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The channel, aimed at 13- to 24-year-olds, is introducing a new evening programme strand from 9pm called Trouble Later, aimed at the older end of its audience.

Trouble Later will carry the channel's edgier content, including US acquisition 'The Sausage Factory', 'Girlfriends' and cult animated show 'The Wrong Coast'.

The rebrand comprises a green Trouble daytime logo and channel idents using an animated character called Phinneas, who plays with the branding and is seen to break things or hurt himself.

The logo, created by design agency Addiction, in which the Trouble "T" can stand alone as a brand identity, allows Trouble to keep its old roots but sit better alongside other youth television brands like MTV.

The new branding will be replicated on the Trouble .

The new-look Trouble, to be unveiled next week, is designed to reflect the channel's core values of "humour, cheekiness and aspiration".

Anthony van Someren, creative director at Trouble, said: "Most TV channel branding aimed at the young audience is either safe and predictable, or quirky but meaningless and throwaway.

"We decided to do something different that would really stand out from the competition in terms of design, but also in rationale, with enough depth and detail to allow the Trouble audience to find new elements to appreciate, or even laugh at, every time they see the channel IDs or even the navigation."

Jonathan Webb, director of programming at Trouble, said: "The new-look Trouble is about celebrating the spirit of youth -- what it means to be young and British in the Noughties."

The revamp follows extensive Flextech research among 13- to 24-year-olds and their attitudes to life and TV.

As well as Trouble, Flextech owns Living TV, Bravo, Challenge, FTN and a 50% stake in 10 UKTV channels with the BBC.

Flextech-owner Telewest, which announced its £6bn merger with NTL last month, is still considering auctioning off its television business. As it stands, the BBC is negotiating directly with bidders for Telewest's content arm Flextech while NTL and Telewest tie up their merger.

The BBC is talking to BSkyB, RTL, which owns terrestrial broadcaster Five, and three US firms, Time Warner, Viacom and Discovery, about a possible deal.

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