked the first time that the Peacock was actually part of NBC's own logo. It was simplified in keeping with the letter's pared-down design. Although all eleven feathers were intact, the teardrop tips were removed, while a simpler color scheme was used for the feathers themselves (blue for the feather behind the peacock's body; yellow, orange, red, violet and indigo respectively for the other feathers on both sides). The Peacock's body became a simple triangular shape, without any feet.
On several occasions, the new Peacock was used independently of the "N," starting with the new "
Proud as a Peacock
"Proud as a Peacock" was the advertising campaign used by the NBC Television network, television and Radio network, radio networks from 1979 to 1981. The campaign was used to promote NBC's programming and to introduce the "Proud N", a logo that w ...
" advertising campaign that reintroduced the Peacock; however, the "N" and the Peacock were usually combined between 1979 and 1986. The 1979 "Proud N" logo was designed by
Lippincott & Margulies
Lippincott is an American brand strategy and design company. Based in New York City, it is part of the Oliver Wyman Group, a business unit of Marsh & McLennan Companies.
History
Lippincott was founded in 1943 as Dohner & Lippincott by Donald R. ...
.
Initially, the Peacock was not NBC's primary logo and was only used to distinguish color broadcasts. Instead, NBC was identified by other logos such as the xylophone and the NBC snake. However, the Peacock became so closely associated with NBC that in 1979, the network's president at the time,
Fred Silverman
Fred Silverman (September 13, 1937 – January 30, 2020) was an American television executive and producer. He worked as an executive at all of the Big Three television networks, and was responsible for bringing to television such programs as '' ...
, incorporated it into the logo. 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 1986, the "N" was retired and the Peacock became the sole logo used by NBC, including the radio network.
Modern Peacock logo (1986–present)

In 1980, just one year after the "Proud N" was introduced, NBC hired renowned design firm
Chermayeff & Geismar
Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv (formerly Brownjohn, Chermayeff & Geismar and Chermayeff & Geismar) is a New York–based branding and graphic design firm. It is currently led by partners Tom Geismar and Sagi Haviv.
About Brownjohn, Chermayeff ...
to create a new brand identity for the network.
Steff Geissbühler
Steff Geissbühler (born 1942 in Zofingen, Switzerland) is a graphic designer based in the United States. He is well known for designing NBC's modern peacock logo in 1986 while at Chermayeff & Geismar. Geissbühler received the American Institute ...
designed the simplified peacock that became the network's new logo. The 11 feathers of the previous peacock logo were pared down to six, encompassing each of the
primary
Primary or primaries may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels
* Primary (band), from Australia
* Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea
* Primary Music, Israeli record label
Work ...
and
secondary color
A secondary color is a color made by color mixing, mixing two primary colors of a given color model in even proportions. Combining two secondary colors in the same manner produces a tertiary color. Secondary colors are special in traditional co ...
s in the RYB color palette and also representing NBC's six divisions:
News
News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the te ...
(Yellow),
Sports
Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...
(Orange),
Entertainment
Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and Interest (emotion), interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but it is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have deve ...
(Red),
Stations
Station may refer to:
Agriculture
* Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production
* Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle
** Cattle stat ...
(Purple), Network (Blue) and
Productions (Green). 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. The shape of the peacock's body was also simplified, becoming vertically elongated, and removing the tips at the bottom and above the head.
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, which it would not do until 1985. Despite the first use of the new logo on August 26, 1985, it was only ultimately unveiled on May 12, 1986, during the finale of the ''
NBC 60th Anniversary Celebration'' TV special, where past and present NBC stars stood on stage to introduce the new logo. Although NBC had been popularly known as "the peacock network" for some time, it was the first time that "The Bird" had been used as NBC's official symbol all by itself.
After the logo's introduction, many of NBC's affiliates (especially the stations part of NBC's O&O group at the time:
WNBC-TV
WNBC (channel 4) is a television station in New York City that serves as the flagship of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Linden, New Jersey–licensed Telemundo s ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
,
KNBC-TV
KNBC (channel 4) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship station of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Co ...
in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
,
WMAQ-TV
WMAQ-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, serving as the market's NBC outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Telemundo station WSNS-TV (chann ...
in
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
,
KCNC-TV
KCNC-TV (channel 4), branded CBS Colorado, is a television station in Denver, Colorado, United States, serving as the market's CBS outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division, and maintains studios on Linc ...
in
Denver
Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...
