Are TV IDENTS Dying Out?
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- čas přidán 25. 03. 2024
- They've been around since the 1950s, but are TV IDENTS moving towards DYING OUT entirely? Whilst they are still present on our screens, they seem to be increasingly viewed as an afterthought. More of an obligation for broadcasters, we discuss this issue, and whether the humble TV ident can survive...
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I remember becoming so obsessed with idents and branding when I was about 11, and my interest in them never truly went away. I think this is due to a number of reasons, interest in graphic design as a concept, the familiarity and sentimentality of them, and, well, autism-related special interests.
It is a shame how they seem to be a dying art, but then again traditional telly in itself seems to be a dying art. Still though, it doesn't explain why they're so boring now. Minimalism in action, I guess, but there are glimpses of creativity here and there, such as C4's current idents. Hopefully creativity in TV branding makes a comeback soon.
My favourite set of idents have to be the 2010-2014 CBBC idents, they're just so nostalgic and so varied, with so many different cool art styles and references packed in before the fun jingle ends with that awesome 3D logo. Brings a lot of warm and fuzzy memories lol.
@PeppaPig-ze3yc It is when you're 19
I lovedddd the cbbc idents when the logo was green, back when the channel used to make promos for their website instead of their stupid bbc iplayer app
I'm like that
here in Slovenia our national channels have now been using mostly the same idents for like 7 years and it seems like they just don't care anymore, they see TV as a dead form of media and don't even bother to make the presentation inspiring or interesting anymore i guess
The regional ones shown at the start were the best. There was a sense of local pride in seeing shows made nearby. Anglia still means Sale of the Century or Tales of the Unexpected.
Couldn't agree more! My personal favourite was the ATV in colour ident or zoom 2
Central “cake” set, TVS’ slightly American spinning logo and the massively understated and classy Anglia flag form up are some of the best in my opinion.
@robustreviews
Agree on the anglia flag. Very underrated ident.
My top 5 regional itv ones are
5.) Central cake (various)
4.) Itv generic 1989 look
3.) Anglia flag
2.) Yorkshire television liquid gold
1.). Thames 69-89
I personally miss the early 2000's Cartoon Network UK idents. They remind me of weekday mornings watching TV with my dad.
The Cartoon Network 1.0 idents in the early '10s weren't bad either. I feel like creativity is dying in general when it comes to branding. Everything's bland, minimalistic, and safe now.I feel so blessed to be part of the last generation to have grown up with good idents.
The BBC 1 balloon idents were the BEST. By a country mile. They have a very warm, fuzzy feeling to them with the music and the scenery. They were what was on TV during my early, late 90's childhood. A simpler time when my innocence was intact, I had very few worries and enjoyed watching stop-motion children's TV on VHS. That all ended in September 2001, when I began Year 1 and started doing proper work at school, along with 9/11 shattering the world's sense of security. Without a doubt, those were the best days of my life.
Here in Australia, TV Idents are already becoming a dying breed. They don't even show any identification between most channels, and instead cut from show to show. The wonder and magic of these segments are becoming a lost art, as more people don't even care about what the channel is supposed to be. It's bad enough that most channels don't even show the end credits of a show or film broadcast.
To add to your comment, as they typically do, they divide the screen into two horizontally with the next episode or the end of the show in the top half and the credits in the bottom half. And if it's a movie, they'll squash the picture down and speed up the credits so what should take three minutes takes thirty seconds.
Even when SBS shows UK shows where the credits will only ever occupy the left half of the screen, they'll squash the screen to half so that the credits end up taking up the left quarter and then the right half is used up for extra promos.
We down under are truly lazy gits.
In America, the Big 3 networks churned out jingles every year until the 90's, but now our idents are dull.
@@jonnygulmatico9472
"The big 3" - ABC, NBC & CBS?
I see the UK going towards a more American model of basically not having any Idents at all. Or just a short "_____ Presents" graphic. You don't have to pay people and waste money that could be sold. Which is a shame, because I like that little bit where the TV station can just talk to the viewer. Kind of like In-vision continuity.
Yup, American TV has bumpers, not idents... Like the regional ITV slides before one of their programmes. Plus US TV has ran on screen graphics reminding you what channel you're watching in the corner of the screen since almost forever. Continuity the UK way never was a thing since the 60s over here.
