It's clearly not new, given that the film itself was produced in 1985 and clearly also looked-back towards various earlier eras.
But thanks for posting the clip. It's actually very interesting, not least the "BBC World" logo that appears a few seconds-in.
:-(
A former member
Hi JamesWorldNews,
Yes, I am aware that it was made in 1985, and that it is not "new" in that sense. I meant "new" in the sense of whether it had been seen by this forum before. Perhaps I should have made that clearer, though I thought the context was obvious.
As to "ident", I meant the point from approximately 00:07 where the fade begins, to approximately 00:25 where the "ident" fades to black. Again, perhaps this was not clear enough.
This video seems to be either an internal or industry thing from BBC External Services, which was responsible for both the World Service and Monitoring (which in those days was mostly about listening to what was going on in Moscow). This was the bit of the BBC with Foreign Office funding, and the Foreign Office decided against paying for a television service, which is why WSTV/BBC World eventually launched under BBC Enterprises (now Worldwide) funded by advertising.
While there apparently were already attempts to push for TV version of the World Service by the mid-80s, I'd hazard a guess that that ident was more a bit of internal corporate branding than anything to do with any proposed television service. Perhaps (even more of a guess) it was a series of films all about the world of the BBC, hence BBC World.
That 1987 European channel came about because the Danish cable companies could see the relays of BBC channels were quite popular in Belgium and the Netherlands (as they still are) but Denmark was too far away to pick up the terrestrial signals so they paid Enterprises for a satellite feed of BBC 1. Because of the copyright issues this raised, some BBC 1 programmes couldn't be shown so instead they were replaced with BBC 2 programmes and the channel ended up being its own thing with a mixture of that day's BBC 1 and 2 schedule. Then in 1991 it got subsumed by WSTV.
And before 1991, it was apparently called BBC TV Europe. So what this BBC World ident is for, I don't know. Maybe a service that didn't launch initially?
I would have thought it was just a graphic created for that video and wasn't used anywhere else
And before 1991, it was apparently called BBC TV Europe. So what this BBC World ident is for, I don't know. Maybe a service that didn't launch initially?
I would have thought it was just a graphic created for that video and wasn't used anywhere else
Shhhh... don't come up with sensible, logical explanations here!
MA
Maaixuew
For anybody interested, about two years ago a rare 1" videotape was discovered containing various idents for 'BBC World'. These were titles used prior to the launch of BBC World Service Television in 1991. The BBC had an arrangement to produce content for third parties branded as "BBC World News". It was a partner in Visnews at the time and also involved with SSVC/BFBS.
Off topic a bit but a PBS channel in the states showed the balloon ident with original music when introducing Keeping up appearances. Had old BBC America ident.