,
WRC-TV
WRC-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Washington, D.C., serving as the market's NBC outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Class A television service, Class A Telemundo outlet W ...
in
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
, and
WKYC-TV
WKYC (channel 3) is a television station in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. Its studios are located on Tom Beres Way (a section of Lakeside Avenue in Downtown Cleveland named after the station's longt ...
in
Cleveland
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...
) started adding the new peacock to their station identification. However, a few stations still kept the previous "Proud N" from 1979 at least until the end of the 1987–88
television season
A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming platfo ...
, and NBC itself retained the "Proud N" in the title sequence for its movie/mini-series presentations. Because of this, the new logo was not universally adopted until the fall of 1988.
This logo's first appearance as an
on-screen bug was in the 1993–94 television season, appearing only during the
opening sequence
A title screen (also called an opening screen or intro) is the method by which films or television programmes present their title and key production and cast members, utilizing conceptual visuals and sound (often an opening theme song with visua ...
s of programs, and then staying on-screen throughout the duration of programs as a separate translucent bug beginning with the 1994–95 season. Until the 2004–05 season, the bottom-of-screen logo bug featured a variety of animated effects that built up the image from its components (such as the six feathers rotating into the form of the logo with the peacock's body being formed when the feathers were in place, or a white flag containing the logo wiping the logo bug onto the screen), usually during a show's opening sequence. Until the 2008–09 season, a
screensaver
A screensaver (or screen saver) is a computer program that blanks the display screen or fills it with moving images or patterns when the computer has been idle for a designated time. The original purpose of screensavers was to prevent phosphor s ...
-style sequence featuring these logo effects against a black background was also used as a placeholder graphic during slots within commercial breaks allocated for local stations to
insert
An SQL INSERT statement adds one or more records to any single table in a relational database.
Basic form
Insert statements have the following form:
The number of columns and values must be the same. If a column is not specified, the default va ...
commercials and station promotions. Some NBC affiliates also ran the sequence through the network feed in the event of technical difficulties with inserting local advertising (a placeholder logo graphic remains in use, although from the fall of 2009–10 season to the spring of the 2023–24 season, the animation used has changed to match the network's imaging of the current timeframe).
The network maintains specific guidelines for the logo, including proper colors for reproduction, using either
RGB
The RGB color model is an additive color model in which the red, green, and blue primary colors of light are added together in various ways to reproduce a broad array of colors. The name of the model comes from the initials of the three ...
,
CMYK
The CMYK color model (also known as process color, or four color) is a subtractive color model, based on the CMY color model, used in color printing, and is also used to describe the printing process itself. The abbreviation ''CMYK'' refers ...
, or
Pantone
Pantone LLC (stylized as PANTONE) is an American limited liability company headquartered in Carlstadt, New Jersey, and best known for its Pantone Matching System (PMS), a proprietary color order system used in a variety of industries, notably gr ...
colors. The usage guidelines are contained in the NBC Logo Legal Usage Guidelines, which is distributed to NBC employees involved in graphics as well as outside vendors, such as advertising agencies, who may need to use the logo.
Adaptations
On September 17, 1999, NBC revamped its network identity. 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.
Flag variation (2001–2002)
In the aftermath of the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
in 2001, NBC introduced a special version of the peacock that replaced the colors with a furled American flag waving within the logo (including within the logo bug); this version was used until the
2002 Winter Olympics
The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 (; Gosiute dialect, Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; ; Shoshoni language, Shoshoni: ''Soónkahni 2002''), were an international wi ...
.
Adaptation for widescreen/high-definition programming
During programs presented in widescreen, the logo bug would be shrunk and placed to fit within the 16:9 video area (specifically, on the right fringe outside of the safe area (television), safe area). During the 2006–07 television season, this smaller widescreen logo was only used during live broadcasts, such as ''
Saturday Night Live
''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') is an American Late night television in the United States, late-night live television, live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC. The ...