Regional idents were amazing brill video my friend … and I am happy to say my 19 and 16 kiddo’s have been educated in regional idents including ours Yorkshire television… which to my amazement they both find interesting the were in shock when I 1st told them … I grew up with 3 channels 😅 great video again….. ooog here’s a suggestion could you possibly do a video on how BBC and itv started up on a morning and possibly talk about when BBC closed for the afternoon ❤
Idents were really big in Australia from the 1970s to 2010, and a tradition was rapidly trashed in the name of retaining audiences between two shows. Through the 2000s the ad break between shows was shrunk more and more, and long forgotten was something like a newsbreak between shows. But eventually credits were removed, and foolishly the ident was removed too.
It makes no sense to me, because the branding is surely as important in the long term, as whatever you possibly get by tricking people into watching the next show who don’t know the last one is over.
I remember when we just had 3 channels, then going to 5 channels. I remember watching the channels turn off when tv went digital.
A lot of You-tubers have spent time and effort on their identS. The creativity is out there you just have to look. From a radio perspective Branding is everything. During classic fm test transmission we had bird song. I guess the taken for granted ident shows how high the bar is set!
I love TV idents! They show the brand with a flare of entertainment!
I remember the Carlton ITV Idents back in the early 2000s. I think they did the Cineworld and Odeon Idents with the Molten Iron Star logo at the same time.
my favourite are the BBC One "Circles" idents, the CBBC 2007 and 2016 idents and the CBeebies 2002-2023 idents because I remember these.
I think BBC America used the "circles" idents for a while before AMC networks changed things for the worse. 😑
Hey Adam , Off topic to the video. Could you perhaps do one bassed on the TV channel Viva. It used to play Penguins of Madagascar in the morning amongst other things. It’s a lost channel that was good.
He did review the channel's Christmas ident in The Ident Review 100 a bit ago, of course.
One of the best idents is the Channel 4 one with the kids playing football in the street in Liverpool.
Wow, this has really shed light on what TV idents have become. I agree that they are important, and one thing I have noticed is that they are now even being used in CZcams videos, people are actually creating idents for their CZcams content as well, which shows that they are not just needed for television, but also online media as well. Even my channel, yes, the one I am commenting from, even uses idents in videos.
Well said! And thank you very much for the donation!
Oh, hey there!
If you and other content creators continue making your own idents with true passion, then perhaps there’s hope for idents yet. Maybe this isn’t their end but their evolution. Keep going!
The key word that's missing out of all of this is "brand".
There was the very briefest touch on the modern notion of debranding, of making things as simple as possible, and it's the motivation for that that causes all of this. I've said this before, but the BBC2 Curve idents, while being great animation, don't feel like they belong on a TV screen; take a still frame from any of them, rip out the BBC logo and they'd make a fantastic mobile phone backdrop. That's what they're all chasing; stripped down, cheaper branding that works better on a tiny mobile screen or, more importantly still, an even tinier app icon.
Without those branding efforts, idents don't work as a cohesive whole. The BBC1 Lens fails hard (for me) because the brand they should be identifying is the BBC, but that brand is shoved to the periphery of the screen while a clutter of images floats across the middle. Channel 4 idents have been consistently great because they've always remembered the importance of the blocks logo as a focal point. Etcetera.
There is another aggravating factor in this issue, which I can see from Brazilian TV, country where I'm from, which perhaps is reflected in other countries around the world: sponsors. Probably, broadcasters are seeing the space dedicated to idents as profitable gaps when reallocating these time slots to commercial breaks.
From the major TV networks around here, the traditional 15-second idents exibited between two shows were practically extinct and generic idents have been scarce throughout the daily programming in recent years. For example, TV Globo (world's 2nd largest TV network and very famous due the work from their former graphic designer Hans Donner) ditched the 15-sec idents 10 years ago, but kept the network's brand identity under their traditional "Plim-plim" commercial break bumpers (broadcasted during films and foreign TV series only); Record (owned by a huge evangelical church leader), broadcasts their only and dull ident as a sign-on/sign-off for Televangelist programming during late night/early morning; SBT (an entertainment-focused generalist TV network) somehow preserves the brand identity during commercial breaks with small bumpers for local commercials.
Anyway, I think, unless the role of free-to-air generalist TV network finally finds a path during the streaming era, the idents will keep under extinction.
The quality of idents today compared to idents just a decade ago, are just subpar. An insightful video, and makes me miss the old idents.
It's not just idents. You see it in art, graphic design, culture...
I miss the regional ITV idents; they still pop up tacked on the end of certain productions, but, more often than not, they've been squashed into a small section of the screen with 'what's next' filling the remainder. Living in the Granda region, the yellow G with an arrow was a welcome sight as the Beeb made everything more and more London-centric. Of course, now much of the BBC comes from Salford, and it does show that many more northern people are involved… it still keeps a decidedly South-East demeanour, though.
