Notes on TV Presentation

I was talking to my brother (who is 18 ) for some strange reason (too much Bud I suspect) about TV Presentation. He doesn't have any interest in it, I think I wanted to know how aware non-pres junkies are of TV pres.

BBC ONE: He associates it with the colour black. He says the logo is black. I showed him the quite clearly red and white logo....he was quiet after that. He didn't actually pick up on the dancing theme of the idents. He remembers well the balloon. He liked the balloon, and that it was in Scotland and even remembers the gold/blue globe from the late 80s (for some reason).

BBC TWO: Associates it with orange colour. He likes the 2 character. Was able to connect with it well, and recall many of the idents from the last set. Isn't actually able to recall the current set as well (for some reason). Perhaps they are too similar? Although he does remember Dominos. After all, it can express its annoyance with its hands. How clever...

ITV1 (well, Scottish): Associates it with yellow and blue (shows the idents have a bigger impact than the actual logo used by STV and any other pres) and seems to dislike celebrity idents. Thinks it's stupid they either seem to sit staring at the camera, or talking random crap and moving their hands about like Andrew Marr. Didn't like the old thistles logo (yet can recall it). Says it projects a too stereotypical view of Scotland.

Channel 4: Can recall colour blocks era very well. Doesn't seem to remember the short-lived circles era, and likes the way that bars quite quietly evolved into the current set.

C5/Five: Liked the (5) era - colour bars et al. Must agree with him where he can't seem to latch onto the current set at all. I do think five has a weak point where there is no one thing to latch onto - no theme in its ident, no distinguishable logo.

BBC THREE: Only picks up on the blobs - thinks they're funny (obviously hasn't watched much of it )

BBC FOUR: BBC Four?

SKY News: Instantly linked to red and blue. Doesn't think they go well together, and latched surprisingly well onto the tabloidy feel of the channel (yet never watches it)

News 24: Cream and red colour......*ahem*

That's about it. I know this won't be of any interest to most people, but I was curious as to the penetration (hehe) of TV brands into people's minds.

Well, my Grandmother and Uncle & Aunt (who lives in the Midlands) still call ITV1 "Central".

My Mother (who lives in Blackpool) used to call ITV "Granada" when it was Granada branded. Now, however, she calles it "Central" again, and when I say "it's now ITV1" she says, "yes, but ITV1 IS Central, isn't it?"

My father once told me that he suspected the ATV logo was designed by a "faceless graphic designer" - this was long before I found out it was based on a doodle that Lew Grade himself did on the back of an envelope.

When I went to Greenwich Theatre to see/hear a debate about satirical comedy on TV, parts of old Spitting Image episodes where shown - when the countdown clock disappeared and the Central solid-sphere ident appeared, there were gasps throughout the audience, going "oh yeah, Central..." in a loud whisper to each other, followed by a few giggles. I heard a few people later on saying, "why don't they do things like that anymore, like that Central thing?" and mentioned Thames and other things 'like that sort of logo thing'.

Most of my family think that BBC ONE, Channel 4 and five don't have logos anymore, and that they just use "a bit of film" in between programmes.

Strangely, most of my family also think that BBC TWO have always used the number '2' on-screen and don't recall them ever using "TWO" (on a white background). My mother in particular seems to think that they changed directly from the double-striped "2" to the "big 2". I've never asked about the difference between the 1991-2001 set and the henceforth 'yellow' set, so I don't know what impact that has had.

My mum still thinks that ITV1 is called ITV! Although she watches plenty of ITV2.

Yes but does anybody call it ITV1 appart from ITV1 themselves?

You should see my Grandad, who lives in the Midlands- he still calls ITV1 'ATV' and ITV1 Wales 'Harlech'.

For me it is just normal, everyone is just the same, the only thing is that everyone calls ITV1, ITV, which I do and everyone calles five, Channel 5. Though I know people who just call the stations things like Channel 3. I do know people who refer to North West Tonight as Look North.

I was talking to some people about idents, who have no interest in presentaion. Once I had explained what an ident was, they instantly recalled the '2's, and one of them hummed a bit of the music from the current set. I think this proves that people do notice idents, even if they're not interested in them

My ex used to think that London Tonight was "Thames News", simply because of the London backdrop seen through the window - with the dome of St. Paul's in pride of place.

Trying to explain it wasn't Thames anymore didn't cut much ice with her, especially when the programme shown before and the programme shown afterwards were both THAMES productions!