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Best and worst Idents
starry_rune
Posts: 9,006 Forum Member
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I really like this one, its very clever, fits in well with the theme of the channel and is colourful
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeHwydbkA7U (early 90's Sky Travel)
I like this one because its festive and announces the start of a very unusual program!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_bqKBhnII4
This one is quite dowdy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X41AiZ5Nw4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeHwydbkA7U (early 90's Sky Travel)
I like this one because its festive and announces the start of a very unusual program!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_bqKBhnII4
This one is quite dowdy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X41AiZ5Nw4
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http://youtu.be/f9Sz7rg7jMQ
Worst - Thames and London Weekend's original black & white idents - simply the names on a still, thankfully both very short-lived.
(Thames also used a smaller black & white version of what became their iconic ident for some programmes thankfully - the Teddington productions I understand, with the plain one coming from the Euston side of the business, but I may be wrong).
Channel 5's current idents
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt18pS-tZoc
Best
ITV 1 idents from 2004
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0aLVj_dFy0
ITV 3 - 2004
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvW2c8lkd2M
Sumo TV (Ex tv channel)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93t1H-EkUj4
Legally station identification is required by the FCC to be broadcast visually or aurally at the top of the hour or as close to the top in a natural program break. This only applies to stations that transmit their signals over the air (the NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, CW and My Network affiliates and their digital sub channels). Here's an example of an appropriate station identification that aired during Chicago Fire from my local NBC affiliate WBAL-TV. They are required to show their call letters, channel number and the city of license. The identification is a bit large but the minimum size is only about 10 pixels. Most stations will include this information on all promotional materials that they broadcast from teases for the upcoming newscasts to a quick promotional spot for their syndicated programming. WBAL still airs these new broadcast day identifications at 4 AM each day - this kind of thing isn't required but it goes back to a time where TV stations used to sign off each night (and this is a bit old given the fact that the aerial footage is up converted SD and the fact that they've had their HD helicopter for 5-6 years now).
Now the only regular cable network that I can think of that airs Idents in the traditional sense is NBC SN. Here's a screen grab of the ident. There is a voice over that says "Your Watching NBC SN" with their logo pivoting with the video pylons showing game footage. There is a derivative of this ident where insead of the NBC SN logo its the NBC Sports logo that airs when NBC Sports is broadcast on the main NBC network channel. I will post a YouTube video of this if one airs in the next hour or so. Most networks will promote their shows in the full clip with either a small logo through out or a big logo at the end where its the only thing on the screen.
Discovery Communications occasionally airs an ident showing all of their cable networks logos which i really liked. If I recall correctly allof the groups logos appear in a orbit type of animation where each logo rotates through a constellation with the main parent company logo as the sun.
Premium channels such as HBO, Cinemax, Showtime and Starz air brief animations of their logo prior to a programs transmission. One of the most iconic has to be the HBO Original Program where the logo appears from the static of the screens. Showtime has used two versions this one and one where it looks like a a red smoke effect being used to outline and of their logo.
Agreed with your best, plus throw in the HTV one for me
Worst: probably the Carlton ones!
With regards to the B&W Thames idents, the plain one was from the Associated Rediffusion studios, whilst the other was from ABC. (ABC & AR were the original parent companies of Thames, after they were "forced" to join together for the weekday London franchise in 1968)
Many Thames programmes actually had a mix of the two idents - Callan's 1969 series, for example. All recorded at Teddington as none of the studios at Television House were big enough for it, yet some episodes have the mirrored skyline, the others have the card. So it seems as though that rule applies to which studio the programme was *edited* in, or there was no distinction and the director just grabbed whichever one they could book out to be on the telecine machine allotted for the programme.
Incidentally the first colour series of Callan has the mirrored skyline we all know and love, but also what must have been experimental versions - one where the reflected word "Thames" doesn't disappear, and one that must have been a mistake - the skyline on its own without the word "Thames".
I don't like the ITV 3 one, but I love the ITV1 one. I dislike any idents that feature celebs. or sometimes people in general. The ITV1 one is good because its in the clouds.
The sumo TV ones are genius. where does that channel air?
I think Channel 5's best look was in the early 00's with the colour bars and the 5 notes theme (as seen here before they started sticking celebrities in them.
I don't like any of the current BBC ONE, TWO or THREE idents and feel all 3 channels could do with a rebranding.
ITV's are alright I suppose, it's to be expected of them, but I do find ITV 3's particularly nice.
It used to be on Sky from around 2006 til 2008 (Closed down fully in 2012). For those 2 years it was as a user generated content type channel then just became a shopping/psychic channel from 2008 to 2012.
Could not agree more.
... worth pointing out that many idents from this era were aired very recently during BBC2's Afternoon Classics season. My sincere thanks go to BBC2 NI for making this possible. Let's hope more idents from the 1991-2001 era are shown on BBC2 NI when AC resumes !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LsaT6OlNUg
In respect of the Thames ident when Thames started broadcasting I had no idea they had a skyline ident as being rather young I went to bed before nine and all the Thames early evening programmes- Magpie, Today etc- all had the plain one (Magpie was Teddington and Today was central London). The first time I saw the skyline one was one night when I was up late and it was played before News at Ten came on.
I also like this one from LWT: http://youtu.be/FEiNr1ne7vk
And this one from Grampian:
http://youtu.be/RK7hlUEA9G0
TVS:
http://youtu.be/JmT27wNdkCE
And finally Meridian:
http://youtu.be/K78PefR-Y7Y
I know it's very small, but this one looks like something from the start of an 80s video:
http://youtu.be/i6S3SOr7_qc
And so is this:
http://youtu.be/mcIwJ8aSVfk
Finally, I know that the TSW ident has been mentioned above but this one is plain weird. No idea what the shapes are supposed to signify:
http://youtu.be/CeGxhRc9WT0
High rise Council Flats, loads of satellite dishes, washing on lines, intense music....brilliant
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGMWilHP2aA&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Thanks Aidan, I didn't know that!
E4 also deserves an honourable mention, especially when they'd do special ones for Big Brother which would be perfectly consistent with the mainline idents, except in the Big Brother house- although the current crop are a bit overelaborate.
I also quite liked the mid-90's Sky idents or "tombstone" idents as they were/are affectionately called, which were the same for all Sky owned channels, but tweaked slightly depending on which one. Example of them here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFen4I7Lmu8