'', ''Christmas at Rockefeller Center'' (the annual special commemorating the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting), Live Earth and the ''Macy's 4th of July Fireworks, Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular''. The smaller logo was reintegrated at the start of the 2007–08 season on all widescreen programming, including pre-recorded standard-definition television, standard definition broadcasts in order to insert graphical promo (media), promos during the show. The network used a variation of its logo bug accompanied by "HD" text for High-definition television, High-definition programming in the 2006–07 season. Live broadcasts in high-definition previously used the logo without "HD" text. Until 2016, the NBC bug was placed within the 4:3 safe area, with the logo bug being displayed identically on the standard definition and high definition feeds (the color version of the NBC logo bug began to be placed within the 4:3 safe area during high definition programming in May 2008). Today, the NBC bug is placed within the 16:9 widescreen frame, again being displayed identically on the SD and HD feeds.
This logo bug is also presented opaque in full color during the opening credits of a program, with the bug sometimes accompanied by ".com" text as a promotion for the network's website. Live finale episodes of ''The Biggest Loser (American TV series), 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, California, Burbank instead of New York City.
This logo is sometimes accompanied with NBC text, usually below the peacock, however, this is not always the case. 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
MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Launched on July 15, 1996, and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the channel primarily broadcasts r ...
(and since 2012, NBC News) later added to the right side during the program. Programs broadcast in 4:3 SD continued to use the translucent version of the logo until September 13, 2009. Some NBC Sports programs, such as golf and Olympic sports, use a bug incorporating the Olympic rings below the peacock; this version is also used on entertainment and news programming, starting with the beginning of the fall television season in the lead-up to the Winter Olympics, or at the beginning of a calendar year leading up to the Summer Olympics (in 2012 Summer Olympics, 2012, the rings variant was implemented on April 16, 2012, in accordance with "Green is Universal" week, along with sister network Telemundo). The Olympics version of the network's 1986 logo is also used by NBC affiliates for their logos during the network's coverage of the Games (as well as in promotions for the Olympics that precede the start of the Games), both on-air for some stations or confined to the "Olympic Zone" micro-sites. The Olympic rings is also used below the logo of its sister channels, such as Telemundo and USA Network, USA for example.
2006–2007
Shortly after the beginning of the 2006–07 television season, almost all NBC programming included graphics for ''Today (U.S. TV program), Today'', ''Meet the Press'', and ''Dateline NBC''. The left version was less embossed than the one used previously and did not display the NBC acronym beneath it. After the beginning of the 2009–10 season on September 28, 2009, as part of the lead-up to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the Olympics variant of the on-screen logo was used on all network programming, except for news.
Since December 2007, NBC occasionally places a text-based advertisement for an upcoming program above or next to the NBC peacock, which is present on both the SD and HD feeds.
2008
NBC updated its logo once again on January 4, 2008, with all network promos and IDs ending with the peacock feathers blooming out of the peacock's body, forming the logo. The feathers also flashed in tune to the NBC chimes, which were sometimes played using different instruments other than the standard xylophone, or other sounds set to G-E-C (such as a telephone in promos for ''The Office (U.S. TV series), The Office'' or the ringing of a cash register in promos for ''Deal or No Deal (U.S. game show), Deal or No Deal'').
2008-2009
Two versions of the 2008 logo animation were used: a 3D glass version (introduced in the fall of 2008) that was used in most promos, and an occasionally used 2D logo that was also used as a generic ID. The ".com" suffix added to create the URL for promoting the network's website was sometimes featured beside the logo.
2009–2011

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. Even though the logo was updated throughout the 2010s and 2020s, this logo was still used as its ID sequence until 2024, even it was later used for NBC News from 2013 to 2023.
2011–2013

In 2011, NBC introduced a glossy 3D version of their logo, which was designed by Zoic Studios. Other aspects of the 2009 graphics package remained intact, with the absence of the "More Colorful" slogan. Although the 2009 graphics package stays the same, in fall, the graphics package was updated to include computer-generated color bars. A different graphics package was introduced in 2012, featuring the 2011 logo on a bright colored gradient background.
2013–2022
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.
On September 17, 2018, NBC changed its wordmark to use a new in-house typeface made by Capacity, "NBC Tinker", named after former NBC chairman and CEO Grant Tinker.
