Purpose of a television ident

By Aliyah Ryan

What is a television ident

A television ident is a image that is shown between television programmes which acts as a logo to let the viewers know what channel they are viewing. Some examples of a television idents are:

Channel 4Like other channels, Channel 4 has a mission

statement/remit. Their mission statement includes:

1. demonstrates innovation, experiment and creativity in the form and content of programmes;

2. appeals to the tastes and interests of a culturally diverse society;3. makes a significant contribution to meeting the need for the licensed public

service channels to include programmes of an educational nature and other programmes of educative value; and

4. exhibits a distinctive character."

There four values reflect off of their television ident’s which are shown between brakes.

As you can see form this visual this television ident reflects their second value as the ident is culturally diverse. As you can see the ident is set in many different locations showing the diversity in different peoples cultural background. The images also show how unique each individual ident is and highlights how creative and distinctive they can be

Schedule This image shows channel 4’s TV schedule. This allows their viewers to see whets on each of their channels owned by the channel 4 company. The audience can also look at past present and future listing of shows that have missed or would like to watch later on or another day.

The images bellow shows the breakdown between programs each channel informing their audience what will be coming up next and later on.

Unlike channel 4 Cbeebies have a different type of ident that brakes down the types of programs they would be showing through out the day. As you can see from these visuals at midday they show educational shows (discover and do), this have different moods and tones compared to the after noon they show story telling programs (bed time hour)

Segmentation of the scheduling for non-commercial channels

Some television programs do no have advertising between channel breaks, to make the jump from channel to channel run smoothly channels such as the BBC; use their television ident’s or a voice over narrators telling the audience what channels may be coming up next to make this transition.

Although the BBC do not uses other companies adverts, they advertise their own shows between programs to create more awareness for the program, as you can see from this visual BBC Three is promoting a new show that will by coming soon to their channel. Doing this they do not make any money from using other peoples adverts but they do making money from peoples TV licences.

There idents also change depending on which program is being shown, for example if match of the day way about to be shown the BBC would use their football ident

Creating corporate identity

Creating a corporate identity is getting your companies logos on as many things as possible, creating brand awareness. A successful corporate identity will make your company easily recognizable, by explaining your companies mission statement and values through a ident or visual it makes the brand consistent and memorable.

ITV’s Values:• Customer-focus• Collaboration• Commitment• Boldness• Excellence• Integrity

An example of a channel that crates a corporate identity is ITV, they promote their iconic logo on merchandise such as umbrellas, mugs, clothing, bags and books . By doing this they are creating brand awareness through merchandise; this is a great way to promote their channel as they are creating awareness and making their brand more recognisable as well as memorable off air. As you can see from the images bellow their logo sticks to their values as they are bold and have excellence, this is also included in their idents. Their idents stay true with their values as it shows that ITV are committed to keep the good quality production make sure that the audience are focused and find their channel intriguing.

Creating a brand and encouraging brand loyalty

By companies keeping their brand true to what they have promised the customers would stay loyal and have not reason to leave; this encourages brand loyalty and causes the costumers to keep on coming back because of the good quality.

For example BBC on always uses their symbolic circle in each of their idents, this emphasizes their mission statement/remit as their ident reflect and celebrate our diversity and great things happen when they work together.

Branding of particular contentThese images show the ident Channel 5crated for a particular content. The visuals show that Channel 55 made a special ident for the Ashes tournament.

Channel 5 also made a special ident for StopTober

This ident is Channel 5’s news ident, notifying the audience/viewers about what is coming up next

Creating the right tone and appealing to the target audience

Some TV companies that own more than one channel give each channel a different character and target audiences. For example the BBC have 4 different channels, each channel appeals to a different audience; their BBC Three channel appeals to the younger generation aged 16+25’; in contrast their other channel BBC 4 shows intellectual programmes such as documentaries.

A marketing opportunity

A marketing opportunity is when organisations promote their brand by trying to get more recognition in order for their customers to stay loyal. For example channels may use their idents to continuously through out breaks to promote their channel and businesses in order for their customers to remember them for their good quality programmes and watch their shows.

Packaging and Re-packaging a series of programmes

During seasons television channels create special idents for the different seasons. An example of this is with these visuals, each channel made special idents for the Christmas season, each visual of the ident has the same themes but have different things going on within each ident.

With the 4 more Christmas ident, they are celebrating charismas but are promoting their program with Jamie Oliver at the same time.

Packaging and Re-packaging a series of events