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Melbourne variant
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Sydney variant
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Perth variant
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Adelaide variant
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Brisbane variant
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WIN variant
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VIC Television variant, seen in regional Victoria
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VIC Television alternate variant
The Nine Network (commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air television network, founded in 1956 as the National Television Network, becoming known as the Nine Network in the late 1960s. Nine adopted their famous "dots" logo in 1969. In 1975, Nine Network, along with all other Australian TV channels, switched from the channel's black-and-white broadcasts, to full time colour broadcasts. The Nine Network is one of three main free-to-air commercial networks in Australia, with the other two free-to-air networks being Seven and Ten.
Visuals: On a black background, two white dots stuck to each other are seen. A dot slides across the screen and splits the two dots. Then, two more dots drop down and position themselves in a plus shape. Two colons slide up and down from the screen edges and collide with the ends, forming an incomplete square. One final dot slides in from the right side of the screen and pushes one of the dots to the middle, forming a 3x3 grid of dots. The middle dot zooms in to turn the screen white, going to a random live-action part, usually ending in someone performing a particular shuffle dance. After it finishes, the screen fades back to the dots, which then turn into a squishy-looking "9". The "9" then cuts out as the dots appear column by column, before the "9" appears to complete the famous logo.
Variants: There are several variants of the live action sequence (around forty were reportedly made). Here are just some of them:
This is far from all the variants in existence. Reportedly, TCN-9 in Sydney had already produced forty variants at the time of the package's launch [1] , let alone any additional idents made during the three years this package was used, such as those for special occasions like the Moomba variant
Technique: A mix of live-action and 2D animation.
Audio: A funky trumpet tune. Before finishing the tune, a male announcer says "Get the Channel Nine feeling." The theme was written and recorded by the network's music director, Geoff Harvey.[1]
Audio Variant: There is also a variant where the trumpet tune is more of a fanfare. The announcer here explains the transmitter info.
Legacy: These idents proved quite popular as many Australians sought to replicate the dance used in the idents, known as the "Channel 9 shuffle". Newspapers even published step by step guides to performing the dance [1].
Visuals: On a dark blue background, 2 events may happen (more are known to exist, though):
Trivia: In this ID, instead of the British spelling of "colour", the American spelling of "color" is used.
Technique: 2D animation.
Audio: The same trumpet fanfare as before, but with added vocals in the background. The first variant had a fluctuating synth sound playing over the tune, while the second variant had cartoonish sound effects added.
Availability: It was seen during their 40th (1996), 50th (2006) and 60th (2016) anniversaries.
Visuals: Same as the "Let Us Be The One" ABC ID for the time, but with different clips and logo order, as well as the logo being replaced with the Nine Network logo, crossfading between the number and dots.
Technique: Same as the American ABC logo at the time.
Audio: Same as ABC (America)'s 1976 ID but with different singers and lyrics.
Availability: It can be found on YouTube though, as well as during the 60th anniversary.
Visuals: On a black background, the Channel Nine logo (seen in a blue-black circle) zooms out to the left as the words "STILL THE ONE!" slide in. The screen then zooms into the logomark as live-action pictures (covered on the bottom-left by program information) appear. As the slideshow finishes, the Nine (golden) dots then appear by glowing in a circle. It then fades to the Nine number as the circle border glows, then switches back to the dots.
Trivia: The Still the One slogan featured here lasted as late as early 2006, when Nine Network declined to Seven Network in ratings weeks.
Technique: Scanimate effects.
Audio: Same as ABC (America)'s 1977 ID but with different singers and lyrics.
Availability: Same as before.
Legacy: The "Still the One" slogan and three-note fanfare introduced in this ident would become key parts of Nine's branding for decades to come. The slogan was used for 27 years until it was retired in 2006, despite brief disappearances, the jingle survived even the dropping of "Still the One" and was in use as late as 2017, close to 40 years after it was initially introduced.
Visuals: Same as the ABC 1978 "We're the One!" ID but with the Channel Nine logomark switching to the dots and back to number throughout the logo
Technique: Same as the ABC logo at the time.
Audio: A synth trumpet fanfare ending with three notes (likely to represent the "Still the One" slogan).
