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ATV

Last Updated: February 11, 2020

As part of the birth of ITV, Associated Television brought variety and performance to the new network. Originally starting in in London at the weekend and eventually in the Midlands during the weekdays, ATV set about its way of producing quality entertainment. In 1968, ATV lost their London weekend contract, and somehow, from this ATV were most remembered, with classic programmes such as Crossroads and Tiswas. ATV was restructured as part of the 1982 franchise change which saw the name disappear from British screens, in replacement for Central Independent Television...

>>>>> ATV DVD Shop >>>>>

24th Sep. 1955 - 4th Oct. 1955

ATV started broadcasting as "ABC Television", alongside Associated-Rediffusion to launch ITV in London. After a legal battle with ABPC (ABC), a name change to ATV was ordered.

5th Oct. 1955 - late 1959

Because of the name change, and the time that ATV had to do it (5 days), this ident was rushed, however it was used on ITV screens for a few years. It was relegated to being used in start-ups until 1969.

Bring a unique style not seen by any other channel ever by stating their transmission zones as part of their common ident sequence. This was only used after the launch of the Midlands region in Feb. 1956 and it was last transmitted before the end of the decade. Other versions of this ident simply had "Midlands Monday to Friday" or "London Saturday & Sunday" in place.

Mid 1959 - July 1964

The first generation of the "zoom" ident sequence, a name which was to stay with the company for 21 further years.

July 1964 - 28th July 1968
(Midlands variant until 14th Nov. 1969)

"Midlands" variant will appear here soon

Now a selection, there are two versions of this ident, which was used in conjunction with each other.
The first is a London regional variation used along with the national idents up until it lost the franchise for London in July 1968.
A "Midlands" variant was also produced & transmitted for programmes made in the Midlands.

15th Nov. 1969 - 31st Dec. 1981

The introduction of colour to British Television, ATV faced the challenge of updating their idents for colour. I think they did rather well...

The ATV Colour ident is one of THE most popular pieces of UK presentation history ever, and is continually referred to, even in the 21st Century. Recent discussions show that there was a minor remake of the ident in 1979. The difference between the two idents is shown above.

A B&W version was also used for black & white programming presented by ATV after the introduction of colour. In the ident, a circle appears which morphs itself into the ATV logo, which in our opinion could have given inspiration to a closely related TV station that came 12 years later...

Other ATV Sites
Sub TV - ATV Zooms and Other Great Stuff
ITW - History Of ATV
MHP - ATV Ident Zone
ATV Logos - TV50
Transdiffusion - ATV Page
>>>>> ATV DVD Shop >>>>>

Many thanks for the use of RealVideo files and images from: Steve Hackett & Mark Steele (TV Ark), Jim Edwards (TV World), Mark McMillan (APFS).
Thanks also to Chris Wathen for details of specific dates and use of idents.

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