The document provides research on the idents of BBC One, ITV, and Channel 4 television channels in the UK. BBC One targets all audiences and aims to provide content for everyone across the country. Its current idents feature groups of people engaging in everyday activities to show unity. ITV targets older audiences and categorizes its viewers into social, connected, busy, and traditional groups. Its idents relate to upcoming programs and represent weather and time of day. Channel 4 uniquely displays its logo in idents and half of its viewers are aged 16-24, showing it targets younger demographics.

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Designing TV Idents
Stage 1
Research and Idea
Generation

2. +
Existing Products

3. +
BBC One research BBC one is the flagship television channel of the
British Broadcasting Corporation in the United
kingdom, Isle of Man and Channel Islands. It is
currently the most watched television channel in
the United Kingdom, ahead of its traditional rival
for ratings leadership, ITV. The percentage of the
BBC’s total television output with audio
description for viewers with hearing difficulties is
10%. BBC one is widely available in the Republic
of Ireland on cable and satellite television. It is
also available by cable and IPTV in the
Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and
Liechtenstein. The BBC one’s idents from 2006
onwards always contain a circle symbol,
according to the BBC, the circle symbol both
represents togetherness (unity) and acts as a link
to the classic globe icon used for 39 years before
2006.
 “BBC one is the shop window for the BBC and
must appeal to a broad mainstream audience. As
the channel needs to provide much-loved content
for everyone in the UK it’s important that we find
high impact programs that appeal across the
board.” This quote explains/reveals that BBC
ones target audience is everyone and there is no
specific group. They focus on providing content
that everyone will enjoy.
BBC – 2016 Idents

4. + BBC One mood board
On the 1st January the BBC One oneness idents were released.

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BBC One old/new idents.
 The BBC One has been using the circle symbol in their idents for 39
years, they ended on December 4th 2016 and have been replaced
with the new idents released January 1st 2017 which as based on
the theme of “oneness”. This new set of idents feature groups of
people doing activities in everyday life, with the aim of showing them
coming together in these various ways. The logo is also placed at
the bottom of the screen instead of the middle because there is no
more circle globe shape in the ident. Each ident they display is used
for the shows that are being broadcasted currently, next or later. For
example there is one ident that has “a group of modern cavers with
headlamps going underground inside the cave. This is often used to
introduce the menagerie of drama based programs”.
Wikipedia Users. (2017).
BBC One 'Oneness'
idents. Available:
https://en.wikipedia.org/w
iki/BBC_One_%27Onene
ss%27_idents . Last
accessed 26th Oct 2017.

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ITV (one) research
 ITVs idents are designed to visually please the viewer but
to also relate to what show is broadcasting next or to
represent the weather, time or day. For example the
lifeguard rescue boat is showing the time of day and the
weather expected, this links to what the voice over is
saying as they are talking about a Monday morning which
is always cold and gloomy. The ITV target audience is
mainly the older end of the population, their TV viewing is
mostly linear and watched via the main TV set. ITV
themselves did research on the matter and have
categorized their viewers into 4 LIVE groups. Social
LIVES, Connected LIVES, busy LIVES and Traditional
LIVES. Social lives is the smallest and youngest end of the
population, they balance their TV viewing between live TV
and catch-up. Connected lives are the highly networked
group who are dealing with young adult life and balance
new technology with new responsibilities. TV sits at the
heart of this group’s entertainment with on-demand
services adding an extra layer of convenience. Busy lives,
the bulk of middle Britain where the majority are hectic
families whose children introduce them to new
technologies. TV’s main role in this group is the shared
viewing of event TV. Traditional viewers are what I
explained before, the older end of the population. All of
these groups use social media but tend to use it in different
ways.
Wikipedia Users. (2017). ITV
(TV channel). Available:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITV
_(TV_channel) . Last accessed
26th Oct 2017.
Wood Andrew. (2007). ITV current
idents. Available:
https://theident.gallery/player.php?
id=ITV-2013-ID-BEACH-1 . Last
accessed 26th Oct 2017.

7. + ITV Idents mood board

8. + Channel 4 research
 Channel 4 Idents are unique to their channel as they are very
creative in how they display their logo which is slowly visible for a
short period of time as their Idents play. In the first set of images
the Ident shows the front of a taxi with a shot that moves forward
with the taxi. Above the taxi is a number of shapes which are
floating in the air, these shapes are used to form a 4 but it can
only be seen at a certain angle/point in the Ident. Channel 4’s
viewers are similar to both ITV and BBC one. They host the
show “Great British bake off” which is loved by all. Each channel
has it’s own specific show which really helps with promotion of
their channel.
 Through the years Channel 4 have changed their Idents from
creating the 4 shape to using a 4 shape metal being that is
shaped so that it can create a 4 but doesn’t create a 4 and runs
around on screen (shown at the bottom of the images)
 Channel 4 Target Market: “Channel 4 today announced its
database of registered viewers has now reached over 10 million
registered viewers, which includes one in two of all 16-24 year
olds in the UK.” this is a quote is from Channel 4’s official website
claiming that half of their over all viewers are aged between 16-
24 years of age in the UK. This is definitely believable when you
watch their channel yourself because of the programs they
broadcast.
Wood Andrew. (2017). Channel
4: 2017 Idents. Available:
https://theident.gallery/c4-
2017.php. Last accessed 13
Nov 2017.
Barb. (2017). Top 30 Weekly
Channels: Channel 4. Available:
http://www.barb.co.uk/viewing-
data/weekly-top-30/. Last
accessed 13 Nov 2017.

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Channel 4 Idents mood board