ah yes, “And It’s Goodbye from Us” Southern’s temper tantrum made into a TV show
btw good series for more of an insight into ITV’s visual identity:
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A station ID from Canal 13 Buenos Aires in 1991. The station’s iconic “13” logo (introduced in 1968) was scrapped in '92.
It had several color and design variants, like this one from 1978 (when the channel was run by the Argentine Navy), that reminisces to the old logo used by Canada’s CBC.
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Today marks the 35th year since ATV in Hong Kong rebranded itself with a new symbol, and a fresh suite of investors. Out went the Chiu family’s Far-East Consortium and the Chinese coin symbol (borrowed from the corporate logo); and in with the Lim family’s textile-cum-development conglomerate Lai Sun Group, and New World Development’s Cheng family.
The new symbol was based around 3 ribbons in red, blue and green respectively, interconnected as a constantly-revolving sign. According to SCMP, it was done by advertising agency DDB Needham (now DDB Worldwide):
It was officially debuted during the Lunar New Year fireworks display a few days later, which ATV sponsored and had exclusive broadcasting rights on - TVB headed to Guangzhou for their LNY special that year. This was their full-page (in Chinese newspapers’ case, front-page) ad, celebrating the change:
Branding for their two channels were changed a week after the debut. This was the ident for the Cantonese-speaking channel, now renamed ATV Home. The background music was the soundtrack for their relaunch campaign:
Meanwhile, the English channel was renamed from ATV Diamond to ATV World. This is their campaign promo, proclaiming “The Switch is On”:
The actual ident. Styles for the accompanying captions varied over the next few months: There was one in abstract CGI symbols, and later some clear pillars hovering over a blue sky.
This initial logo would be short-lived, as ATV hired a local fengshui consultant the next year, who suggested joining the ribbons together. The resulting symbol, nicknamed the ‘wool roll’, would be used until 2007. It had been the face for ATV’s most popular years with (imported/original) drama series, localized game show franchise, infotainment and sports programming, as well as witnessing the constant change of hands in management starting in early 2000s.
This was the updated ATV World ident, who used the same ‘Hong Kong cityscape’ elements across the captions:
And a Summer-themed ident on ATV Home.
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Here’s a segment about the 1991 franchise round (the previous one weren’t really auctions; they were essentially “beauty contests”) from a 2005 documentary about ITV:
And I’ve mentioned this upthread, but here’s a fascinating read about the auction:
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Yorkshire Television didn’t didn’t like the first version of their ITV logo, because the localized “V” segment contained only a part of Yorkshire’s famous chevron logo…
…so they replaced it with a modified version that featured the full logo:
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Speaking of ATV World, here’s a full news bulletin from March 1996 presented by Yuen Chan.
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From June that same year: Rede Globo’s conventional late evening news, read by the husband-and-wife team of Eliakim Araujo and Leila Cordeiro.
The duo became very popular with viewers: they were even parodied in a skit of TV Pirata, a Globo comedy program! In 1989 rival network Manchete hired both to anchor its main newscast together: SBT did exactly the same in '93.
At the end of the decade, they relocated to Miami to present bulletins co-produced by SBT and the defunct Portuguese-language service CBS Telenotícias.
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The start-up at 9:25AM on 31/12/1992 = Thames Television’s final day as the London Weekdays ITV contractor. Your announcer in the continuity booth at Euston Road is Mark Lipscomb:
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And here are the final few minutes of Thames; the video flickers at exactly midnight (5:03 in the clip) as the switch is thrown to Carlton, and the first Carlton ident appears a few seconds later:
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Yes, the switch glitch as the engineers at the Crystal Palace transmitter switch the feed from Thames at Euston Road to Carlton/LWT on the South Bank. Same as every Friday at 5:15 but this would be the last time.
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Here’s some presentation from the final day of LWT from a decade later. LWT didn’t lose its license; the loss of its on-air identity was the result of the consolidation of ITV. And boy did it go out in style! Throughout the day, the station featured old idents and updated versions of various classic slides, from lists of transmitters to programming line-ups, as well as a behind-the-scenes look at its (outgoing) announcing team.
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The LWT on the recreation of the 1970s start-up is because they couldn’t use the Independent Broadcasting Authority logo that would have been on the genuine start-up of the era.
Likewise, the final LWT-branded junction with the recreation of the 1978 “River” ident which led into “The South Bank Show” is the only retro ident actually aired, as using say, 1986’s Genesis and Solari idents or the LWT version of the 1989 generic ident would have involved clearances and copyright payments.
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Speaking of which, here’s the original as seen in the early-to-mid-1970s:
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Today Sky UK celebrates its 35th anniversary. Here’s how Sky launched back in 1989, with a half-hour documentary called “The Revolution”, plus Sky News’ first bulletin, with Penny Smith and Alastair Yates (RIP):
Sky’s original line-up included Sky News, the original incarnation of Eurosport (a joint-venture with Eurovision Sport and the BBC), Sky Movies (now a premium movie network under the name Sky Cinema) and the general entertainment Sky Channel, which previously targeted a Pan-European audience, but which, after the launch of Sky, became more and more targeted to British domestic audiences, and was renamed Sky One by 1990. The longtime home of The Simpsons and many of Fox’s US series, after the acquisition by Comcast and the decision to organize its own channels under a new, genre-based system, Sky One closed in 2021 to be replaced by two separate channels: Sky Max, which focused on original dramas and general entertainment, and Sky Showcase, which served as a content window network for Sky’s content, with comedy shows moved to Sky Comedy, which was Comcast’s first big move and initially aired many of NBC’s comedy content.
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A picture from Canal 7 Buenos Aires’ news set in the early 1970s, when respected broadcaster Antonio Carrizo (who had a 50+year career in radio and TV) was the anchorman of the 7pm news.
From the same station, but several decades later (in April 2007), the closing minutes of the 9pm news, fronted by journalist Rosario Lufrano. Includes the national weather forecast, delivered by cheerful meteorologist Nadia Zyncenko. Between 2006 and 2008 (when she resigned), Lufrano also served as Director-General of the public channel.
The newscast’s fast-paced theme music mixed contemporary instruments (electric guitars) with some of the country’s traditional ones, like flutes and bandoneons. It also had a slower, triumphant version, used for the morning and lunchtime editions.
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Sky - We’re the One!
YouTube: gepree68
Short Version
YouTube: BluetheFortune
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Speaking of international TV promo campaigns, this early Sky News promo…
…was based on a campaign also seen in Australia…
…and several U.S. markets:
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I like themes that incorporate local touches. For instance, this theme from the Hungarian news channel Hír TV was not just performed by the Hungarian Symphony Orchestra, but also incorporated a distinctly Hungarian violin sound (wait a while for the violins to come in):
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Nice find! Very newsy and European! 
Speaking of local touches, Ireland’s RTE has used some notes of “O’Donnell Abú” (an Irish song) as part of its news bulletins’ theme since 2014.
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Some bits of Galaxy, BSB’s short-lived entertainment channel that was on the air for a few months in 1990. Its visual brand was another Lambie-Nairn creation!
When BSB and Sky merged to form BSkyB at the end of that year, its transponder was handed over to Sky One.
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