The idents of Christmas past

Just stumbled across these on Youtube and have no recollection of them at all, while they've not made it on to TV Ark or a couple of other sites either, so just wondering if these were actually used:



EDIT: Found it on the Granada continuity page on TV Ark.

I guess it's from 1998?

That's the only year it can be from. In 1997 Tyne Tees would still have been using the Channel 3 branding, and in 1999 the hearts were in use.

With Christmas falling on a Friday, I wonder why LWT wasn't included?

Were they even used? There was a website for a design group ( ballistix) that featured a lot of unsused design work for gmg stations, including alternative local idents for post 99.

I haven't any recollection, although maybe the animation was used before promos, although maybe not as weren't promos ITV branded in 1998?

LWT often did its own thing, it never had one of those 1999 Christmas idents did they?

I have to ask what was the 1999 idents?

Same for YTV and presumably TTTV too. All based around the existing local idents of the time.

I really don't remember the top ones ever airing as idents though, the overall theme possibly on trail designs, maybe.

Of course Granada never got the non Christmas local ident that matches those.

Also featured there as mentioned in another thread is the short lived G-Wizz URL before it was forced to be removed.

That really is a treat. I wonder what LWT actually used. Since were here What was ITV xmas pres like over the 90s? Most took the promo packages until 1992 ( expect for STV or Central) ? Then after that it went haywire, and I have NO idea what took what

Granada NT had the its own idents until 94,

91: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZREJmT6JieI
92: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGcFKbSPK6o
93: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaT0mvyitd8
94: ??? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbDMQ9bVIYo TT and YTV
95: ???
96: ???
97: ???
98: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9OOF9Mvc6U Im sure everyone took this even STV and Grampian which was a surprise, I sure non Granada stations had no xmas ident in the first place.

^^ LWT used the official hearts Christmas idents with the robin. Despite being owned by Granada, its presentation was very separate from the Leeds-controlled stations.

To answer other questioons:

yes, the idents in the OP's video are real and were used on Granada. Yorkshire & Tyne Tees during Christmas 1998.

The same three stations used the idents in Asa's post a year later in 1999. These were the remnants of an aborted rebrand of the GMG North stations, as were the Yorkshire local idents which ran alongside the hearts ones. Clearly, the Christmas idents had already been made and so GMG North, despite adopting the hearts idents on November 9th, decided to return to regional presentation just for the Christmas period. There were also special Millennium idents at the New Year. The normal hearts idents were then reinstated the following week. This was the last time Granada had idents other than the hearts. The other two stations still had their own local idents.

LWT was a totally separate entity; being played out from the South Bank and not Leeds. In 1999, it took the official network hearts idents with the robin.

Border's transmission had been handled by Granada before Granda's own transmission was moved to Leeds. This meant Border's playout was migrated to Leeds too, which people often forget; although it retained its own announcers. However, it was still an independent company during this time period and had its own presentation at Christmas 98 and took the network 'hearts/robin' offering during Christmas '99.

Weirdly, there was no Christmas presentation at all during Christmas 2000, whilst Christmas 2001 had regionless ITV1-branded idents, obviously testing the water for what was to come 10 months later.

Tyne Tees did rebrand in 2000 - but the new logo wasn't edited onto the hearts idents, even when the ITV1 edit was done in 2001. Granada's was aborted, and would also have changed the logo - unlike Tyne Tees, it wasn't a similar layout to Yorkshire's and the Christmas idents.