Audio Variant: A different, more electronic version of the music exists.
Availability: Same as before.
Visuals: Same as the end of the ABC 1979 "Still the One!" ID but with the Channel Nine logomark.
Technique: Same as the ABC logo at the time.
Audio: Same as the last part of the ABC ID.
Availability: Same as before.
Visuals: The screen zooms across white buildings on a yellow-orange grid map of Australia in a space background. The screen then zooms out to see the full map to then see the words "STILL THE ONE" in a yellow golden font. The text zooms in as the Channel Nine logomark appears.
Technique: CGI by Marks & Marks.
Audio: An orchestrated fanfare ending with three notes (likely to represent the "Still the One" slogan).
Availability: Same as before.
Legacy: This was the first in a long line of similarly styled idents which would last until 1994.
Visuals: On a space background, lines form a similar grid map of Australia to the previous one in blue. The screen then pans across the buildings (again) on the blue grid map in first person view. The camera then pans upwards and the words "STILL THE ONE!" appear by glowing in blue. The Channel Nine number then appears in the same way.
Technique: CGI animation.
Audio: A fast paced, upbeat fanfare.
Availability: Same as before.
Visuals: The screen zooms out from a neon city background, similar in style to the previous logo, to reveal a boulevard rendered in the same style in which see Channel 9 personalities can be seen dancing and having fun. The personalities seen include Paul Hogan (later known for Crocodile Dundee), Humphrey B. Bear, cricket commentators Richie Benaud and Tony Greig, presenter and comedian Bert Newton and journalist Ray Martin, among others. As the fanfare crescendos, the screen pans up and see the 9 logo, in gold and sans dots as per the previous logo, rise up from behind the city background. The logo shines.
Technique: Live action and CGI animation.
Audio: A re-orchestrated version of the "Come on Along!" song from ABC's idents at the time.
Visuals: A similar concept to the 8th logo, only this time done with full 3D animation and with the "Still the One" slogan floating past in 3D at the beginning as opposed to showing up at the end. The final logo is shinier and in a lighter blue than the previous logo.
Technique: CGI animation by Pacific Data Images in collaboration with Marks Communications in Los Angeles.
Audio: Same as the 8th logo, albeit slightly enhanced.
Availability: Same as the previous logos. Though, parts of this were used in a special 80s-themed ident to promote The Amazing 80s in 2013.
Visuals: The sequence starts in a CGI city before panning out of the city and over a map of Australia, where the camera turns around and enters a second CGI city facing backwards as three bars come from one of the CGI structures in the distance. The camera follows the bars as they streak past a building face, leaving the dot-less 9 logo in orange on the side of the building.
Technique: CGI animation.
Audio: A bubbly synth and woodwind tune culminating in the "Still the One" jingle.
Availability: See the previous logos.
Visuals: There is an updated version of the previous ident's animation. The stripes then overlap the Channel Nine logomark, already formed in gold against a glass background reflecting the skyline of whatever city the particular station was broadcasting from.
Technique: CGI animation.
Audio: A more orchestrated version of the previous ident's music.
Availability: Although, this ID was re-aired as part of the premiere of The Amazing 90's in 2015.
Visuals: On an evening sky background, a curved glass stripe wipes in over what appears to be purple clouds, along with glass rods of different sizes. The camera then pans over the glass stripe gets bombarded by several glass rods from behind. This causes a golden picture of Australia to pixelate onto it. As the camera zooms into it, the camera then goes thorough a small hole in it, briefly going underground before emerging out with several glass rods (some flying out, others emerging from the ground), starting with brown and then ending with the normal look from them, all under an evening sky with circling clouds. The camera then pans over to one of the skyscraper-like rods, revealing the Nine logo in translucent orange (later in gold) and a reflection of the station's serving area appears behind it. The sky then either remains or turns to night as the logo shines. The end result also shows the glass rods sections looking like windows on a skyscraper.
Variants:
Technique: CGI animation.
Audio: A deep whoosh is first heard, and then sounds of synth wipes and beeps are heard, overlayed with an upbeat trumpet theme, ending with four notes.
