NBC News Logo PNG
The NBC News logo is bright yet minimalist. It blends entertainment creativity with business in today’s media landscape. Its elegance evokes joy and sets a positive tone for the content. At the same time, it is a strict symbol with a perfectly thought-out concept, without a single superfluous detail.
NBC News traces its roots to 1926, when David Sarnoff, head of RCA (the Radio Corporation of America), founded the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) as the first major commercial radio network in the United States. Its Red and Blue networks gave it national reach, but in 1943 the FCC forced RCA to sell the Blue Network, which later became ABC.
Television changed the company’s direction. On February 1, 1940, Lowell Thomas led one of the first regular TV news broadcasts. After World War II, the network launched NBC Television Newsreel and, in 1949, Camel News Caravan with John Cameron Swayze. In 1952, the Today Show created a new morning format built around news, interviews, weather, and lighter studio segments.
The key news breakthrough came in 1956 with the Huntley-Brinkley Report, hosted by Chet Huntley in New York and David Brinkley in Washington. The program challenged CBS Evening News and Walter Cronkite. In 1960, the network carried the Kennedy-Nixon debates, then covered John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 for four days without commercials. In 1969, it broadcast the Moon landing to a global audience.
Huntley-Brinkley became NBC Nightly News in 1970, and Tom Brokaw’s arrival in 1982 helped it lead evening ratings through much of the 1990s. Dateline NBC followed in 1992. General Electric’s 1986 purchase of RCA placed the news division inside a large industrial group. Comcast took control of NBCUniversal in 2011 and full ownership in 2013. Later years brought MSNBC, NBCNews.com, NBC News Now, Brian Williams’ 2015 scandal, Lester Holt’s promotion, and Matt Lauer’s 2017 dismissal.
Meaning and History
To reach a broad audience, this television service has several headquarters across different regions of the planet. They are united by a common theme of work and shared visual identity. In some logos, the inscription is made in the NBC Tinker font, while in others, it is in NBC Futura. Although the second variant is outdated, some NBC News programs, social networks, and digital resources still use it.
What is NBC News?
NBC News is the leading news service in the U.S. It pioneered news broadcasting, starting with simple on-camera readings of current-event summaries. This occurred in 1940 with Lowell Thomas as the program’s host. The channel is a division of NBCUniversal, owned by Comcast. Its central management is located in New York City, with additional offices in London, Singapore, Washington, California, and Hong Kong.
1940 – 1959
The logo is textual: it consists entirely of the news channel’s name, with visual emphasis. For impact, designers placed the abbreviation “NBC” in a rounded-corner rectangle. The background color is dark beige, with gold letters and a frame. The font is uppercase and extra bold, with some thinning in places. The glyphs are designed with massive serifs.
1959 – 1970
The emblem became maximally simple. It features an open inscription, without a background, frames, or other elements. The wide letters are composed of semi-bold black lines, forming interesting, refined geometric shapes. The phrase occupies two levels, aligned to the left edge. The strict styling emphasizes the news’s business nature and the practical approach to its collection, composition, and broadcasting. Smooth outlines are only present in “C” and “S,” while “B” is semi-rounded.
1970 – 1972
A strict logo with the news service’s name appeared on the air. The phrase “NBC News” is written together, placed on one line, and set in uppercase glyphs with rounded edges. In this form, the emblem resembles a monogram with elegant and creative swirls. This was necessary to maintain dynamism on TV, as the symbol served as a title screen. The white inscription stands out sharply against a dark background.
1972 – 1975
The text grew much larger, while maintaining a single-line layout. The designers separated the words “NBC” and “News” but connected some letters. For example, “N” and “B” are joined, and “N” and “E” share one common side. However, “W,” although adjacent, stands separately, touching “E” only at one point at the top left. Wide rectangular serifs complement the glyphs. The left side of the name is painted gray, and the right, turquoise.