Strange how the BBC have managed to straddle that north/south divide fence, ain't it?...
It seems that television audience are now becoming a thing of the past, and it's sad to know that creativity is now becoming a bit of a dying thing. 😢
Oh no…we must get the indents alive and running again!
Meanwhile US And Australia:LOLLL
So true
Meanwhile american tv channels don't even have idents or bumpers, local channels have hourly station IDs but most of them just show the logo over a city or on a boring background, and cable channels don't really have idents, just going straight to the show for some reason :(
US broadcast TV has to identify the station either in voice or in vision once every hour. Simple as flashing up a white text overlay that has callsign and city of license, maybe additional cities too - our ion TV affiliate does just that. Our Fox affiliate actually makes good use of station identification, turning it into a 10 second promo for their news programming (with FCC required text) but Fox network programming is a Fox bumper with station identification text at bottom. Our CBS affiliate does both - a bumper promo during non network programming and simple text overlay at other times, as they really want to push their station identify over that of CBS.
Cable and satellite stations don't have to have station identification by law, so they simply don't bother. They have the permanent onscreen logo in a corner to remind you what you're watching.
Thinking about it, it's lucky some idents are carried onto streams of certain channels' programming, like you said. Because terrestrial (and to an extent, even cable/satellite) television is DEAD AF. It's ALL streaming now.
tv is dying out, never mind the idents
I really hope that TV idents will stick around. With enough creativity, effort, time and enthusiasm, idents can really have an impact on the viewer. Really cannot believe how terrible the current Channel 5 idents are. I’m glad someone like you is talking about this since no other CZcamsr has done something like that before. 😃😃
At least you guys should be lucky that you even have idents. Cause we in Cambodia doesn’t even have those things. In fact, all TV stations in cambodia doesn’t even care about it. They only show with once after the commercials yet even then they still showing commercials. And the idents? It’s just the same basic, only showing the logo and nothing else.
2025 TV Idents: Black screen with white logo and no speech (2nd comment, I love ur vids, Adam!)
RTE 1, Ireland's state broadcaster, is what you have described. They changed their idents last year.
@@anothercomment Damn
For me I believe CZcams channels should have idents, and as such will be working on some for my channels. Glad to see someone finds idents as interesting as I do. Thank you for this video.
Production company idents (at the end of the programme) will probably stick around but with the age of streaming I see the announcement idents going the way of the dodo. Sadly.
You know, I absolutely loved 5Star's idents that were introduced in 2016, but then they introduced another ident set in 2019 and that set is absolutely terrible, it really really disappoints me how they could have butchered up so badly. What were they thinking?
Yeah. The 2016 batch really worked well for that AND the base channel. Needless to say, they've definitely been stripped down a lot.
I suppose inevitably with more and more streaming only, idents don't really get seen as much anymore. People don't really care where it came from originally, just what the actual content is. It's the brief animated logos at the start of an actual programme that will be seen more and more, that's where the traditional broadcasters need to improve, as the likes of ITV studios is not that impressive, certainly not like movie studios and American TV companies add to the start of their programmes. Can still hear the hmmmmmmm ssssshhhh of the Showtime from the era of the Dexter intro.
The 90s was special.
I like looking at UK channels back in the day and seeing how creative they were with their presentation. They actually made you feel like you were watching something special. I even look back at the presentation here in the States such as the Nicktoons headquarters bumpers and just seeing how fun and creative those were. It's all getting treated like an afterthought, and while there's obviously exceptions, for the most part the creative merit is largely gone, in favor of simplification.
Money and societal attitude changes I guess. Ever more disposable content.
I love watching the Christmas idents (and ads/commercials) from time to time, there’s something cosy and warming about them that I can’t quite put my finger on.
Very interesting Adam
The art of the ident has long been dead here in the United States. We had some of the best and most iconic IDs you can think of, from the NBC "In Living Color" Peacock from the 60's to the HBO Feature Presentation Spaceship in the 80's. Now any visual element to tell you what channel you're watching is lackluster at best if anything at all since the prevalence of DOGs (we call them "bugs" in North America) pretty much ID'ing the channel throughout the programming itself.
Ahhhh, the US. The original sinner of cultural dumbing-down.
I've seen NET and PBS idents from the sixties and seventies with vigour and exceptional creativity, nothing like the PBS of today.
I've seen NBC and ABC idents from the sixties with any semblance of life and connection to the viewer (and with that, exceptional amounts of life and connection), unlike whatever the(y call) "idents" are these days (if they even call them "idents" to begin with).