Audio Variant: During the first month or so of this ID's use, the theme was arranged slightly differently.
Availability: Although, this ID was re-aired as part of the premiere of The Amazing 90's in 2015.
Legacy: This ident is heavily associated with one particular incident where a special called Australia's Naughtiest Home Videos was pulled off air mid-broadcast at the demand of the station's then-owner Kerry Packer who famously made an irate phone call to the station upon seeing the special on his TV while he was at home eating dinner, ordering them to "Get that s**t off the air!" in those precise words. The clip of this ident appearing immediately after the show was pulled with a "technical difficulties" announcement delivered over it leading into a rerun of Cheers was the one of the most infamous moments in Australian television history.
Visuals: On an abstract CGI background of purples, reds and oranges, a swoosh appears and "hits" the middle of the screen, causing circles to disperse from the centre of the screen. As this occurs, the Channel 9 logo zooms out from the foreground and settles in the centre of screen, this time, in a light gold color.
Variants:
Technique: CGI animation.
Audio: A triumphant fanfare, culminating in a grand, sweeping version of the "Still the One" jingle.
Availability: Per the previous logos.
Visuals: The screen zooms into a line of the words "channel nine" repeating with two bars above and below as well as red- and blue-colored flames on the left and right sides, respectively. as the screen zooms into a small sphere and a larger sphere appearing between the bars and over the letter "e" in "channel". The spheres rotate and the smaller one is revealed to be surrounded by a Saturn-esque ring, as the camera continues to zoom in through more concentric spheres before a cubic version of 9's famous dots appears, rotating throughout. The logo zooms through the dots to reveal the 9 logo on a red and blue background with stylised sparks emerging either side of it and the words "channel nine" both above and below it.
Variants:
There are station-specific variants with the city name listed below the logo, though oddly, the Brisbane variant has "Queensland" instead of the city name below it.
Technique: CGI animation.
Audio:
Availability: Per the previous logos.
Visuals: The screen zooms through a fire red background filled with gold spheres. The logo zooms into one of the dots, which opens to reveal "2000" with three CGI spheres as the zeroes. The logo zooms through one of the zeroes as nine more spheres fly past to form the iconic dots as the nine logo is revealed in an updated version of the previous ident's background with numerous 2000's in a horizontal line repeating in the background. The "Still the One" slogan appears below.
Technique: CGI animation.
Variants:
Audio: A triumphant, adventurous fanfare, leading into the "Still the One" jingle.
Availability: Per the previous logos.
Visuals: There are several idents.
Trivia: These idents, along with the accompanying on-air design package, were created by Velvet mediendesign, a Munich-based design agency, who also made a graphic design package for TVN, a Polish channel owned by the ITI Group (which became the TVN Group following the ITI Group's dissolution), a year later.
Variant: Sometimes, the Nine MSN URL will appear in place of the slogan.
Technique: CGI, with live action in some cases.
Audio: Each ident has its own musical score. All of the IDs (with the exception of Sport) end with the iconic "Still the One" jingle.
Availability: See the previous logo. "News" was the main ident and is the easiest to find. The "Lifestyle" ID has cropped up on YouTube, though the others are a different story. WIN variants of "Urban", "Sport" and "Entertainment" have survived on YouTube in 4:3 recordings, however their original Nine-branded counterparts are much more difficult to find, let alone any copy at all in widescreen.
Visuals: The camera flies around inside the 9 before flying out of the side towards one of the nine dots. The screen then zooms out rapidly to reveal the 9 logo on a white background with the ninemsn URL below.
Trivia: This package and the next were designed by Graham Cousens, who worked as an in-house designer at Nine at the time[3].
Variants:
Technique: CGI animation using Alias Wavefront Maya.
Audio: A calm beat leading into a modern version of the "Still the One" jingle.
Visuals: An updated version of the previous IDs. There is the inside of the nine logo again, but this time, the words "STILL", "THE", and "ONE" appear one by one in white as the camera transitions to different "walls" in the logo before flipping out to the nine logo appearing on a white background.
Variant: On NWS-9 in Adelaide, "ADELAIDE'S NUMBER 1" fades in below the logo as the animation finishes.