In July 2020, NBC temporarily added six vertical Pip (counting), pips to the right side of the 2018 logo, which radiate out from each color of the peacock to form the vertical row in order to tie into it being used in the same position for the logo of NBCUniversal's Peacock (streaming service), Peacock streaming service, to promote its launch, before reverting to its regular logo in March 2021.
2022–present
In the 2022–23 television season, NBC began to phase in an updated version of the peacock symbol, with its colors made brighter to match the logo of Peacock, the feathers repositioned to make them more "balanced", the peacock's "beak" made larger and more prominent, wider uses of versions of the logo without a white outline, and the wordmark made bolder.
The updated peacock was soft-launched in September 2022 as part of the new logo of ''NBC Sunday Night Football, Sunday Night Football''. A new brand identity by design agency Sibling Rivalry was phased in during December 2022, while Loyalkaspar updated the "Tinker" font as a variable font known as "Tinker Pro".
Other NBC divisions (such as NBC News,
MSNBC
MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Launched on July 15, 1996, and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the channel primarily broadcasts r ...
and
CNBC
CNBC is an American List of business news channels, business news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group, a unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The network broadcasts live business news and analysis programming during the morning, Day ...
) began to deploy the logo in 2023, as well as Comcast itself in 2024, albeit with a glossy colored gradient.
Other variations
In the early 1950s, the bold upper case NBC letters (later used in the 1953 "Xylophone" logo) were also used as an animated "light-up letters" logo in synchronization with the NBC chimes in front of a gray background. This closing sequence was edited in at the end of a network program. Another variant was later used with a darker gray background and a disclaimer underneath the light-up letters: "This program was reproduced by the Kinephoto process," a reference to a live program put onto black and white film identified as a Kinescope recording. This variant was widely used throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Many programs were originally recorded in this manner before the advent of two-inch videotape. NBC, however, continued to use its Kinephoto recording system to archive many of its videotaped programs so the videotapes can be erased and reused for other programming. This is evident with such 1960s programs as ''Hullabaloo (TV series), Hullabaloo'' using both archived Kinescope footage with rare color videotape finds, which was later re-released for home video on VHS and DVD.
For NBC's 1965 fall preview special, the peacock introduction began as normal with announcer Mel Brandt's standard introduction; however, when the peacock faded, Brandt is heard saying The Wizard of Oz (1939 film), "It just ''starts'' in black and white!" Used to begin the special, the variant – with the voice-over being featured at the beginning of the ident, instead of during the middle – led into almost the complete pre-title teaser of ''Get Smart''’s pilot episode, which was shot in black-and-white. This variant is also known as the "Pink Peacock" on video-sharing websites such as YouTube due to the faded color of the video.
For the first American television broadcast of The Beatles' black-and-white film, ''A Hard Day's Night (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. Instead... (music cue) The following very, very special program is brought to you in lively black and white, on NBC." 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.
In 1968, a variant of the 1965 "in living color" peacock ID was featured at the start of an episode of ''Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In''. At the very end of the sequence, the peacock sneezes, sending its feathers flying off-screen, after which the puzzled peacock is shown looking in each direction in notice that its feathers are missing. 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''. The sneezing peacock was only an animation added onto the end of the original clip of the 1965 peacock ID, as the peacock's feathers became brighter upon switching to the portion in which it sneezed.
In 1993, NBC commissioned several artists such as Al Hirschfeld, Peter Max, John Kricfalusi, J. J. Sedelmaier, David Daniels, Joan C. Gratz, and Mark Malmberg to devise abstract variations of the peacock for promotional use.
However, the Gratz bumper was first used in 1992. Animated versions of the Hirschfeld, Sedelmaier, Gratz, and Kricfalusi peacocks acted as stings, and continued to air on the network until 2002.
The NBC late-night talk show ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' occasionally featured sketches with "Polly, the NBC Peacock", a personified version of the logo who praised the network's programming, and mocked the ratings moves and celebrities of competitors.
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 the "number one television network".
See also
* American Broadcasting Company#Visual identity, American Broadcasting Company logos
* PBS#Visual identity, PBS idents
References
External links
The Story behind the design of the NBC Peacock(archived)
(archived)
{{Comcast
Fictional birds
Peafowl in culture
Commercial logos, NBC
NBC
Television network logos, NBC