Do they still do special intros before they show movies on TV these days, or are they too relegated to the annals of history?
@@KaleunMaender77 The style of presentation and continuity on American television has always been different from that of the UK. Here, the continuity announcers often spoke over the closing credits of the previous TV show to let you know what was coming on next, rather than speaking over a standalone ident. This was done mostly to sell as much commercial ad time as possible. In Britain, the BBC doesn't even have commercials for starters, and even commercial television (ITV and Channel 4) weren't allowed to sell as much ad time as one would see on TV this side of the Pond.
PBS as a noncommercial broadcaster had continuity more akin to what one would see on British television, often with the announcers speaking over a slide or other visual element. Some PBS stations, like KCET in Los Angeles, even used an analog clock ident like British and European TV stations. Commercial TV stations here though never used analog clocks but instead often would briefly display the current time and temperature in digital form on the hour, often tied in with a static advertisement.
Used to enjoy the ITV2 catchphrase idents: 01:06 is Hammer Time!
If idents are a dying art, so too then must be the continuity announcement.
Watching BBC continuity from up until the nineties, it fascinates me that they used to do ten-second stills with announcements about shows that are coming up either within the next few hours or on the other channel, before the main ident with a continuity announcer introducing the program that's about to air.
I guess times change, and times have changed for the duller and less inspired.
Everything has to incorporate the streaming service connected to the channel.
Nobody amongst Gen X to Gen Alpha really watches terrestrial TV anymore unless they absolutely have nothing else to entertain themselves with. Even the news is streamed online; no need to wait for the six o'clock or ten o'clock news.
Sadly enough, I don't even watch terrestrial TV anymore. Everything I want to watch is on my Chromecast. I don't think I've put my TV on the "TV source" in the ninety days of this year, and if I do, it will be only to see if there's either a new channel on air or a rebrand of an existing channel, both of which are rarities.
By the time the baby boomers constitute less than a quarter of the population, the TV set may no longer be used for generalist content anymore.
I'd like to see terrestrial TV be used, if only even for only live events.
One weather channel.
One news channel.
One local events channel (like fairs, agricultural shows, arts exhibitions, and suchlike).
One emergency channel.
One tourism channel (a channel dedicated to tourists to see what the local area has to offer).
Though, I must say, all of these are pretty much streamable and don't particularly need to be put on terrestrial TV much, if at all.
Still, one can dream, right?
Back in the days when viewers only had a choice of a few broadcast channels, they were a lot more willing to watch through a fancy ident before the show started. Now they could so easily flick away to a streaming service, look at social media on their phone, etc. Airing a 15 or 30 sec ident doesn't make so much sense anymore, when it could end up costing the channel some viewers.
6:32 Such a real statement it had to be said twice
I live in Northern Ireland and I grew up in the 90s and I used to like the regional ITV, UTV (Ulster Television) idents with music, branding and presenters. We had a presenter, Julian Simmons who would come on just before A TV show like Emmerdale or Corrie and give a synopsis of what the episode was about in a funny way. You can find clips of him on CZcams and a video "Ulster Television Logo History" if you want to see the various UTV ident's over the years. Then ITV took away all the UTV branding around 2016 and made it look the same and generic as ITV is and a bit boring in my opinion, which was a shame.
I think TV idents are great. In my opinion, I don't think they're dying out
Agreed
Idents becoming the logo of the broadcaster is more the main thing these days
I liked these Pop 2010's indents as a kid but it was replaced by the 2020's indents
I never thought watching an ident history of BBC Two years ago would eventually lead me to have knowledge about idents, graphic/layout designs and other similar stuffs and, at some point, about British broadcasting industry. Am still curious on stuffs like and beyond this. Anyways, hbd2me.
I do miss the itv new talent logo works phase.
I did wonder how you were going to fit a topic of this scope into one 12 minute video, and boy did you focus on The BBC for a hell of a long time! 8 minutes dedicated to it. I think C4 are the only channel that still have a commitment to idents, but none will ever top the 2004 batch. Anyway, good points raised - just wish more time was spent touching on the other broadcasters, though I know from watching your channel for a long time that the beeb is your favourite. So I guess it makes sense 😅
As an aside, I am noticing a trend here between ITV’s, BBC’s, W’s and C4’s latest idents. They literally all show a parallel or a window into another world, anyone else notice this?
How could this even be *possible*?
I don’t think the globe ever got removed just moved to the bbc news intro.
