Associated Television/Television Idents

Credits

Descriptions by
Matt Williams

Captures by
Eric S., Mr. Logo Lord, and others

Editions by
mr3urious, Mr. Logo Lord and PerryLuv2001

Video captures courtesy of
Paul Hatfield and bbctim123

Background

Originally formed as "ABC" (not to be confused with the American or Australian "ABC") by impresario Lew Grade, Associated Television Ltd. was the second-ever ITV franchisee to go on air on September 24, 1955, serving for London on the weekends. Their more famous outing, serving weekdays (later full-time starting in 1968) in the Midlands, would go on the air on February 17, 1956. It was also the parent company of ITC Entertainment from 1957 and until 1981, when ATV re-formed and re-branded itself to Central Independent Television.

1st Logo (September-October 1955)

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Logo: On a black background, there's a gray "eye" (inspired by the CBS logo) with a striped (or "shadowed") eye below it, and both intersected at about their midpoints. The letters "A", "B", and "C" are shown in the spaces of the intersecting logo.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: Possibly none, or the three ATV chimes.

Availability: Long extinct. This was withdrawn after threats of legal action by Associated British Corporation, which was about to launch its own TV channel, causing the network's renaming. There is also no known recording of this logo, likely due to its short lifespan.

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Logo (October 1955-1958)

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Nicknames: "Sound and Vision", "The Zooming Eyes", "Zooming A-T-V", "The Eyes II"

Logo: On a black background, the eye from before, except wider, zooms towards the screen while "opening up" and expanding outwards. It then moves upward, revealing a striped (or "shadowed") eye logo below it, and stops at a point where both circles intersect in the middle. The letters "A", "T", and "V" appear in the spaces of the intersecting logo in sequence accompanied by three chimes. "ASSOCIATED TELEVISION LTD." then appears below, the 3 bolded letters being larger than the rest.

Variant: A still holding slide has the logo with "channel 8" below it instead.

FX/SFX: The eye logo animation, the appearance of the letters, and the "wiping" on of the full company name.

Music/Sounds: The three "chimes" used as the letters appear, which increase in pitch. Composed by Wally Stott (later known as Angela Morley).

Availability: Extinct. This would continue to be used at the end of sign-ons until colour broadcasts began.

Editor's Note: The reason the logo is somewhat misproportioned is because due to the company's renaming forcing the draftsman to redraw it in a hurry.

3rd Logo (1958-July 1964)

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Nickname: "The Zooming Eyes II", "Zooming A-T-V II", "Sound and Vision II"

Logo: Against a black background, a white ATV logo, redrawn to feature the proportions of the 1st logo, zooms into view fully formed. The letters "A", "T", and "V" appear in the spaces as the logo moves in, accompanied by the same chimes as before.

Accompanying clock ident: At this point, ATV would start using a clock with the shadowed eye as its basis. The clock had triangles to tell the hours and the hands were kite-shaped. This would be used throughout the 60's and 70's possibly, as this did have a yellow color on a blue background.

Variants:

• A still variant exists.
• An early opening/closing variant used from 1958-1960 had the logo arranged alongside a "Z" made from several dots, with "PRESENTS" or "Production" at the other end. "An" can be seen with "Production" as well.
• From 1960-1962, the endcap had the logo without any letters, but with "An" in the top space, "ATV" in the middle, and either "Production" or "Outside Broadcast". This was either on a black background or in-credit.
• From 1962-1975, the endcap has the logo arranged like "AN ATV (COLOUR) PRODUCTION" on a blue or black background (the shade of blue may vary). An inverted variant exists, as well as it being used in-credit.

FX/SFX: The zooming in of the eye logo and the appearance of the letters. 

Music/Sounds: Again, the three chimes. They would sometimes have a normal pitch, though.

Availability: Extinct. It was commonly seen on ATV programming seen on the ITV network.

Editor's Note: None.

4th Logo (1964-1969)

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Nickname: "Sound and Vision III"

Logo: We see the ATV logo from before, only slightly smaller and moved to the top of the screen. Then, the words either "LONDON" or "MIDLANDS" slowly zoom up below the eyes.

FX/SFX: The zooming, which is very rough.

Music/Sounds: Again, the three chimes, but a higher pitch this time. They would sometimes have a normal pitch, though.

Availability: Extremely rare.

• The Midlands version can be found on surviving black & white episodes of Crossroads released on DVD by Network DVD.
• The London version is extinct and was lost to a David Frost-led investor group (which became London Weekend Television; LWT would share the London area with Thames).
• The Midlands-area franchise was renewed and now expanded to seven days a week.
• Has a Flash remake at 625.uk.com/tv_logos/flash.htm#atv.

