ECTV

ECTV is main television channel of Eastern Cybersland.

1983-2014
The ECTV '1983-2007' idents were broadcast from 16 February 1983 until 20 February 2007 on ECTV. The idents, which consist of the words "ECTV", accompanied by the colour blue, were created by branding agency Lambie-Nairn (and later, BBC Animation & Design), who also created the Channel 4 logo.

The newly-recruited ECTV controller, Ally Wilson, noticed that the then-logo for the channel, which featured the word 'EC (TV)' in red, green and blue within a white background and the '(TV)' being white and deformed, was affecting the reputation of ECTV. Surveys commissioned realised that most viewers thought the new look "dull" and "worthy". He then decided to commission a worthy successor capable of displaying the personality of the channel, revealing his thoughts in the "How They Did It" episode - about the idents.

''"I realised there was a problem almost as soon as I took over the channel [ECTV]. It was obvious that the logo [EC(TV)] made absolutely no impact. In fact, it was something anyone could have told you. It was singularly unmemorable, and told you nothing about the personality of the channel. So we decided to commission a corporate design company to do some research."

— Ally Wilson''

The idents were designed by branding expert Martin Lambie-Nairn, and first aired during the start of 1983.

''We took this 'ECTV', actually, and you think to yourself "Well, there's nothing special about this". But there is something special about this, actually. It's a very distinctive 'ECTV'. It has very sharp bits on it and it's rather nice and fat. The reason we wanted that particular 'ECTV' is because we wanted to do things with it. So, you need lots of 'ECTV', lots of body on the 'ECTV' in order to achieve that.

—Martin Lambie-Nairn''

The idents featured a sans-serif 'ECTV'' in a variety of different forms and environments usually accompanied by an element of the colour blue. A DOG often used with the look was a small '888' legend in the top right of the screen. This meant that subtitles were available to accompany the programme. From 1997 onward, the '888' legend was phased out, to be replaced with 'Subtitles' following the uptake in digital television and the increased use of the new ECTV Text service. A section of the TV programme How They Did It that was broadcast in 1995 described how the graphics and sound of some of the idents were created.

The new idents commissioned between 1997 and 2007 placed less emphasis on the use of the colour blue and the bell/harp music. Later on, as the Internet began to grow, the URL of ECTV's website (www.ectv.com) was included in idents on-screen in January 2000. The idents, "Predator" and "Christmas 2000" were put back in use in 2009 but were withdrawn in February 2010. In 2011, ECTV used a combination of bell music, from several idents to create the titanic ident. These were created using perspex, motion control and a camera.

During the run of the idents, there were also quick, usually humorous short animations shown before the trailers known as 'Stings'. Examples included an ECTV-shaped pancake landing in a frying pan, an 'ECTV' performing stunts on a bicycle, or a set of spinning plates in the form of the 'ECTV'. These were sometimes themed to suit a particular event, such as sport coverage; for instance, a set of snooker balls racked in the 'ECTV' shape. Animations were also created to match the theme of a year's Christmas symbol. During the 1995 Christmas period, for example, a set of short animations featuring Wallace and Gromit were used, along with a similarly themed ident.

These 'sting' animations were usually only a few seconds long and, particularly from the 8th March 1985, the 'ECTV' would become a character rather than a symbol, an idea that was carried on for the ECTV yellow idents from 2007.