Thank you for your kind message @Medianext.MX! I really appreciate it! 
By the way, that rendition of the NBC Peacock is one of the best and one of the strongest logos in television history 
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A historical compilation of 9 p.m. news opens from NHK in Japan:
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Getting musical with station campaigns from the two Hong Kong English channels, circa mid-80s…
TVB Pearl adopted The Pearlwatcher Touch as their slogan for 1984/85 season, with a jingle sung by the late Danny Chan, an aspiring star in the Cantopop scene then:
TVB’s longtime showbiz programme K-100 had some behind-the-scenes in recording the song. It was hosted by Chan and a young Maggie Cheung, who would later become one of the highest-profiled actresses in HK cinema:
ATV Diamond, meanwhile, wanted viewers to “Turn On to ATV”:
A short ident using the jingle:
Really contrasted with how cut-to-the-bone the English channels are now…
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I can definitely see the CBS influence in “The Pearlwatcher Touch”.
Other station that América TV copied was Miami’s NBC O&O affiliate WTVJ. América had identical sets and graphics to the ones used by the South Florida channel. Here’s a small comparison:
América 2
WTVJ
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Speaking of NBC (but still in the local scene), here are highlights of a Sunday night newscast from New York City’s WNBC-TV in June 1978, presented by longtime anchor/reporter Pia Lindstrom from a futuristic “laboratory” studio designed by Fred Harpman.
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That almost looks like the 1980s set for Now You See It.
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A quick behind the scenes video on L!VE TV, a short-lived UK cable TV channel during its first of what was to become multiple eras.
That network was the brainchild of David Montgomery, a former News UK executive who took over most of the Daily Mirror’s brands after the sudden death of Robert Maxwell; keen to expand to pay TV, the decision was made to launch channel’s exclusively on cable TV, due to Murdoch dominating with Sky on satellite; the move was bold due to cable being still an unprofitable business at the time in the UK.
Montgomery started by buying Wire TV, which was operated by CPP1 (Cable Programme Partners), a joint venture between cable operators United Artists, NYNEX, US West and Comcast, among others. Wire TV originally operated in the cheap, with a mix of American and Australian off-network soap operas, sitcoms and quiz shows, and radio-style talkback shows; however, by 1994, the station had increased the number of sports programming after a deal with Chris Wright’s Chrysalis Group, leading to coverage of non-League football, darts and Lennox Lewis’ boxing bouts; the network also shocked BSkyB after buying rights to the 1996 ICC Cricket World Cup.
Mirror wanted to spin off the sports rights into its own channel, Sportswire; however, Telewest and NYNEX, as part of contract renewals with BSkyB to carry Sky Sports, were informed that cable operators wouldn’t be able to launch any rival channels to Sky, leading to the collapse of Sportswire, and with all rights resold to Sky in the end.
However, Mirror was able to launch its plans for a general entertainment channel, having wooed away from the BBC Janet Street-Porter as managing director; however, she worked alongside the controversial Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie, who served as head of television. The Street-Porter plan for L!VE TV was a very low-cost effort, using more automation than other stations and, inspired by Citytv in Toronto, having new, untried presenters roam across the station’s office, based on the 24th floor of One Canada Square in the Canary Wharf district, in which Mirror had leased some floors and relocated in 1994. Programming was very basic, with rolling blocks of live content mixing studio presentations, reports on celebrities, interviews, reviews, lifestyle features and reports from events and happenings across the UK.
The cut costs, Mirror wanted to use new and untried automated production and transmission software from Avid, and tendered the station’s OB truck to BT’s broadcast division, but, after major technical problems, it had to resort to a semi-automated production team. However, the station suffered major issues after launch, and the low uptake of cable TV led to L!VE TV in the red from the start; not helping were clashes between MacKenzie and Street-Porter on the direction of the network’s content: even if she had brought her close staffers at the BBC to the network (including Rachel Purnell, Darryl Burton, Ruth Wrigley and Tony Orsten), MacKenzie had brought his second and longtime friend, Nick Ferrari, to lead the editorial content.
These situations led to the resignation of Street-Porter after three weeks; MacKenzie took over quickly and axed the rolling schedule. In its place, a traditional schedule with a controversial mix of content that received lots of coverage, but never received high ratings, and was considered cheap and of poor taste. The new schedule was done with the input of US media consultant Bill Ripley, which included surreal and NSFW content which often went beyond the tastes of what was permitted; some more “decent” content were a very cheap soap, Canary Wharf, which could often remind of the “Chances” fiasco, and news updates featuring the News Bunny.
However, L!VE still aired some sport, including full coverage of the 1995 Rugby League World Cup and 1995 darts World Masters, plus greyhound racing and highlights of non-League football; MacKenzie also launched a network of local channels in selected metro areas at the time. However, the increased turn into the red, even with the slowly-increasing ratings, led to the channel closing in November 1999.
