Slovenská Televízia

Background

Slovenská Televízia (Slovak Television in English) was the public broadcaster of Slovakia, originally founded on July 1st, 1991 as a regional establishment, but officially established on January 1, 1993, the same day when Czechoslovakia split into their former countries. It operated 2 channels, as well as a 3rd established in 2008. However, various troubles caused it to quickly drop in favor for the more profitable (and creditable) commercial broadcasters. However in 2003, Richard Rybníček, founder of TV JOJ, was hired and reworked the entire service to make it more competitive for its commercial rivals. This worked at first, but eventually the resignation of Rybníček caused the broadcaster to plummet into crisis, accumilating in the forced merger between its radio company, Slovenský rozhlas (Slovak Radio), to form Rozhlas a televízia Slovenska (Radio and Television of Slovakia) in 2011, but the name still remained on screen until the relaunch of them on June 30, 2011. Trojka would also be shut down that day due to budget troubles, though it would relaunch with a different focus on December 23, 2019.

1st Logo (January-October? 1992)

Visuals: On a musty yellow/black gradient background, the conjoined letters "STV" slowly appear by inverting the colors on it. The colors then fade to a dark blue/white gradient, and a white drop shadow appears a few seconds later. The blue/white gradient then fades to a hot pink/flamingo pink gradient.

Variants:

• A still slide of the logo can be seen before in-community announcements.
• For closedowns, the logo may have reversed animation, but no footage of this exists.

Accompanying clock ident: The logo is seen, albeit without the drop shadow, inside a white rectangle outline on a light brown background, with a black drop shadow. A digital clock with white numbers with black outlines is seen below.

Technique: Computer animation.

Audio: A lush chime soundtrack accompanied by a harmonious synth piano tune.

2nd Logo (October?-December 1992)

Visuals: On a black background, a mass of silver polygons comes in from the left side of the screen, swirling around to the left as a blue gradient background slowly fades in. The polygon ball eventually comes to the screen, scanning over it before swerving to the middle and rotating around to form the same "STV" from before, but in silver with visible bevel edges. A spotlight shines across the logo.

Variants:

• Much like before, a still slide of the logo can be seen before in-community announcements.
• For closedowns, the logo has reversed animation, which ironically is the reversed situation compared to the first logo (footage of this exists, but no opening version yet)

Accompanying clock ident: The clock is now an chroma-keyed analog clock, having bars for the hours and bolder ones for the cardinal hours, with the same background as the logo, which is in the top right corner.

Technique: Computer animation.

Audio: A calming synth piano tune with some orchestral beats.

3rd Logo (January 1, 1993-1996)

Visuals: In a black room with a illuminated grey floor, a red/blue/yellow gradient ball rolls onto the floor. It bounces with the opposite wall, causing it to rebound to the other wall at a slower speed, as well as unleashing a blue right triangle. It bounces with the left wall, and then the triangle, revealing a thin yellow rectangle. The ball then stops in place, but still rolling, as "STV" in a conjoined font resembling the previous logo, but thinner and a separate "TV" fly in from the darkness and drop down onto the shapes, merging with them. The logo then rotates upwards as it starts becoming a flat shape, turning the sphere red and revealing the S, forming the logo.

Variant: During the early months of its life, a still version is also used for their news program, Správy STV. Here, the yellow text "SPRÁVY" is seen below the logo. Later on, an animated variant would be used, with "SPRÁVY" sliding in as a different, blue font, and the STV logo swinging in below.

Accompanying clock ident: Same as before, but the background differs, usually a grey gradient background. Starting in mid 1996, the background was changed to a light blue background with rotating "STV" letters, obviously for the next logo's design package, and would be used until around 1999.

Technique: Computer animation.

Audio: A woodwind melody that is repeated twice, with differences in each play, while various other instruments play in the background. A bell toll is heard during the variant.

Availability: It was only used sporadically during its lifetime.

4th Logo (1996)

Visuals: Starting off on the generic STV clock background at the time, 3 glass squares with one letter of "STV" carved into them fly across the screen, revolving slightly as they do. The camera then zooms out to reveal the video on a purple filmstrip with copies of it around it, along with a light peering through the left side, and the filmstrip starts moving upwards. The filmstrip's cells then fade out as a white version of the "STV" logo of the time fades in, and the entire thing moves to the left with the filmstrip flying off-screen and a translucent glass square coming in from the right. The square rotates clockwise with a spotlight briefly on it, and a large "40" fades in and tilts onto the square, with "výročie" being barely visible below it. The 40 starts off black, but a spotlight turns it orange. While this is all happening, the shadows of them along with the large letters move about with the shifting spotlight, and borders appear on the square. Finally, the STV logo becomes colored like the Slovenia flag, and the logo freezes.

Accompanying clock ident: Same as before.

Technique: Computer animation.

Audio: A triumphant MIDI fanfare.

Availability: Only used during its 40th anniversary, counting the years as CST.