Celestial Tiger Entertainment’s (CTE) Celestial Classic Movies channel enters the Year of the Dog with an acronym, its first new look ever and a bid for broad international appeal.

On the eve of the channel’s 10th anniversary, CTE’s executive vice president TV networks, Ofanny Choi said “we wanted to make the brand easily recognisable to international audiences”.

In addition to broadening CCM’s appeal, Choi is also angling for higher engagement with younger audiences.

The reason? A decade on, CTE bosses have decided that, in its original form, the channel’s English name is long while in Chinese it may not be easily understood or recognised among non-Chinese audiences.

The more universal acronym is accompanied by a new logo, an on-air revamp in English and an upgrade to 16:9 aspect ratio.

But the core brand identity – a wide range of movie genres, including martial arts and kung fu, action, drama, comedy, horror and musicals – as well as the signature shades-of-green palette representing CCM’s evergreen selection of movies, remain the same, Choi says.

All the CCM programmes come with subtitles in local languages.

CCM remains in a strong ratings position, Choi adds, particularly in Malaysia, where it was the top movie channel among Astro’s Chinese audiences 4+ for the whole of last year (Source: Kantar Media Malaysia DTAM).

Choi says CCM has been successful in gathering a community around the channel, and the time is right to go after younger, international audiences.

The revamp was done in-house.

CCM’s birthday party celebrations coincide with the launch of the channel on Canal+ in Myanmar.