Sport1 Medien AG

Background

EM.TV & Merchandising AG was a German independent entertainment company founded by Thomas and Florian Haffa in 1989, based in Ismaning. Its initials stand for Entertainment and Merchandising. In February 2000, it bought The Jim Henson Company for $680 million. Later that year, it acquired 50% of SLEC Ltd., known for being the holding company of the Formula One racing series. In September 2001, former Sat.1 CEO Werner Klatten became the new CEO of EM.TV. He restructured the company, announced he would sell most of the company's assets and directed the purchase of German sports TV station DSF. In 2003, The Jim Henson Company was bought back by the Henson family for $78 million, while Thomas and Florian Haffa were subsequently fined for having deceived shareholders during the ownership. In 2008, EM.TV was renamed to em.sport media ag before being changed again to Constantin Medien AG the following year.

(January 1, 1993-June 23, 2004)

Nicknames: "Diamond Zig-Zag", "Zig-Zag M"

Logo: Panning though a black and blue space background with stars, a shape that is red on the front and the rest of the sides in silver comes flying sideways from the front of the screen before turning clockwise and stopping down. It is revealed to be a row of three diagonal rectangles above a short zig-zagged M which represents the company's first two initials, "EM". It morphs from 3-D to 2-D, while at the same time, the background fades to black. Below, a spark of light wipes across to reveal the text "EM.TV & MERCHANDISNG AG" in white.

Variants:

On Fairy Tale Police Department and Weird-Ohs, a still version is shown.
On Rainbow Fish, it cuts to where the text wipes in.
The logo is in-credit on The Adventures of Blinky Bill, The World of Tosh, Old Tom, and Creepschool.

FX/SFX: Entirely CGI.

Music/Sounds: A calm synthesizer with a light soaring upbeat, a quiet clash, and a clicking sound when the text is formed.

Music/Sounds Variants:

Most shows had the closing theme playing over it.
On Weird-Ohs, a shortened version of the music was used.

Availability: Rare. It was seen on the first two seasons of The Adventures of Blinky Bill, the first two seasons of Flipper and Lopaka, Fairy Tale Police Department, Old Tom, Rainbow Fish, The World of Tosh, and Creepschool. It was also seen on various DVDs under the Junior label.

Editor's Note: It's a very creative logo with good visuals and the CGI effects have aged relatively well. Plus, the music is very nice to listen.