Television idents

Following on from my son's interest in video production and editing are television idents. He now has quite a collection of them sourced from YouTube and other internet sites. I never knew that so many idents have been used in British television. The diversity of the idents used by ITV companies was remarkable before regional idents were axed and replaced with boring ITV1. This was probably something that few people appreciated unless they travelled a lot in Britain.

The morning start up sequence for TVS from 1987 is absolutely magnificent. I have never seen it before living in the Central region. My son is interested in knowing how the graphics were created.

The main reason why regional ITV idents were axed is because individual ITV companies were seen as weak brands in the face of BBC and Sky and various other satellite channels. Regional idents were largely heritage material in 2002 because most ITV companies had merged. Furthermore, the government wanted a single unified ITV and would not hold another franchise auction meaning that there was no prospect of new idents for new ITV companies.

An attempt was made to create a generic ITV ident back in 1989 although several companies, including TVS and TSW, opted out of the plan.



I agree with you that regional ITV idents weren't really appreciated although if you search the internet you will find plenty of people who want to see a return of them. I grew up in the 80s so I experienced the full diversity of regional ITV idents such as the hills and river of TSW; the silver knight of Anglia; the colourful Central crescent; the Scottish thistle; the spinning trident of TVS; and London reflected in the river Thames. There were some ITV idents I never saw such as those for Ulster, Channel, and Border because they produced very few networked programmes.

One reason for the lack of appreciation of regional ITV idents was that people became conditioned to the ident and styles of their own ITV company and had difficulty getting used to those of another ITV company if they moved area.



I live in the TVS region so I experienced seeing this start up sequence regularly after TV-AM went off air. In my unbiased opinion, I think it is the best start up of all the ITV companies. I believe the spinning trident was created on a computer as a series of still pictures similar to an animated gif.

You might be surprised to know that TVS still exists.

http://www.tvstelevision.co.uk

TVS was my local ITV company and it was a black day when the news announced that it had lost its franchise to Meridian. The ident in the start up sequence was used between 1987 and 1992. The original TVS ident was a spectrum of colours on a black background. Rumours circulated that the designer of the TVS ident was inspired by the Atari logo and the colour spectrum was intented to contrast sharply with the blue and white Southern Television ident it replaced. The start up sequence shows a number of scenes from the TVS franchise territory. A concept copied from one of the Southern Television start up sequences.

A very black day indeed. I think the way the franchise auction was held and how TVS lost because it overbid was a downright cheek. The loss of TVS was not just a blow to the south of England but the whole of Britain because TVS was an ambitious company which produced many networked programmes and strived to become one of the big players in ITV. Meridian, on the other hand, came from a similar mould to Southern Television by wanting to be a medium sized player primarily operating as a broadcaster for its own territory rather than a major producer of networked programmes and an influential force in ITV.

ITV today is a miserable shadow of its former self. I hold the view that if TVS and Thames had won then ITV would not have gone downhill nearly as much as it has done. Local news coverage has gone completely down the plughole. I remember Coast to Coast and how it won three annual awards for being the best ITV local news. Quite remarkable considering that TVS only lasted 11 years. I wonder what TVS could have achieved had they won the franchise. Maybe they could have ended up taking over ITV rather than Carlton and Granada. Stranger things have happened...

Call my cynical if you wish, but the outcome of the franchise auction was almost certainly decided in advance. It was damned if you bid high and damned if you bid low for the four losing ITV companies. Considering that three years later all the ITV companies that had placed high bids were allowed to reduce their licence payments, in some cases by more than half, makes me wonder whether the price bidding system was to muddy the waters rather than decide who won and who didn't.



Call me a conspiracy theorist if you wish, but there could have been a sinister plan to oust TVS and Thames because if they won then it would have made it difficult for ITV to merge into the one-ident monolith that it is today.

I find it rather intriguing that Central was unopposed. I also have a suspicion that Granada won because of Coronation Street.

As a former resident of the Granada territory I know that this suspicion is as old as Winter Hill.

In my opinion, Granada had one of the least attractive idents of all ITV companies.

Your son might be interested in the Harlech House of Graphics. This is a repository of idents and video clips for HTV Wales and HTV West.

http://www.hhg.org.uk

Dorset is split between three ITV regions with HTV West being the official ITV company for the northern parts of the county including Shaftesbury and Gillingham. The western parts including Lyme Regis, Chard, Weymouth, and Dorchester was Westward / TSW / Westcountry territory. The eastern parts including Bournemouth, Poole, Wimborne, and Wareham was Southern / TVS / Meridian territory.

Where I live it's possible to receive broadcasts clearly from all three ITV companies but most people watch Meridian judging from the direction TV aerials are pointing. I'm not sure if I officially live in the Meridian territory or whether it's a carry over from the days of TVS being the 'best' ITV company of the three.

Tons of idents and graphics over on TV Ark.

http://www.tv-ark.org.uk



There are lots of places where a high proportion of people watched the 'wrong' ITV broadcasts for their area. Luton is classic example. A TV aerial in Luton is supposed to point north to receive Anglia from the Sandy Heath transmitter in Bedford. In the early 90s I found around half of all TV aerials pointing south to receive Thames / LWT from the Crystal Palace transmitter. The reason for this is because many residents of Luton consider their town to be an outpost of London.

That's an amazing website. My son thinks it's the one he found last year then he lost the url.

The section on the early satellite channels is awe inspiring. I find it difficult to believe that people were watching them as far back as 1985. It must have been very exceptional to own a satellite receiver back then.