To begin this blog, I'm taking you back to 1998, when ITV was still relatively regional, although practically all of the smaller regional companies had already been taken over by either Carlton or Granada.
At this point, each regional company still had its own idents and presentation graphics, as most of the elements that made up the 1989 generic branding had been abandoned (Although Border and Grampian made extensive use of their respective variants throughout the 1990s). Of course, since that package had been launched, some of the regions had changed hands, thanks to the controversial round of franchise renewals in 1991. When the new companies took over their regions in 1993, they weren't provided with any of the idents or graphic elements from the 1989 package, thus, the individual identities of ITV started to return.
By 1998, TV had evolved, with the growth of satellite and cable broadcasting and the launch of Channel 5. Also, digital TV was now on the horizon and as the end of the 20th century was around the corner, ITV wanted to stand out as a strong brand.
The decision was made, once again to try and implement a uniform look across the regions, together with a complete redesign of the ITV logo. Perhaps it was felt that as most of the regional companies now had the same "parents", there wouldn't be any of the problems encountered in 1989, when some companies refused outright to adopt the branding. The new ITV logo appeared on our screens during the Autumn of 1998. A complete presentation package had actually been designed and was ready to launch with the new logo, but for some reason, the idents originally designed for it never made it to air. The graphics for use at the end of trailers and for menus etc. did air in 1998. So, what had happened?
In the years since, various clips have surfaced online, showing some of the unused idents and in 2014, the You Tube channel "TVBits" uploaded a 48-minute video containing an almost-complete set of these idents...