I loved the idents of channel 4 (2004-2015) and BBC 1 (2006-the recent idents)
Yep they plaster it all over the picture now and made the actual version bland these days due to focusing and putting all the logo resourses into a on picture one we don't want to see in the first place on the picture of the programming we have EPG's now and telling us what the channel is their job get rid of them again and put the resourse back into the animated ones at startup.
2015 Channel 4 Rebrand was the worst TV IDENTS. they dyed out
The branding of breaks on channel 4 isn’t that great either in fact they are all getting particularly bad with all the up plugging of online catch up. itv have annoying filer breaks from time to time, I imagine it’s time they can’t sell or are not allowed to sell due to uk advertising limits. Basically a wasted few minutes results as whatever program is on has the break built into the how the program was made.
this is a horrendous take
At least they didn’t damage your eyes like the current BBC Three ones
I strongly disagree.
@@alexmacleod3728what was the reason?
Not sure most of those idents, old or new, said anything at all. I think the BBC Four ident was the best, showing an art gallery, to declare that the channel represented the BBC's arts output.
Before i watch the video im going to say yes they will die out because with the age of streaming services people will already know what channel they are watching (when i say channel i mean streaming service but you get what i mean) but also no because they can be used for charm but thats just my opinion
I remember the uktv idents
I love the e4 idents
I have a suggestion for the next Ident Review episode.
4:34 I've never seen that ident before!
9:16 I recall sometime in the 2010s, the Channel 5 idents would show five of something. Sticking with Channel 5, I recall during the 2000s, they used to be similar to the Channel idents during the same decade.
Who remembers E4s Estings idents? I liked that they invited viewers to create their idents.
The 'Bat Wings' look like the end boss of a Kirby game.
They're dying out here in Australia as well.
The rhythm and movement indents were terrible..... until oneness came along, what were they thinking
could you do the channel 4 idents from 1982 to 1996 on the ident review extra?
Oh Man not the TV Idents! I just love them so much and they are what started my channel in 2019, I would be gutted if this happens.
Well, that’s one view. I doubt those involved in producing idents would see their work as being “an afterthought”. Every ident does a job, reminding the viewer of the channel they’re watching. Of course, there are good and bad, much like CZcams videos.
BBC 2 in the 90s had the best ones it really was the cool channel.
Absolutely back in the day during the 90s mid 2000s mid 2006 onwards debts got crap 2010 onwards nowadays no love or care
I live tge bbc two remote control 2s overall ifehts need yo back to 90s to 2006 onwards but nowadays no care about especially in age of streaming/vr abd AI channels so no nedd for fir it
Idents were better in the late 90’s and early 00
I do like the idents for ITV2 atm, the seagulls
God I remember when BBC 3 had their Threeworld idents and they were incredible. Like it gave the channel its fun loving youth embracing identity. Now though...I'm not so sure.
Don’t even start me about Lorraine Heggessy jettisoning the BBC1 globe for that shite Rhythm and Dance in 2002. The ITV idents along with ITV itself are pathetic, and even the razzmatazz of Sky back in the 90s has turned into utter boredom today. God knows why this country can’t stick to one logo such as American and Australia
Oneness was brilliant!
Tv 📺
My favourite ident was always the BBC 2 on wheels.
In my opinion channel 4 is the network with the best variety of idents at the moment.
I personally like the Ident's we have right now
Goodness, I Hope not!
EDIT:* RIP To The Idents!
Been watching the January-November 2006 Emotion Idents and the November 2006-January 2013 Idents from ITV1 quite a few times over the past year. The current Idents from November 2022 are lazy and boring and ITV seriously NEED to revert back to the 2006-2013 logo. The Idents on ITV1 must also be more creative and involve happy people just as it did with the aforementioned Idents around 15 or so years ago.
All ITV logos will hopefully revert back in July.
👍🏻
Nooooooo
Anyone for Mini CITV?
Change is inevitable except from vending machines 😊
I hate that new BBC logo. The spacing is jarring.
if paramount could theyd prob take channel 5 off air
Shame
Advertising and branding in general has been awful for at least a decade. Adverts used to be inventive and amusing.
Now they all have pseudo 'purpose' or just emptiness. Reflects societal trends?
not dying out they are less creative they they used to be.
It’s sad that’s becoming less creative 😅
Please pronounce your Ts, it’s annoying.
Shut up, mate.
dont watch then
😂😂
We're Bri'ish, most of us don't pronounce our Ts LMAOOOO
It’s sloppy and uneducated
Of course TV Idents are NOT Dying out, STOP making videos like this otherwise I will terminate your channel.
I have a suggestion for the next Ident Review episode.