1976 – 1979
At the beginning of 1976, the studio Lippincott & Margulies launched and developed an emblem. A complete redesign introduced a new style and changed the logo’s mood. It now features bright colors (red and blue), a balanced design (a harmonious mix of angles and curves), and a simple font (Neue Haas Grotesk). The first element symbolizes two geometric shapes that form the news channel’s initial letter. This glyph is from the Helvetica Bold font. It is formed from two rectangles, cut at an angle, flipped mirror-like, and joined in the middle. Next is the text. It occupies two lines.
1979 – 1982
The news program received a new logo featuring a stylized peacock with a rainbow tail made of 11 teardrop-shaped elements, emphasizing the program’s affiliation with Comcast. They are colored in pairs (left and right), ending in the center with a blue feather. Yellow, orange, burgundy, purple, and dark blue also appear. The large letter “N” has a white center. It was nicknamed “The Proud N” by the public. The bird is also outlined with a thin line. Adjacent is an inscription, set in Serif Gothic Bold with mini-extensions at the ends. The lines are right-aligned.
1982 – 1985
The simplified NBC News logo adopted the Serpentine Bold Italic font. The two parts of the name are again combined into one line, but simultaneously, a large space is maintained between the words. The inscription is bold, italic, and underscored below with a solid red line.
1985 – 1990
The emblem style remained the same, businesslike, strict, and minimalist. Only the miniature serifs and the red underline disappeared. The name became smooth and uniformly bold. For this, designers chose the Helvetica Bold Oblique font.
1990 – 1992
This design shows NBC News’ connection to its parent company, Comcast. For this purpose, the original logo created by the studio Lippincott & Margulies was used. It features a peacock with a huge multicolored tail and six feathers: green, blue, yellow, red, orange, and lilac. The bird’s head is camouflaged between them, so only the beak, looking like a white triangular notch, is visible. The channel name appears above the peacock. The first line forms a cobalt rectangle with a white abbreviation “NBC.” The second row features the word “News” in white letters outlined with a thin border.
1986 – today
The minimalist NBC News logo consists of a multicolored peacock and the name on a white background. The inscription uses the NBC Futura font with sharp ends (on “N” and “W”) and evenly trimmed tops (on “C,” “E,” and “S”).
2011 – 2013
Designers expanded the space between the feathers and framed the tail with a narrow silver line. For optimal contrast, they added shadows.
2013 – 2023
The logo removed the shadows and outlines around the peacock, replacing them with more intense colors and gradients in the tail feathers. The name remains black, semi-bold, set in the NBC Futura font.
2018 – today
The classic NBC News emblem received a monochrome treatment. The peacock icon is reduced to the size of the text and placed on the right. The new logo concept was developed to refresh the visual identity of NBC News websites, NBCNews.com, MSNBC.com, and TODAY.com. To emphasize the name, the authors switched from an antique font to a grotesque one, using bold uppercase letters.
2023 – today
The current logo is two-dimensional and simplified. The peacock image is flat. The tail is colorful and wide, with significant space between the feathers. Enlarging the white separating stripes made the bird’s body and head more distinct. The colors are light, simple, and without gradients. The inscription is also simplified: sharp letter tops are cut off. The proprietary NBC Tinker font, with smooth, geometric letters, is custom-created based on Sweet Sans Pro.
Font and Colors
Over the years, the NBC News logo has undergone numerous typographical changes. The channel experimented with various typefaces from the strict forms of Neue Haas Grotesk to the dynamic slant of Serpentine Bold Italic. Other versions featured classic fonts like Helvetica Bold Oblique and Serif Gothic Bold. Later, the channel introduced proprietary typefaces, NBC Futura and NBC Tinker, emphasizing the brand’s distinct identity.
The emblem’s colors come from the Comcast palette, the channel’s parent company. Vibrant shades of green, orange, blue, yellow, purple, and red form a striking visual spectrum. This color combination highlights the channel’s content and focus areas, reinforcing the company’s image as open and dynamic.