In the midst of this, many faces in the station would eventually land bigger gigs at mainstream broadcasting, including Claudia Winkleman (Strictly, The Traitors…), Charlie Stayt (5 News, BBC Breakfast), Rhodri Williams (Sky Sports, Setanta UK, talkSPORT, Al Jazeera, Al Kass…) and Richard Bacon (who, after suffering a major setback after being forced out of Blue Peter, he since landed gigs at The Big Breakfast, Top of the Pops and Radio 5 Live, and has since moved to the US, where he has worked for many of Disney’s networks).
The troubled story of the network was documented by the team from BBC’s Trouble at the Top, which first aired as a standalone doco, Nightmare at Canary Wharf, in late 1995 but was later re-edited by 1997 to include references to how MacKenzie was doing so far in the managing floor.
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In the 1990s, Germany’s ProSieben used the same “Newsplex” set…
…as WSVN in Miami:
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From the 1980s: NBC program Real People reporting on WTBS Atlanta’s humorous news show 17 Update Early in the Morning. Includes an interview with its host Bill Tush, who later became an entertainment reporter at corporate sibling CNN.
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10 years later, in 2008, América’s newscasts have switched to a tabloid style, that heavily relied on crime stories and hidden-camera reports. This is a bulletin from the same year, where one of the headlines was the growing popularity of a local cake called Chocotorta 
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Surprisingly, it sported a very elegant presentation: cool studio and graphics, and a cheerful theme music composed by Sergio Vainikoff.
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Monty Python’s Flying Circus doing a send-up of long running documentary series Whicker’s World (1959-1994). This parody is from the first episode of MPFC Series 3 (1972-73).
YouTube: Unk Drummer
Turns out the real Alan Whicker enjoyed this sketch.
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A year later, América changed once again its graphics and theme music for something more European in style. The set was also more cleaner and bigger for the eye than the quite small size of their news studio:
The theme music, however, went on the opposite direction: Raúl Parentella, the prolific pianist, arranger, jingle composer and musical director, wrote a strong theme tune that could easily be in the style of Eddie Sierra’s music for Artear, although with a majestic sound and a very classical style. The theme was used until 2016, alongside some cuts of EDM from Aphex Twin and Fluke:
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A full edition of WMC Memphis’ 10pm news in January 1982. It’s interesting to see Brenda Wood anchoring there: she left for Atlanta in 1988, working at WAGA and WXIA for almost 3 decades.
WMC was known for its peculiar “riverboat” whistle sound, heard on promos and idents.
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A compilation of bumpers and IDs from Spanish network TVE1 in the early 2000s. This branding was devised by Ostra Delta and the song that accompanied it was “Porcelain” from Moby.
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Teledoce Televisora Color (ch. 12 in Montevideo, Uruguay) signs off for the night in June of 1993 with an announcer reading the next day’s sked, but with a particular detail: includes slides with pictures of the programs that contained 3D text and the channel’s logo (very cool!).
Ten years later, in July of 2003, the weather forecast and closer of 12’s lunchtime news.
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November 2008: intro, headlines and segment of Fox Sports Noticias (South American feed, based in Buenos Aires), anchored by Juan José Buscalia and Margarita Wais. The set looked like a spaceship and the theme was very catchy !
Torneos y Competencias (a powerful production company, now known simply as Torneos) was in charge of running Fox Sports’ news service at the time.
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Goldmine of an archive just uncovered… the first ever sign-on of New York’s channel 5, days after Murdoch took over most of the stations of the Metromedia group (except WCVB, which due to its affiliation with ABC, was instead resold to the Hearst Corporation, exercing a right of first refusal in relation to a prior acquisition in 1982). The acquisition of these stations was part of Murdoch’s major expansion to film and TV, having acquired a major stake on 20th Century Fox.
During the transaction, Murdoch’s plans to launch the Fox Broadcasting Company were being prepared. From March to October, a slow transition on WNYW’s presentation was still being seen, with a spartan presentation based around transparent panels, grey gradients and the Friz Quadrata typeface employed in conjunction with many of the graphics, segments and public affairs capsules employed during the final WNEW years under Metromedia. With the partial launch of the Fox network in October with Joan Rivers’ Late Show, the presentation was slowly replaced with sophisticated 3D graphics, continuity announcers were slowly retired and an increased O&O mentality was starting to seen. With the formal launch of the Fox network in April 5, 1987 with the premiere of Married… with Children (the network’s eventual first hit), its presentation became more professional and with more of the look of a real O&O station.
Some traditions don’t change however, as their “It’s 10 p.m., Do you know where your children are?” advisory before the 10 O’Clock News has remained on air ever since.
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With the bombshell news of a major change in the landscape of French TV after the country’s broadcast authority Arcom has revoked the licenses of C8 and NRJ 12, here’s the untold story about both broadcasters. It will be divided into two parts, starting with C8 this time.
C8 is the third incarnation of the network originally conceived by Bolloré as Direct 8. After having been responsible for transforming the family holding into a multinational industrial company, Bolloré soon had the desire to invest on media after meeting Philippe Labro, then programme director at RTL. After Labro was sacked from the station, Bolloré invited him to work on the project as part of the government’s plan to license new commercial channels for the launch of the French TNT network.
