After searching the internet meticulously for the oldest known ident in the history of television, I managed to find the most ancient of idents made for, of course, the BBC. The first television channel in the world was called WRGB, which started broadcasting in January 1928. However, this television channel didn't actually have an ident!
I discovered that the BBC's ident was very simple, following a graphic design style and was first broadcast in 1953 up until the early 60s. At first glance, it does look rather random with its flashing wings, magical jingles for sounds and rotating rings around a small sphere. However, it's actually very clever in the way the the rings move to line up with the sphere to look like an eye thus relating very well to the BBC's purpose as a channel - to be viewed. The flashing wings look vaguely like radio signal waves with lightening bolts coming off them which is also appropriate. I think it's a very successful ident and set the bat for many years as to how other channels identified themselves.
BBC's first ident is actually very similar to that of ATV's in 1969. It follows the same theme of having an eye or eyes watching the audience. Only up until the 2000s did idents start getting incredibly wacky and creative with YTVs range of alien characters and goo used to promote the channel. Goo and slime seemed to very popular when I was child watching TV probably because of the sheer gross factor that kept kids interested and parents disgusted!
The BBC also had a very similar ident which featured a clock, which relates well to their news being broadcast at a certain time.
No comments:
Post a Comment