ITV Discussion Thread

I've never seen an actual video of the Anglia version of the '89 ident - was it like the various mocks that are circulating on YouTube?

Going back to the regions and am I right in thinking most regions stuck with the same logo pretty much throughout (certainly 70s to 90s) rather than changing it with every revamp. Obviously some were changed in the early days to the logos we're more familiar with now, while others like Anglia and HTV had a change in logo in later years, but generally speaking any rebrand kept the logo and evolved it, rather than replace it as ITV seem to always do.

ITV need a symbol for their channel brand, much in the same way as NBC or CBS in the US. That way, they don't have to keep coming up with new ways of styling the I,T & V every few years.

You didn't really grasp the point, but never mind.

And then, those who did use the branding for a time had their logos obscured to varying degrees. I think HTV and especially Thames (to pluck two examples) fared better than some others.

I remember when I first saw what STV had been given. I looked at the 'V' befuddled for a moment, trying to work it out. Cutting it the way EMP did, with a zig-zag along the edge. And I, having wrongly interpreted the background / foreground colours, thought it actually looked like part of a blue sun... Then I realised. But, poor old thistle, I thought.

I totally agree. That's what ITV PLC have never had, and the network never had a symbol as such, other than various ways of stylising ITV. Channel 4's symbol has been successfully incorporated into several rebrands (in my opinion) and look at how many idents were created using the Central cake. ITV need something like the 'cake'.

Pretty much.
Anglia - switched from knight to the triangles flag in 1988. Only ever had those two logos.
Border - Chopsticks logo used from launch until 1999, then brought back for the Granada purple endcap. The 1999 logo was plain text.
Channel - hexagons and CTV stripes each lasted about 15 years. Heart logo lasted seven years before being ditched like the English and Welsh regions.
Midlands - ATV had their shadowed eye throughout. Central had three similar logos between 1982 and 1998, then went generic with Carlton and ITV1.
London Weekday - Rediffusion always used the adastral, Thames had four versions of the skyline, three of them shortlived (1968-1970, 1989, and 1990-1992). Carlton's logo had a minor tweak in 1999.
Grampian - always had a variation of the saltire until the Scottish TV generic idents were introduced in 2000.
Granada - north arrow from launch to 1968, then briefly just text before the G-arrow was introduced, which was their final logo. Pre-1968 weekend broadcaster ABC also only had one logo.
West and Wales - TWW didn't have a proper logo at all (just the initials in a box), HTV had three, 1968-1970, 1970-1992 and 1993-2002.
London Weekend - Four logos, the first one was the only one drastically different to the others.
South - Southern changed theirs to the familiar star early on, TVS and Meridian each only ever had one logo.
Scottish - Seven logos, five completely different designs. The first was a lion, then colour saw the STV monogram introduced. CGI resulted in the thistle, which was later updated. Then they had the blue box, then the big S, and then the current stv with the tv in a triangle.
South West - Westward, TSW, and Westcountry each only had a single logo.
UTV - four logos. The second was an evolution of the first. The other two are just lettering in boxes.
Yorkshire - only ever had the chevron.

Yes, looking through TV Ark last night it's amazing how much longevity those 60s/70s create symbols had - and frankly it made me angry that the ITC and OFCOM have allowed ITV to kill off the regional TV industry pretty much completely in the last 15 years.

Whenever I see the Welcome to Yorkshire adverts, it's like a what could have been for YTV and the chevron.

What's to say they weren't thinking that either!

You're not alone there!

They need to pick a bold but simple design and stick with it; one that won't find itself victim to fashion, so that whilst the idents may change, the logo remains consistent. The problem these days is that there's too much emphasis on the logo having to be 'rad' or supposedly make a statement, thanks to the bullcrap spew that branding and marketing companies come out with in order to sound like they know what they're talking about and to win a pitch.

One of the reasons cited for getting rid of the regional brands in place of 'ITV' was that people were supposedly baffled by all the different names and that it meant they had much less brand awarness than the BBC. Of course, the regions were gotten rid of purely because of redundant costs brought about through consolidation and nothing more. Perhaps they should look at the BBC though if they so want to mimic it so badly. Their current logo is very simple. It's three boxes with the letters in rather plain type. It's lasted for 15 years and even then, it was clearly an update on the previous logo. Make it nice and simple and it will work.