Granada GMG ident

Apologies if this has been asked before, not long after the Itv Hearts rebrand, the Granada owned stations of Yorkshire and Tyne Tees had their own local ident, generally used before local news and local shows.
It’s the last one in this compilation:


Why didn’t Granada?
They had the grey boxed version of the G-arrow logo matching Yorkshire’s and Tyne Tees on their trails, but not the ident.

Was this a planned ident package for across their franchises that was ditched in favour of the itv hearts?
There was also the purple corporate GR^N^DA around at a similar time if I recall.

This is just presumption but the Hearts package was Granada's idea in the first place. Tyne Tees still wanted a flair of localisation and had their own ident for regional shows. Granada wouldn't consider anything like that when they'd just devised a package that intended to unify the entire network.

I'm speculating here, but Yorkshire used their own idents before local programming, so I suspect when Tyne Tees introduced the their new logo they were allowed to have their own local ident as it had already been allowed for Yorkshire.

I believe the local ident package used by Yorkshire was introduced for all programming shortly before the hearts package, so I imagine when Granada imposed the hearts package on them they were allowed to keep their package for local programming given how new it was and the investment that would have gone in to the it. Here's a video of the complete package:



I have heard that Yorkshire's package was intended to be used across all the GMG north regions before the decision was made to use the hearts package instead. A christmas version of this package was used across all the GMG north regions after the hearts were introduced, can't remember which year exactly, but I want to say 1999.

Tyne Tees also used their previous ident (which had been used for all programming during 1998) before local programmes before the later one was introduced.

I don't think TT really had much say in the use of idents by this stage (and frankly, given their almost complete lack of use of animated idents while they still did have a say I suspect they didn't care much anyway).

It was a YTV decision to have local idents before programmes and TT was dragged along with that decision (the company was still set up as Yorkshire-Tyne Tees at this point, and quite a lot of YTV stuff was still pushed out in the North East despite the takeover, like some shared "regional" programmes across the two regions, the Indian films, Jobfinder and even some YTV CSAs etc). As to why Granada didn't bother I suspect that was a decision by Granada as their views did still carry weight.

And yes, the Christmas package used across GMG North was 1999. It was used in conjunction with a different design used for the millenium, also across the three stations.

I'm 99% certain that local Yorkshire ident package didn't appear on screen prior to the hearts, or before network programmes – IIRC, it launched at the same time as the hearts.

I do remember reading (probably on here) though that the intention was that the package would be used across the board for every junction - hence why they made so many of them (as seen here). But then the hearts came along after they'd been made, and they were relegated to local junctions.



There were versions of the same spinning cut-out logo background used for regional trailers for Tyne Tees and Granada, plus an image has been posted of an unbroadcast LWT one. Not sure if there were idents made in the same style for them.

I do though remember seeing an image of an unused Granada ident from around the same time with an updated logo, designed by YTV's in-house graphics department. From memory, the classic 'Giro G' had had the vertical stroke of the arrow removed, so it looked a bit like a G with a circumflex accent over it. I can't find it anywhere though - has anyone got a copy to prove I'm not going mad?

Wasn't the Granada logo without the vertical line the one used in the 1989 ITV Granada variant, in the triangle?

And yes, the YTV local idents appeared the same day as the hearts.

I think that's what I was confusing it with in my mind. I've done some digging, and this is actually what I was thinking of...



It was previously on the website of Oktane design which is no longer online, but it's still there on Wayback Machine.

Also the unused LWT endboard I mentioned is on there too, along with some other oddities...

Like the LWT version

Sounds like Yorkshire's idents had been made before the hearts were, but the hearts were revealed before work on Tyne Tees and LWT's versions had been completed, so they were abandoned, as was Granada's new pres package. Tyne Tees then made a different ident set for local programmes anyway, which really was stupid considering the hearts ident wasn't updated with the new logo, leaving them with inconsistent branding until the regional branding was axed.

I've never seen this purple variation of the hearts end board before - looks far better than other versions, both used and unused, that I've seen.

https://web.archive.org/web/20161108154355/http://www.oktane.co.uk/SCREEN_FOLIO_PDFS/OKTANE__ITV_GRANADA_PURPLE_HEARTS_TTTV.pdf

Were LWT local trailers made by the Leeds team during this era or still made locally? If it’s the former, what style of endboard did they use, one matching the network trailers?

The timetables of the development of the hearts and the YTV local ident is a mystery to me, it’s interesting that on one hand we are told the ident was supposed to be for all junctions (hence why they made a million versions) but then on the other hand the background of this ident was so similar to the hearts background as if they were meant to compliment each other.

Also that they’d already made Christmas versions for everyone, but hadn’t made normal versions for everyone. All quite odd.

Wasn't Oktane called something like Ballistix when it was owned by Yorkshire?