Which ITV company from 1955 to 2002, had the best logo?

The OP might be interested that a few years ago I showed the full selection of ITV logos to a group of (mostly) home educated children at a meetup and asked them to comment on their aesthetics. The children did not recognise most of the logos or were aware that they were all ITV companies.

Well... yeah, why would they?

Anyone still at school shouldn't recognise them by now - it's been 13 years.

And far longer than 13 years for many of the more "classic" logos!

For example... logos of companies that were ousted from the network at franchise rounds between 1967 and 1991, or companies who ever changed their logos entirely (such as Anglia or HTV).

3 of whom have now been off air for over twice as long as they were on air. Even Thames has almost been gone as long as it was around!


Scary to think there are adults around who weren't alive during Princess Diana's lifetime!

.... I feel old

Unfamiliarity has the potential to create a level playing field. If people are familiar with certain things then it could result in bias.

There's only been one mention of UTV and nobody has commented about Grampian. Is this because they are unfamiliar outside of their regions in far flung outposts of Britain?

No - it's because apart from 'Round Britain' or 'Highway' and maybe some occasionally schools programming, Grampian's contribution to the peak time ITV network was always very minimal. Nothing to do with your sweeping generalisation of them being (wholly incorrect) 'unfamiliar in the rest of the country'

Regional programming from them, could not be faulted, but network - they knew their place - for obvious financial reasons. It's expensive is this network television programme making stuff, you know.

They knew they would get crowded out at the schedule meetings, and couldn't piggy back on Scottish TV's kilt tails, as they had a track record in network commissions, so wouldn't really want to help the next door neighbours out and potentially take away some of their slots.

And indeed, during the early 80's it was a very rare treat indeed to see the St Andrew cross logo on my tv.

I look forward to you issuing a kicking to Channel Television for exactly the same reason...

Overreacting much?

I think you've just answered "yes" to Riaz's perfectly reasonable question/observation - companies like Ulster, Grampian, Border and Channel did not regularly get network commissions, so were less familiar to (non anorak) viewers outside of their respective regions back in the days because we didn't see them so often, back when network programmes had frontcaps and prodcaps.

Hatton Cross provides a rather over-simplistic version of how the ITV network worked. The IBA did not expect the small regional companies to make programmes for the network, and only the larger regionals were given the opportunity to make a few network programmes; often these were in non-peak slots like children's, schools or religious programmes. There's also the fact that the "ITV Network" was a very flexible thing, and some programmes might be shown by all the contractors (although often not simultaneously) while others would be 'part-networked' to one or more other companies. Much of STV's Scottish output was networked to Grampian and some of it to Border. When WWN existed, TWW networked all its Welsh programmes to WWN. There were also physical restrictions. Some smaller companies were not provided with outgoing programme lines which meant they had to send film or tape programmes to one of the majors for networking. (Hence the end credit sometimes seen in TV Times "An Anglia Television Production networked by Associated-Rediffusion") And often networking meant bicycling a tape around the British Isles - one company would transmit a programme then send it off to the next port of call. Channel had no 'lines' at all - its incoming feed being an unreliable off-air feed of Westward and with no video tape recorders, it was all but impossible for CTV to network anything to anybody at all. They managed it none the less by contributing some filmed programmes before they were financially able to acquire VTRs.

Familiarity with the rarer logos depended on the programmes produced by the ITV company and the people who viewed them. I mentioned how Border was a rare sight outside of its region but it was familiar to many children of the 1980s because BMX Beat was a very popular children's programme back then. The Border logo might not have been familiar amongst, say, pensioners or 30 something professionals of the 1980s unless they happened to watch any of the few networked Border programmes.

^Like Mr and Mrs?

I'm more bewildered at what the 'gay movement' is...

CTV Facilities were the OB hire firm, not an early version of the cake - the cake was actually a multi-colour rainbow fade block printed!