Editor's Note: None.

5th Logo (1964-1969)

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Nickname: "The Schedule"

Logo: On a gray background, a rectangle protruding from the top right lists "MIDLANDS: Monday to Friday", a small ATV eye logo, and then "LONDON: Saturday and Sunday". 3 rectangles drop down beside it and a rectangle slides in from the right below the three rectangles. The letters "A", "T", and "V" appear in the rectangles with "PRESENTS" being wiped in on the rectangle below.

Variant: The bar only mentions about the Midlands starting in 1968.

FX/SFX: The sliding in of the rectangles.

Music/Sounds: The same three chimes.

Availability: Extinct. This was seen in both areas ATV broadcast to (as seen in this ident) and even on programs. 

Editor's Note: None.

6th Logo (November 1969-December 31, 1981)

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  Nicknames: "ATV Zoom 2", "ATV Zoom in Color/Colour", "ATV IN COLOUR", "Colored Circles"

Logo: On a gray or light blue background, 3 circles, colored red, green, and blue, grow in one after the other, intersecting each other and forming different colors. The caption "IN COLOUR" fades in underneath. The 3 circles then slide towards each other, forming one white circle as the background fades to blue. The white circle grows out into an eye shape and bands of color sweep across it, cutting out the circle part and adding in the striped "shadow" underneath. The logo turns yellow and the letters "A", "T", and "V" appear in the spaces.

Accompanying clock ident: Basically just the still version, but with a digital clock displaying HMS time in the 24-hour format. This makes it rather unique among most of the time-frame, which were mostly analog. Originally, it would have the clock mentioned in the 3rd logo.

Variants:

• 1969-75 black-and-white variant: the logo is shortened to just the ATV eyes appearance following a growing circle, and no gradients.
• A still variant with a yellow rectangular box around the logo, as well as "COLOUR" in a white Microgramma Bold font, exists. This was also seen with a black background and was used as the clock .
• Starting from 1975, the still variant was used as the endcap, with "PRODUCTION/PRESENTATION" and a copyright date added below. The text was originally white and had no copyright notice, but were later change as well.
• An in-credit variant exists of the endcap, which can be seen in white, black, or orange, with the latter having "COLOUR" deleted.
• On Tiswas, the endcap replaces "COLOUR" with "TISWAS" in a different color. The color palette also somewhat randomized from time to time, even having a variant shifting from blue to pink barring the green text.
• On Outside broadcast programs, the endcap replaces "COLOUR PRODUCTION" with "OUTSIDE BROADCAST".
• Another variant where the logo is white on a red background also exists.
• Sometimes the eye might be in white instead of yellow. This also applies to the endcaps sometimes.
• On Crossroads episodes from 1984 & 1986 the endcap is in black and white, this is due to the fact that both episodes were originally broadcast in color, but the videotapes that they were stored on were wiped by ATV shortly after broadcast, and those shows only survived via 16mm telerecordings.
• On an Elstree Christmas promo tape from 1982, after the logo forms, there are no letters that appear in the spaces.

FX/SFX: The appearance of the colored circles, the "rainbow" effects.

Music/Sounds: A loud, proud, and bombastic orchestral theme composed by Jack Parnell, arranged by Wally Stott (later Angela Morley). The second part of this, the chimes, almost sound similar to the famous NBC chimes theme. For the black-and-white variant, in the beginning growing circle there are just three drums to accompany it. In its early years (?), the music was lower in pitch and sounded more low-budget.

Availability:

• Can be seen on any British program produced by ATV during this time.
• A good source on which to find this on home video is the 1981 Magnetic Video of the Rudolf Nureyev version of Giselle.
• This has a Flash remake of both the more low-budget sounding one and the more familiar one at 625.uk.com.
• The logo is preserved on Challenge airings of the first series of Bullseye.
• Can also be found on DVD's of Crossroads released by Network DVD.
• The black-and-white version is extinct. Could be seen on any black & white ATV programme during this time. Again, a Flash remake exists at 625.uk.com.
• The in-credit variant can be also found on the Kaye Ballard episode of The Muppet Show on Disney+, and surprisingly, disc one and Peter Ustinov episode on German DVD releases of The Muppet Show, despite all of the ATV and ITC logos from both UK and US versions being wiped and cut by Disney. The former was likely the result of the episode featuring a unique ending which did not facilitate the typical edit of replacing the final shot of Zoot playing his saxophone.

Editor's Note: This is a popular logo and probably one of the most fondly remembered logos in ITV's history.

External Links

• Associated Television on TVARK