ITV Tyne Tees - Station Identification

Station Identification

The station identification, or idents for short, of Tyne Tees varied over time, however most focused around the letters TTTV arranged in a box format. The launch ident featured a white anchor which then gradually turned into three letter T's alongside each other. This ident was accompanied by shortened version of the stations signature tune "Three Rivers Fantasy", a specially commissioned work by composer and arranger Arthur Wilkinson. The musical overture merged several regional folk tunes, such as "Water of Tyne", ending in The "Blaydon Races". Part of the medley was based upon "The Sailor's Hornpipe".

The arrival of colour to ITV in 1969 led the companies to re-evaluate their on-screen identities. Tyne Tees replaced the triple-T logo in 1970 with the basic layout of two letter Ts above 'TV', an icon which would be incorporated into many future redesigns. Commentator Andrew Bowden observes that this interlinked design remains strongly associated with the company. The ident also introduced the blue and yellow colour scheme that would remain in use for many years. The dark blue was popular amongst ITV contractors because it closely approximated to black on a black and white television set. The version of the logo included the word 'COLOUR', boasting the new technology.

In 1979, the ident was modified once more to remove the word colour and to give it a more dynamic form up. The result was the yellow logo flying down onto a black background before the outline extended out towards the screen. The name 'Tyne Tees' then flew in below and the background colour faded to blue.

The ident was again redesigned in 1988, in which the colour scheme was reversed and lighter shades of blue and yellow used. The form up was also altered to water flowing along sand, before the water divided into the Tyne Tees logo. The logo used computer animation for the first time.

However this bold new look was not to last, as Tyne Tees adopted the 1989 ITV generic look. The look consisted of the top left corner of the logo being inserted into the 'V' segment of the ITV logo, with the station name placed underneath the Tyne Tees ITV logo. However, not every ITV station embraced the new logo, and Tyne Tees abandoned it in 1991.

The generic ident were replaced with ones produced by Tyne Tees, featuring a large reflective block which the viewpoint rotated around, before panning up to reveal it is the Tyne Tees logo. The music from the previous generic look was retained. Three variations were used, one with a black background, one with a multi coloured background and one with a grey background, with each version taking over from its predecessor after only a few months of use.

In 1992, Tyne Tees dropped their logo which they had previously been using and opted instead for four separate letters stacked stacked atop each other like previously accomplished spelling TTTV. The form up was over a grey background with a line moving across the screen, forming the letters as they went.

When Tyne Tees adopted the Channel 3 branding in 1996, the traditional "TTTV" logo arrangement was dropped in favour of a large '3', with the region written to the left of the '3'. The name "Tyne Tees Television" was only seen in small letters at the bottom of the screen, whereas Yorkshire, who also adopted the Channel 3 brand, was allowed to keep its 'chevron' logo alongside the '3'. On-screen announcements said, "This is Tyne Tees Television, broadcasting as Channel 3 in the North-East." The new branding was launched on 2 September 1996, with "Going Home (The Theme of the Local Hero)" by Mark Knopfler regularly accompanying ident sequences. Following Granada's takeover, the Channel 3 branding was scrapped. As Bob Conlon, regional executive with the Independent Television Commission, said: "People never really grasped the name - it didn't exactly trip off the tongue and it was still referred to as Tyne Tees Television, because it has been there for years." Also, the other regions in the network had retained their own identities rather than conforming to the generic 'Channel 3' brand.

The "TTTV" logo returned to television screens in a new form, "three-dimensional gold metallic lettering on a blue background", on 9 March 1998. This logo was more stylised than the 1992 equivalent and kept the music used throughout the '3' era. However, dual branding with the "ITV" name was introduced a year later, as part of the 1999 generic look. In this, the Tyne Tees logo was reduced to minuscule lettering in a blue box at the top of the screen, with emphasis being placed on the station name and ITV logo. However, this ident was supplemented by an ident to introduce local programming. This ident featured a new logo: a TTTV variant that was simplified to strictly vertical, horizontal or diagonal lines only. An arc of circles also adorned the top right corner. The ident itself featured pictures from the region. However, despite the new logo, the new logo wasn't applied to the generic idents.

From 28 October 2002, all network programmes were introduced with a generic ITV1 ident. Regional programming used a generic ident with the name Tyne Tees below the ITV1 logo until 2004, after which no regional idents existed. The Tyne Tees logo was last seen on production end boards until 2004, when they were replaced with, first an ITV logo, and then with an ITV Productions caption.