History of ITV television idents

The ITV television network in the United Kingdom began as a group of regional stations, each with its own identity. Each station used its own idents to establish an individual identity.

In 1989, the first attempt to establish a national ITV corporate identity was made, combining regional brands with a new national ITV brand. The attempt met with only limited success: some companies never adopted the ITV branding, while many others later diluted or abandoned the ITV component over time. A second attempt in 1998 was more successful but was still rejected or significantly modified by some companies.

In 2002, a significant change in appearance occurred when all ITV regions in England adopted national continuity. Regional logos disappeared, and regional names were mentioned only before regional programmes. This effectively transformed ITV1 in England into a national channel with slots for regional opt-outs—similar to BBC One—rather than a collection of independent regional broadcasters sharing programmes.

The unification was further consolidated in 2004 when Granada plc acquired Carlton Communications to form ITV plc. By this time, the two companies had acquired all the regional Channel 3 companies in England and Wales. ITV plc later went on to acquire Channel Television in the Channel Islands and UTV in Northern Ireland.

This article examines the history of the presentation of the ITV brand on the main ITV network. The other digital channels owned by ITV plc also adopted logos similar to the main ITV channel but with different colour schemes and background images; however, these are not covered in this article.