AS1-Task One:Understanding the purpose of television idents and opportunties they present

Before the process of planning and presenting a new suite of idents there should be an understanding of the purpose of television idents, and the opportunities the present. Therefore, the following that needs to be ensured is covered are:

• Identifying the channel
• Organising the schedule
• Segmentation of the scheduling
• Creating corporate identity
• Creating a brand and encouraging brand loyalty
• Branding of particular content
• Creating the right tone and appealing to the target audience
• Marketing opportunity
• Packaging and re-packaging a series of programmes or event

Identifying the channel
Firstly, in 1953 on the BBC the first ever ident that had appeared was nicknamed "Bat's Wings," Therefore, seven years later there was a "BBC tv" logo which was introduced in the form of the logo being within a circle of the top of a map Britain, that had been split into the BBC's broadcast regions. Later the most famous ident from 1960 known as "the globe" appeared in 1963 but with a few changes, such as the globe rotating and as the BBC tv logo would appear there would be a voice announcing "This is BBC Television." Although there have been great deals of changes of idents currently, before there were small changes being made due to the role of new technology allowing for the development. In addition, an ident is useful in achieving the goal of identifying the channel as it is the most straight forward function. Plus when commercial TV began in 1960 it meant that there were going to be many viewers watching, and it made it easy for the viewers identify different channels by the idents. So once again in the early 90's there was an emergence of satellite televisions indicating that television idents became even more important.

Organising the schedule
Furthermore, idents are important because they help in keeping the channel's schedule organised. When there is a show that is supposed to be exactly on at the correct time yet there are a few seconds, then it gives an opportunity to sometimes provide the audience with key information about programming on that channel. Thus by organising a scheduled ident it means that it very useful due to the fact that the information may be able to entice the viewer to continue watching the particular channel rather than switching over to view something else of their interests.

Segmentation of the scheduling
Segmentation of the scheduling is almost similar to organising the schedule but segmentation is the after math once it is discussed where and how long the ident should be. Even more so, segmentation adds a little extra time to fill for promotions of a variety of programming as well as provide a break for studio workers a break. The reason some channels have to have idents is because the are two types of channels and they are non-commercial and commercial. Hence BBC being a non-commercial channel do not have the time in between programmes to advertise unlike commercial channels that include ITV along with Channel 4 and many others.

Creating corporate identity
As of now there are no longer anymore restrictions that only one country should have television channels. Due to the expansion of television channels in other locations it assists in creating a brand. Plus with consistency across a range of channels for example the BBC aids in establishing a corporate identity that can be sold across the world. Moreover, as there is a growth of online platforms like the BBC iPlayer it is absolutely necessary for corporations to retain the image that could be so easily diluted in the online world.

Creating a brand and encouraging brand loyalty
Additionally, building a brand for a particular channel is vital. This is because it encourages the audience to stay loyal to the channels. Idents tend to endorse the brand by the audience taking their time to familiarise themselves with the logo as well as the style. Nevertheless, it ends up being a visual reminder because it imprints into the viewers mind, therefore this possibly makes them a lot likely to continue watching the channel again. An example of this includes CBBC who had used the 'modern' CBBC ident for seven years and then later changed it to 'just imagine' ident.

Branding of particular content
Branding a particular content is so that a programme can be recognisable only to the channel, and at the same time it provides a consistent theme across a range of platforms. For example, the BBC The Voice ident is showing that there is a daily soap on next however as mentioned the voice will just be shown on BBC One. However, there is one channel that recently re-branded everything and the channel is More4. The people who helped in changing the ident was ManvsMachine, and what they ended up designing the logo vibrantly. It is because it meant that channel show a wide range of programmes ranging from nature to fashion etc.

Creating the right tone and appealing to the target audience
Despite the fact that idents can be identified simply it still has to appeal to certain age groups, so a channel such as Cbeebies and CBBC would definitely have to set the correct tone to appropriately grasp children's attention. Another example is for adults because when BBC Four arrived they built up their reputation by having factual programming, which the initial ident had reflected through.

  

Marketing opportunity + Packaging and re-packaging a series of programmes or event
Also marketing opportunity is when there is a chance to cleverly promote an ident for a new drama which will start at a certain season time. Such as the ITV christmas ident. Lastly, idents are often used to promote large events or a new series, one example being the Strictly Come Dancing on BBC.