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2. The history of television is both complex
and far-reaching, involving the work of many
inventors and engineers in several countries
over many decades. Initially, work proceeded
along two different but overlapping lines of
development: those designs employing both
mechanical and electronic principles, and those
employing only electronic principles.
Electromechanical television would eventually
be abandoned in favor of fully electronic
designs.

3. The origins of what would become today's
television system can be traced back to the
discovery of the photoconductivity of the
element selenium by Willoughby Smith in
1873, the invention of a scanning disk by Paul
Gottlieb Nipkow in 1884, John Logie Baird's
demonstration of televised moving images in
1926 and Philo Farnsworth's Image dissector in
1927.

4.  BBC One (BBC1 until 1997) is the primary television
channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). It
was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television
Service, and was the world's first regular public television
service with a high level of image resolution. It was later
renamed BBC tv until the launch of sister channel BBC Two
in 1964. The channel has an annual budget of £840 million.
Along with the BBC's other domestic television stations, it is
funded entirely by the licence fee, and therefore shows
uninterrupted programming with no commercial
advertising. It is currently the most watched television
channel in the United Kingdom, ahead of its traditional rival
for ratings leadership, ITV1.

5. The history of BBC television idents starts in the early
1950s, when the BBC first displayed a logo between
programmes to identify its service. As new technology has
become available, these devices have evolved from simple
still black and white images to the sophisticated full colour
short films seen today. With the arrival of digital services in
the United Kingdom, and with them many more new
channels, branding is perceived by broadcasters to be much
more important, meaning that idents need to stand out from
the competition.
This article describes the development of the BBC's main
television channels' identities.

6. ITV is a public service network of British commercial
television broadcasters, set up under the Independent
Television Authority (ITA) to provide competition to the
BBC. ITV is the oldest commercial television network in
the UK. Since 1990 and the Broadcasting Act 1990, its legal
name has been Channel 3, the number 3 having no real
meaning other than to distinguish it from BBC One, BBC
Two and Channel 4 - prior to this, the network had no
legal overall name. In part, 3 was assigned as televisions
would usually be tuned so that the regional ITV station
would be on the third button, the other stations being
allocated to that of the number their name contained.

7. Channel 4 is a UK public-service television broadcaster which
began transmissions on 2 November 1982. Although
commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned;
originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting
Authority (IBA), the station is now owned and operated by the
Channel Four Television Corporation, a public body established
in 1990, coming into operation in 1993.
The channel was established to provide a fourth television
service to the UK that would break the duopoly of the Licence
Fee funded BBC's two established services and the single
commercial broadcasting network, ITV. Channel 4 enjoys almost
universal coverage in the UK and some neighbouring countries
and a significant audience share, despite having seen new
competition with the growth of cable, satellite and digital
services.

8. Five is a television channel that broadcasts in
the United Kingdom. Launched in 1997, it is
the fifth and final national terrestrial analogue
television channel to launch. Originally called
Channel 5, the station rebranded itself as Five
in 2002.