Technique: CGI animation using Alias Maya.
Audio: A redone version of the previous theme.
Availability: Per the previous logos.
Legacy: These would be the last IDs to use the "Still the One" slogan after 27 years. It would be used one final time in a 2006 promo for the rebrand in which the original "Still the One" song was performed by Nine personalities. They would also be the last to feature the original 9 logo after 44 years. The long standing jingle would also be retired, though it would return without the slogan with the 2009 "Welcome Home" package.
Visuals: On a warehouse-like background, there are two panels at a diagonal angle facing inwards and the new 9 logo, a white 9 (an updated version of the original logo's 9) in a blue box, in the middle.
Variants:
Technique: 2D computer animation by BDA Creative.
Audio: A contemporary beat.
Legacy: This rebrand was received very poorly due to its abandonment of the 9 dots and the apparent cheapness of its associated on-air graphics, which were said to resemble a PowerPoint presentation.
Visuals: There is a number of Channel 9 personalities pan past the frame, some of them interacting with the 9 logo, taking it away, putting it back or moving it. As this happens, the 9 logo occasionally rotates in a cubic fashion.
Later Variant: Beginning in May 2007, the nine dots appears on opposite sides of the box, alternating with the 9 numeral.
Technique: CGI and live action. A generic version of this ident only uses CGI.
Audio: An intense score ending with a four-note jingle, which varies according to each variant.
Visuals: On a sky background, there is a translucent rendering of the new slogan, "we heart (the heart being an actual heart symbol) TV" as a series of CGI discs, representing the nine dots, fly around it. The slogan rotates and turns into the 9 from the previous logo as the dots settle into place next to it to form an updated version of the classic 9 logo.
Variants: A long version of this ID existed, in which various shots of the flying dots are seen before cutting to the slogan.
Technique: CGI animation.
Audio: The new network song, a modified cover of "Smile" by The Supernaturals.
Legacy: This ident marks the full return of the famous 9 dots, 2 years after their apparent retirement, and a year after they were used as a secondary element of the "rotating cube".
Visuals: There is a green dot zoom out and explode into many dots. This leads to a cascade of other dot "explosions". The explosions rotate, changing into a different color with each one turning from greens and yellows to pinks and purples to blues and whites. Finally, there are nine of the dots rotate in to fill about half the frame. The word "Choose" (in all-caps) appears in one of the dots, next to which the Nine logo appears.
Variants:
Technique: A mix of 2D and 3D CGI animation. Live-action for the celebrity idents.
Audio: An upbeat tune with male singers vocalizing throughout then singing what sounds like "smile" (similar to The Supernaturals' song from the previous ident) at the end.
Legacy: Given the short lifespan and apparent cheapness of these idents, it's possible they were a placeholder for the next ident.
Visuals: There is a blue structure from various angles, as streaks of light pass through the logo. The screen pans through one of the walls to reveal that the structure is actually the Nine logo. The logo from various close-up angles can be seen before cutting to the front as the logo zooms into place and the new slogan, "Welcome Home", writes itself in in a cursive font.
Technique: CGI animation using Autodesk Maya.
Audio: A grand, rising orchestration leading into the classic "Still the One" jingle.
Legacy: This ident marks the return of the classic Nine jingle, as well as pays homage to the 3D styling of the 2002 idents.
Visuals: The logo starts with various shots of a "swoosh" passing the frame in various colours, sometimes weaving around spheres in the same colour as the swoosh and the background. In this ID, the colors are as followed: blue, red, green, purple, yellow, and green. Eventually, the camera cuts to a shot of the swoosh moving up the left side of the frame as the Nine logo appears on the right with "Welcome Home" (all lowercased) below it. As this happens, the color changes three more times from purple, to yellow, and finally, to blue.
Technique: CGI animation using Autodesk Maya.
Audio: An upbeat tune with vocals, leading into the "Still the One" jingle.
Availability: While elements of this branding are still in use, albeit in a slightly updated form, the ID itself is no longer in use.
Legacy: This is Nine's final regular ident to date. As of 2017, only holiday-themed idents are used as well as some made for special occasions and significant events (such as the COVID-19 pandemic).