Presentation that was killed off way too soon

They were made, and used (well we used them in NI anyway, can't remember if London did).

Yeah, as well as the North West Tonight example that was posted, there was also three ITV News regions whose packages lasted less than a year - Calendar, Anglia News, and Granada Reports. Clearly Granada somehow didn't know about it until it was too late, and it wasn't the first time they'd been caught short like that...



There's also the 1999 YTV idents, relegated to local use, and the 2000 Tyne Tees logo, which must've already been in production at the time and also got relegated to local use (they didn't even update the generic hearts idents, even when the ITV1 change came in). Granada was also supposed to get a new logo but theirs was abandoned.

1988 Tyne Tees, flowing rivers, is another example. Lasted just under a year, replaced by the 1989 generic look.

And I think Thames's 1991 ident was probably made for launch in 1992. They launched it almost immediately when they found out they'd lost their franchise. It definitely would've lasted a few more years (at least as long as that logo was on the endcap) if they hadn't lost out to Carlton.

It still strange how over 60 of those YTV idents were made,



nice idea but alas no, that nice Thames ident first appeared in September 1990, and only used for local programmes with a slightly different tune, ( think of it like LWT video wall same tune different keys) The Generic Ident was also updated.

I think this era on UK Gold was great.



The best of being BBC-ish without being on the BBC - I really liked the consistency of the presentation of UKTV back then.

This was also a gem on UK Drama





I remember just how great they looked on screen at the time. Amazing how we've regressed.

Further to that, the original idents from Drama’s predecessor, UK Arena. Sadly these idents were pretty much seen by no one, as Arena wasn’t a success and wasn’t widely available.



Another vote for the BBC type presentation on UKTV being of a high standard. Whilst I don’t mind it the way it is now, it’s certainly a damn sight better than when all the channels were UKTV named than UK.

Ah, UK Arena, one of the first commercial channels (excepting BBC World) to be played out from Television Centre - when the playout contract for UK Gold moved there. UK Style, Horizons, Arena and Gold - or 'SHAG TV' as it became known to some of us

Did they start before BBC Prime? I'd have thought that and BBC World were the two main commercial channels the BBC TX-ed prior to the UK TV era (or was Prime initially advert free - like BBC One/Two Mix aka BBC Europe before it ?)

Yes Prime was ad-free, I think throughout its existence, though there were some Africa regional opts in the early 2000s and they may have had ads on them. Memory a bit hazy.

BBC World was a commercial channel but the BBC weren’t allowed to handle commercials initially and so the ‘core’ channel was always ad free (with the break filler). Europe ads were initially played out by Thames TV. Steadily bits were added to BBC World and by the end of playout from tv centre, Europe had its own separate stream of automation with bespoke ads, trails, sponsorships and some programmes. Ads to Latin America also came from tvc. Other ads were inserted regionally by playout partners in those markets, triggered by VBI pulses and backed up with cue dots and talkback counts.

They were using that ident before they lost the franchise (I think as far back as the blue triangular logo was introduced) but only in front of regional programmes. After the announcement they dropped the ITV branding and just used Thames.


It might well have been due to happen eventually though as the menus and other elements looked a bit too nice to have just been knocked up in a week or two

As I said in the above post, september 1990

Talking of UK Arena's successor, UK Drama I couldn't help but notice the similarity between their main ident


and this classic sketch

I completely agree with News at Ten from 2008. Another era of ITV News I think could have lasted a lot longer was the 1995 design:



Still stunningly simple and beautiful now and I thought it was a shame that it was replaced by the tacky American style ITV News graphics in 1999.