ITV IDs (UK)

Background
ITV is a British free-to-air commercial television network. It was launched in 1955 as Independent Television to provide competition to the government-funded BBC. Since the passing of the Broadcasting Act 1990, its legal name has been Channel 3 to distinguish it from the other analogue channels at the time, BBC1, BBC2 and Channel 4. Once being a federation of separate regional companies, today, ITV serves most of the United Kingdom under a unified brand (except for Scotland with STV, and Northern Ireland with UTV).

1st Logo (1950s)
Logo: Just the words "INDEPENDENT TELEVISION" stacked on top of each other.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None, but may contain music or a continuity announcer.

Availability: Extinct.

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Logo (1980s-1989)
Logo: On a dark blue striped background, we see the big letters "ITV". Beneath that is "PRESENTS" in white.

Variant: Sometimes, the logo appears on a light blue background and the "ITV" logo is in 3D and is facing downwards. "PRESENTS" is much thinner than in the first logo.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Extinct.

Editor's Note: None.

3rd Logo (September 1, 1989-October 4, 1998)
Standard Logo:

Note: This was the first of ITV's generic logos, which varied for each ITV franchise it was shown on. It first appeared around 8pm on September 1, 1989.

Nicknames: "ITV Generic", "Get Ready"

Logo: On a black background, a "river" of colours are seen. On top of the river is the franchise's logo and below it is the franchise name in an italicized serif font. The logo wavers and disperses into the river, and in its place, various images of ITV programs fly by from the right to the left, such as the Elizabeth Tower, a white bird, a basketball player, etc. As these images fly by, the letters "Times New Roman" and "Times New Roman", followed by half of the letter "Times New Roman", fade in one by one. Finally, a vertical triangle with two lines carved into it from the left appears in place of the other half of the "Times New Roman", containing part of the franchise's logo. The river fades out.

Franchise Variants: The parts of the franchises' logos that appeared in the aforementioned triangle, depending on the franchise, were as follows:
 * Anglia Television: Three and two yellow triangles from the "flag", along with part of the light blue background. This was not used on-air, probably because too little of the Anglia flag was used.
 * Border Television: Part of the "B" in the Border logo against a dark blue background. Used until 1993.
 * Central: The rainbow colours in the "CGI cake". Used sparingly until 1990.
 * Channel Television: Part of the "C" from the "CTV stripes" against a background. This was not used on-air.
 * Grampian Television: Most of the Scottish saltire, with the bottom section of the triangle in a lighter shade of . Used until October 4, 1998, longer than any of the other variants.
 * Granada: The upper part of the yellow "G-arrow" with a section missing, against a background. This was not used on-air, probably because the line connecting the arrowhead was missing.
 * Harlech Television (Cymru Wales, West): The "H" from the "aerial" against a background of two shades of . Used until 1992.
 * London Weekend: The, white and stripes, with the upper left section of the triangle in . Used until August 1992.
 * Scottish Television: The lower right part of the "thistle" in light blue against a dark blue background. Used until December 1989.
 * TVS Television: The "S" from the TVS logotype in silvery blue, against a background of whitish on the left and dark blue on the right. This was not used on-air.
 * Television South West: The upper part of the "hills" with part of the stripe at the bottom. This was also not used on-air.
 * Thames Television: The London landmarks against a background, with three wavy  lines below representing the river Thames, and the bottom section of the triangle in dark orange. Used until August 31, 1990 (see below).
 * Tyne Tees Television: The left part of the "TTTV" against a yellow background (evoking their "Flowing Rivers" ident from 1988). Used until 1991.
 * Ulster Television: Part of the border and yellow zigzag from the version of the "oscilloscope" then used, against a light gray background. This was not used on-air.
 * Yorkshire Television: The left half of the yellow chevron against a dark blue background. Used until 1990 (see below).

Other Variants:
 * On occasion, the default logo would be used, which had no franchise name displayed at the bottom and had an ordinary triangle with three lines cut into its left side (a la the then-current VIVA Films logo).
 * Central used a variant which combined the company's existing "CGI Cake" animation with the ITV animation. This did not use the David Dundas music.
 * Granada did not use its ITV logo, but did occasionally use a variant combining its existing logo with the default logo above.
 * HTV also had their ITV logos re-edited to consist simply of the "aerial" on the river, with the station name quickly moving in below from the left of the screen. This re-edited version was used until 31 December 1992.
 * Thames unveiled a new triangle logo on September 3, 1990 and consequently incorporated it into a second version of its ITV logo, which was used only before networked programs until October 1991.
 * Yorkshire in January 1991 had its ITV logo re-edited, so that the chevron appeared in place of the triangle before moving to the center of the screen as "ITV" faded out. This was used until October 1994.

