ITV1 To Ditch Their New Idents......?

Channel 4 did this on menus and junctions for a while. I can only assume it was too costly and didn't serve any real purpose.

I wish they do scrap them. we know red bee can do better. BBC One.

The ITV1 idents are very cheap looking. On most of them it is difficult to make out the logo. They have made no impact, not even had a parody made of them which is odd.

No!

The first set of the celebrity idents were on for less than a year - launched late October 2002 and replace early September 2003.


And C4 beat that record by miles - they had an ident set which aired for little more than a week in Autumn 1998.


It had C4 personalities staring into the screen and then the image shrunk into a grid of other C4 hosts, with the "4" logo appearing in one circle over part of the grid.

The idents didn't last long and the circles returned, while these new idents saw the grid axed and instead a "4" logo in one circle in the centre was used at the end of the new idents. The break bumper survived a bit longer though, but was soon replaced by the old "connections" circles again.

Then the square/stripes era came in around six months later - and actually the original set of those idents were only used until Christmas.



( I thought I had a couple of those "grid" idents saved but I can't find them. I think someone here provided them for me, so if you've got the vids can you please post them)



Back to the ITV1 idents - the trouble with this set is they seem to use the same couple over and over again. I could probably only identify two or three of their idents!

I'm sure any new idents would keep the basic set up and just replace the images and music with something a bit more distinctive.

The one with "the tooth" and "burnt toast" is the most used and extremely tacky. The others are lesser used but even so are boring. Even The History Channel has better idents, and they actually fit with the music! Except the THC contuninty man seems to be totally drunk and puts up the wrong captions e.g. "CANNABALS" when the programme is actually to do with something totally different.

John

Well, ITV could reintroduce all the regional idents (Central Cake, Meridian Sun, etc) but I have a feeling hell will freeze over before that happens.

Well I wouldnt be surprised if they did replace them. By the end of the year they will have been on screen for almost 1 year and the previous set of idents didnt last that much longer than a year, neither did each version of the celeb idents. Around every year to 18 months seems about right for changing idents.

Unfortunately there is no chance of regional idents coming back, apart from Central, Granada, Westcountry etc written in small letters under the ITV ident before regional progs!

I've changed my opinion on this and I think ITV1 Would be foolish now to go back to regional idents unless there was a major change in local programming. and that isn't going to happen.

But I think they should in the next set of ITV 3 idents they should base them on idents through the years both local and national! even if it was subtle.

As for ITV1 then they should keep the yellow itv 1 logo, but change the idents. and how about somthing different from feelings, attitudes, people. what though I don't know!

If this is true it's a good move - ITV1's idents are by far the worst of the whole ITV package. I'm working on some designs actually for ITV1 - don't know if I'll post them up (if they show promise, I will).

Anyway, my suggestions would be longer idents, more post-production and the repositioning of the logo (smaller and in the bottom left, like in the trails, perhaps).

I can see ITV doing such an impulsive and knee-jerking reaction as to change the idents so quickly - especially as they have now seen what Red Bee are capable of given the right brief.

I can see them retaining the logo but just replacing the background. This could be done quite cheaply compared to a complete revamp. They only have to look at what they ask for and got with ITV2/3 for inspiration really.

I would totally understand if ITV ditched them, they are just plain bad and random. Red Bee as seen can do so much better (despite the fact I don't like BBC One's new idents). I would personally like to see a fresh and different idents used on ITV1 rather than recorded footage with a logo slapped on. For example, something like Channel 4 or SF1 in Switzerland have done.

Who knows - perhaps they could replace them with some images of say, ITV celebs, perhaps behind the scenes or something!

At least going back to that would give the idents some identity!


Alternatively still keeping the logo I suppose they could go for the graphic approach and based it around the "1" (i.e. rip off BBC2 - but the "1" would be framed within the logo)