CT USSR Programme One

Background

CT USSR Programme One was a television station of the Soviet Central Television, established on March 22, 1951. It had a mixed schedule of news and entertainment, with the emphasis on events in the Soviet Union, and also included regional programming. In September 1991, it was renamed as CT Channel One, and in December 29, 1991, shortly after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, it became Channel 1 Ostankino, which is the modern day Channel One Russia.

1st (known) ID (c. 1956-1967?)

Logo: On a dark background, we see a gray square with a black broadcast tower that generates radio waves (represented by white circle outlines). The letters "Ц" and "Т" are displayed (inside the gray square) to the left and right of the tower (respectively) in a black, bold, and tall font that takes up the entire height of the square. The white words "ЦЕНТРАЛЬНОЕ ТЕЛЕВИДЕНИЕ СССР" (each on its own line), standing for "Central Television of the USSR", appear below the square.

FX/SFX: Cel animation.

Music/Sounds: A string tune with bells.

Avaiability: Extinct.

Editor's Note: A bit simple, but okay for the time.

2nd ID (1974-1982)

Logo: On a yellow background, we see a circle-shaped panel of orange dots, with the stacked name "TB CCCP" on its upper side and a spinning globe at its bottom. As the name fades out, the globe "transmits" waves of various orange-shaded circles. As the last circle fills the panel, it reveals having the stacked name of the channel:

І
ПРОГРАММА

in orange dots. And then, it crossfades into a plain white text.

Trivia: This ident would also serve as basis for the 1974 intro of TV USSR's news program Vremya.

FX/SFX: Cel animation and live action.

Music/Sounds: A happy-sounding tune.

Avaiability: Extinct. This ident, alongside the ending of the 1979 Vremya intro, would also appear at the beginning of the 10th episode of the 1980 BBC show Russian Language and People.

Editor's Note: None.

3rd ID (1982-March 1991)

Logo: On a white/light blue background, we see a red star that has a tall top, with the Russian name "TB CCCP" (with "TB" in white and "CCCP" in red) below it. Then, white rings (representing radio waves) come out from the star. Then, TV USSR name crossfades into the channel's name І ПРОГРАММА.

Variants:

A still version exists, with lighter shades of blue, and containing only the channel's name "І ПРОГРАММА".
During sign-offs, it plays in reverse.

FX/SFX: 2D animation, possibly regular animation cels used on videotape.

Music/Sounds: A trumpet fanfare. The still version had a short version of the fanfare, which plays 3 times. The sign-off version has a string tune.

Availability: Extinct. It was commonly used during the sign-on and sign-off sequences.

Editor's Note: None.

4th ID (March-December 1991)

Logo: On a dark blue background, a cyan ring zooms in to the center of the screen, as three purple rings zooms out too, and two diagonal lines slide near them. The cyan ring zooms in off-screen and the lines slide away. Right at the same time, five thin parallelepipeds slide to the center of the screen and zoom out; Then the acronym "цm" (the letter "Т" is depicted as a Latin "m", since this is how it looks when it's lowercased in italic) zooms out, alongside with two parallelepipeds, above and below respectively. As they slowly slide down, the purple ring behind fades out, and more parallelepipeds slide to above them, forming a stylized "1" (and looking a lot like the ARD logo). Then, the fully-formed Programme One logo slightly rotates to the right.

FX/SFX: CGI animation.

Music/Sounds: An excerpt from "Equinoxe Pt. 1" by Jean-Michel Jarre.

Availability: Extinct.

Editor's Note:: A rather interesting ident. Unfortunately, it was shortly used, as the country it came from was soon collapsing.