Bolloré and Labro were joined by a number of important players as consultants, coming from the company and from other major media outlets and production groups (including Stéphane Courbit, Euromédia’s Cédric Drapeau and Jean-Christophe Thiery, one of the company’s top executives at the time). After a period of consultation, they settled on applying for one of the new TNT licenses in 2002, and were successful in getting it, becoming one of the initial batch of six new channels to be launched.
The network launched on March 31 2005, the day the TNT network was launched in France. Direct 8 had all throughout Bolloré’s own signature: the logo was designed by Labro, but had to be modified as Bolloré complained it of being “too busy”. Bolloré also personally selected the network’s initial theme music, Mike Oldfield’s Moonlight Shadow, after hearing it on the radio. Even their new hires were also personally selected and interviewed by Bolloré.
These new hires were mostly young and untried presenters who were new to TV, and often also worked in multiple roles at the network. It was an ultra cheap network, where most of the content was aired live and featured many different entertainment concepts. At the behest of Bolloré, even a religious magazine, Dieu Merci !, was included. Bolloré also invited François Busnel, then editor of Lire magazine, to helm a cultural programme, Valérie Trierweiler, then-Paris Match political editor, to helm a Sunday morning political debate, and Alain Minc, close to Bolloré, for a conversational discussion on philosophical issues.
The network amateurism soon became a major topic on social media and the industry magazine: instead of airing conventional commercial breaks, they aired interludes with an instrumental version of Moonlight Shadow, which featured live cams from the network’s facilities at Bolloré’s head office in Puteaux (Hauts-de-Seine). Programmes often started late and lacked any kind of content driving the shows, and news flashes didn’t have any kind of appropriate imagery to illustrate stories. Additionally, the reliance on untried presenters led to criticism from many media circles in France.
After a year of unsustainable losses, Labro was demoted (although remained to present Langue de bois s’abstenir, a political programme) and was replaced by Bolloré’s son Yannick. He fired many of the stalwart executives and dropped the live format in favour of a more conventional schedule, introducing spot advertising, second-run imported films and series and were able to acquire sports rights, the highest profile being the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Yannick also introduced more cost effective programmes, including Jean-Marc Morandini and a confrontational religious discussion show, Les Enfants d’Abraham.
The network’s bad fortunes were largely reversed, and by 2010, it had managed to reduce its losses; that year, Bolloré bought Lagardère’s music network Virgin 17, and renamed it to Direct Star; however, the acquisition caused more drain on finances, leading to Canal+ buying a 60% stake on Bolloré’s media division in 2012. That year, Direct 8 was renamed D8, which came with Cyril Hanouna’s transfer from France 4 to lead Touche pas à mon poste !; initially, it was still media and celebrity-oriented, but particularly since 2017, it became more and more politically oriented, with a more prominent swing being seen from and during the Gilets jaunes protests. D8’s content was promising, airing various original shows (including a The View-style talker with Laurence Ferrari, and retaining some of Direct 8’s existing magazine programming, some of which had aired since the launch) and with more professional production resources. It also served as a shop window for Canal+’s premium cinema and sports content.
However, the D8 acquisition was paid off in exchange for Bolloré taking over shares at Canal+’s parent company Vivendi, which allowed Bolloré to start buying shares en masse. Vincent Bolloré can be considered France’s answer to Murdoch and has pushed D8 and sister network i-Télé (now CNEWS) into a conservative agenda editorially. By 2015, he had already a majority stake and began to quickly make changes: D8 was renamed C8 in 2016 and move many of Canal+’s FTA shows to the network (as Canal+ was starting to refocus its schedule on the basis of its premium programming). After a difficult start and lack of a consistent schedule, by 2020, the network had hired some popular TV personalities who had been sidelined by TF1, France Télévisions and M6 (William Leymergie, Patrick Sébastien, Stéphane Thebaut) on economical or age grounds. Programming became increasingly targeted to an conservative, older audience than even France 3, although Hanouna’s programming, which now dominates the network’s schedule, was and is still largely oriented towards young audiences.
Particularly, Touche pas à mon poste ! has been regarded as the most fined show by Arcom on numerous occasions of not showing due impartiality in its handling of political guests and content, alongside controversial comments from the presenter, which include humiliating gay men on one episode, and depending on tabloid crime and gossip stories. Hanouna has also been accused of sexual harassment. Speculation says that was enough for Arcom to award the licence (and that of NRJ 12) to the powerful Ouest France media and publishing company, and to Czech raid investor Daniel Kretinsky, whose projects (Ouest France TV and RéelsTV) are considered they won’t be broadcasting controversial output on TNT (the French equivalent to Freeview), which has 90% of viewers using the platform.
For further details, INA’s magazine, La revue des médias, published in January 2022 a long read on the launch and early days, La télé selon Bolloré, in which reporter Mathieu Deslandes interviewed several of the pioneers of the network.
The second part of this retelling, about NRJ 12, will follow soon.
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Speaking of VTM, here’s a portion of its 7pm newscast in March 1999. The 3D “glass” intro and music lasted almost a decade: from 1992 until sometime in 2000/01. Before the start of the news (at the 1:36 minute mark), in-vision continuity announcer Francesca Vanthielen previews the channel’s evening lineup.
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