Task 1: Understanding the purpose of television idents and the opportunities they present.

Task one -

The function of a television ident is to simply identify the channel. Ident’s first appeared in 1953 on the BBC as the commercial television began to expand and viewers also needed to be able to identify what channel they were watching. The first ident that appeared on BBC was nicknamed “bat’s wings”. Ident’s changed a great deal once technology was developed, as they were able to make them more animated as were able to produce moving picture. In 1960 the first BBC logo appeared. It appeared on top of a map of Britain that was split into the BBC broadcast region. The most famous ident made by the BBC was “the globe” and appeared in 1963. It rotated as the BBC logo appeared. BBC 2 was made in 1964. In the early 1990s the emergence of satellite television meant that the television ident’s were even more important.

The television ident’s are very important in keeping a channels schedule organised. The ident is an ideal opportunity to provide the audience with key information, this is useful for telling people what channel they are watching and what may be available to watch at other times. This may entice the viewer to continue watching that particular channel rather than switching to another channel. Non- commercial channels like the BBC do not have the time between programmes that advertisements provide for commercial channels. The idents add time between programmes, they are used to provide information, promote variety, regulate the schedule and provide a break for studio worker.

 As well as simply identifying a channel and ident provides the audience with a chance to find out information about the channel. An ident has to set the right tone for the viewers of the channel, as there are certain channels that focus of a certain type of viewer. For example, television channels like BBC 4 focus on factual programming, this channel tend to have viewers that are of an older generation. Where as, channels like CBBC focus mainly on the younger generation, the idents that are shown are brightly coloured, loud and creative.

 Branding a particular content-

Building a brand for a particular channel is very important; it encourages audience to stay loyal to the particular channels that they are always viewing. An ident helps promote the brand of a specific channel by allowing the audience to become familiar with the channels logo and the style of the channel. An ident is a visual reminder of a particular channel and helps audience remember the brand, this makes the audience more likely to watch that channel.

 A marketing opportunity-

An ident can be used to identify content; it provides a range of platforms for the audience. Idents can change the feel of a channel and can become a way of promoting new shows and famous holidays that happen during the year. Idents can also link with online sites, channels such as BBC sport can promote the website as well as the channels itself. Channels try to keep things familiar to the audience; channels will use a similar sort of ident to promote their channels.

Packaging and re-packaging a series of programmes of events-

Idents are a good promotional tool as they are used to promote things such as Christmas, as there are new and exclusive episodes that are shown only in the Christmas period. Their also used to be things such as new films that have never been viewed on television that are shown at Christmas so are advertised in that period. Often idents are needed to promote the return of shows, these are programmes such as, ‘strictly come dancing’.