FX/SFX: The "river" and the ghost-like appearances of the images.

Music/Sounds: A rather airy synthesized flute theme that culminates in a 5-note trumpet fanfare, sometimes with the flute echoing at the end. Composed by David Dundas as an ITV jingle. A continuity announcement may be used, as well.

Music/Sounds Variant: Central's ITV logo used the company's existing jingle instead of the David Dundas music, or it was mixed up with Central's own ident.

Availability: They are all extinct, but have been preserved by logo enthusiasts in the UK. As mentioned above, while some were actually used, some never appeared on-air.

Editor's Note: This logo is a favorite of many UK logo enthusiasts, although some of the regional logos don't fit the vertical triangle too well (particularly in the case of Channel Television, Scottish Television, TVS Television, and Tyne Tees).

4th Logo (November 8, 1999-October 27, 2002)
Standard Logo:

Nicknames: "TV From The Heart", "ITV Generic II"

Logo: A short film plays, which culminates in the appearance of a heart. The heart flashes, which transitions to a background with spinning heart panels segmented in three. The franchise name/logo appears with a border surrounding the logo, and at the bottom of the border in a  square are the letters "itv". This logo was only used by Granada or UNM-owned stations, as Carlton opted for a different version featuring stars.

Variants:
 * If the franchise's logo was separate from their name (e.g. Granada's G symbol), it would appear above the franchise's name. Strangely, Border Television didn't even have its symbol.
 * For continuity announcements during nighttime programs, a default version would be used, in which only the ITV logo would be displayed.
 * There would be some golden panels used in the daytime, and in the nighttime, they would be all.
 * Starting on August 11, 2001, during the switch to ITV1, the ITV1 logo appears below, which has a "1" inside a yellow square.
 * Sometimes, the short film is skipped, and the animation is used instead. The franchise name/logo appears via a Matrix-like "digitizing" effect.
 * Sometimes the short film/logo animation is skipped, leaving the logo fully formed and the synth music playing. This is usually used for some continuity announcements.
 * Later versions bear the franchise or network's URL at the bottom or bottom-right corner of the screen. The itv.com URL is in white, and has a similar look to the ITV/ITV1 logo.

FX/SFX: The spinning hearts and the "digitizing" effect.

Music/Sounds: A tense orchestrated fanfare during the initial short film/logo animation culminating in a 5-note piano fanfare and a dramatic synth fanfare, the ladder plays when the logo is fully formed. The continuity announcements sometimes accompanied the synth fanfare.

Availability: Extinct, but this is one of ITV's generic logos, and as such appears elsewhere with a different logo.

Editor's Note: This was an unpopular logo among many, due to the consolidation of the unique visual identities of ITV into one.

Background
On October 28, 2002, most ITV franchises dropped their in-air branding, adopting a unified "ITV1" brand. On 2004, Carlton and Granada, the two biggest companies owning ITV franchises merged to form "ITV plc".

1st Logo (October 28, 2002-October 31, 2004)
Nicknames: "ITV People"

Logo: We see a montage of various ITV1 personalities, which ends with the ITV1 logo in 3D sliding toward the bottom right in pieces before coming together.

Variant: There is a different variant in which the ITV1 logo revolves and forms itself on a background of spinning panels. Also, in this variant, the logo zooms in a bit.

FX/SFX: The panels and zooming. These were designed by BDA Creative.

Music/Sounds: A rather uninspired jazz-like tune, or an equally uninspired guitar tune. This is sometimes accompanied by a continuity announcement.

Availability: Extinct. Check your tapes for the logo.

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Logo (November 1, 2004-January 15, 2006)
Logo: On a certain animated background, we see three blue boxes rotating, and this time, we see a yellow cube with the number "1" on each side, along with 3 other blue squares around it, which rotate to reveal the letters "itv" on the other side. They align with the yellow cube, which turns into a square when aligned with the three smaller blue squares. Finally, the squares shine for a few seconds.

Variant: There were several animated background idents that were used throughout the time, including Ribbons, Lines, Bubbles and Clouds idents that were first shown in 2004. In 2005, a Christmas variant was also used.

FX/SFX: The animated background, and the shapes moving. Like the previous logo, this was designed by BDA Creative.

Music/Sounds: TBA.

Availability: Extinct due to newer idents being used.

Editor's Note: None.

3rd Logo (January 16, 2006-November 12, 2006)
Nicknames: "Emotions"

Logo: We see the new ITV1 logo appear on screen, before it splits into two halves and rests on either side of the screen. Accompanying the logo is various clips of live action scenes.

Variants:
 * Love: In order, we see a mother holding her son, a woman taking some shoes out of a box, a man admiring himself in a mirror, and two people hugging a tree in a field.
 * Joy: We see a woman walking through a forest, a dog looking out of a car window, two people at the beach in the ocean, a woman opening a tent, and children playing in a field.
 * Pride: We see an old woman looking at a drawing, a boy walking upstairs with food for his mother, a man washing his car, a boy with his mouth open, and a man moving his bike out of a garage.
 * Embarrassment: We see a man with a towel wrapped around him, a woman with her dress in the wrong place, a boy getting the wrong haircut, and a woman on a train with a man trying to sleep on her.
 * Sadness: We see two people hugging, a girl looking sad in a school corridor, a woman in bed looking like she's crying, and a man sat in a cinema staring at a screen.
 * Surprise: We see a bucket of water being dumped on two women, two children popping out of a cardboard box, a man almost getting hit in the face by a newspaper, and some cows being scared away,

FX/SFX: Live action and the logo splitting.

Music/Sounds: Depends on the ident, but a short burst of crowd cheering and clapping can always be heard when the logo splits. On the final clip, a continuity announcer is heard.

Availability: Extinct.

Editor's Note: These idents were not very well liked by most people, and were quickly replaced with the set below (except for Channel Television, which used these Idents until 2013).

4th Logo (November 13, 2006-January 13, 2013)
Logo: We see live action footage of one of the scenes below (all involving something yellow), before the ITV1 logo (which now has the ITV lettering in black) appears on the left side of the screen.

Variants:
 * Basketball: The camera pans from the back of a basketball stand onto a small basketball pitch atop a building in a city. We see yellow flowers and vines begin to creep up the basketball stand.
 * Beach: The camera pans across a beach, where we see a yellow windbreaker begin to twist and fly up into the sky.
 * Market: We pan through a busy market with lots of people walking by, as some yellow birds fly past the camera and fly around the market.
 * Boat: We start at a reed bed next to a river, as the camera pans up and over to reveal a man rowing a small boat through the river, with small yellow fish swirling around the paddles.
 * Pavement Art: We see some people drawing yellow lines on concrete with yellow chalk, before the camera pans over to reveal a bustling city street below, with lots of people walking around a maze of yellow art.
 * Bicycle: We see someone riding down a street on a bicycle at night, as yellow moths fly around and illuminate the street. The camera then pans over to a streetlamp with lots of yellow moths swirling around it.
 * Bubbles: The camera pans through a field full of people running around and blowing yellow bubbles into the area, and the camera pans into the sky to show lots of large yellow bubbles.
 * Fountains: The camera pans through a dark city street, which suddenly becomes illuminated by multiple yellow streams shooting out from the road. The ITV 1 logo is glowing and reflected in the concrete on this variant.
 * Buildings: We pan through a busy city, when the glass windows on the buildings begin to flip around and cascade, turning yellow.
 * Garden: We start in a small garden with some children playing, before the camera pans down into the grass, revealing lots of yellow bugs and plants.

In 2010, the idents were revamped slightly, with the logo becoming bigger and a glossy gradient being added to the yellow blocks, which themselves became more rounded. If watching on the HD channel, the word 'hd' would appear next to the logo with a transparent glass-like texture. The existing variants were updated with the new logo, and the following new variants were added:


 * Sunflowers: The camera pans over a computer generated sunny field with clouds rapidly passing by, as the yellow sunflowers below begin to blossom.
 * Snakes and Ladders: We see a busy yellow construction site that looks vaguely like a snakes and ladders board, as construction workers carry out their work in a very organised and arranged manner.
 * Lanterns: We pan through a dark field full of people holding yellow lanterns, and as they let go of them, the camera follows them and pans into the sky.
 * Dodgems: We see an arena full of dodgems (or bumper cars) driving around in an organised fashion, swirling around each other.

Trivia: More so than most other logos, these were quite the complicated coproduction in terms of the amount of studios involved. The idents were based on a creative concept from Red Bee Media, directed by Pleix, produced by Blink Productions, and were handled in post production by The Mill.

FX/SFX: Depends on the ident.

Music/Sounds: A quiet, simple 7-note motif that is repeated throughout the duration of the ident. Some idents may have a slight variation on the instrumentation with the same motif.

Availability: Extinct.

Editor's Note: None.

1st Logo (January 14, 2013-December 31, 2018)
Logo: TBA.

FX/SFX: TBA.

Music/Sounds: TBA.

Availability: TBA.

Editor's Note: TBA.

2nd Logo (January 1, 2019-)
Nickname: "ITV Creates"

Logo: TBA.

FX/SFX: TBA.

Music/Sounds: TBA.

Availability: TBA.

Editor's Note: TBA.