History Main / StationIdent

[[UsefulNotes/AmericanTelevisionStations American broadcast stations]] are required, under federal law, to declare their call sign and city of license at least once an hour, as close to the top of the hour as is reasonably possible. Obviously radio stations have to announce; a TV station may give it in audio, visual or both. Note this only applies to ''broadcast'' stations; a station that is on the Internet or is a cable-only or satellite-based station (Music Choice, Sirius/XM, CNN, USA, Creator/{{HBO}}, Creator/{{MTV}}, etc,) do not have call signs and are not required to identify themselves. That said, many do so anyways, in part to mimic the older broadcast format, in part because, well, it's not exactly a ''bad'' thing to remind people of what, exactly, they're listening to or watching.

* Creator/CartoonNetwork has had a number of afternoon [[UsefulNotes/BlockProgramming blocks]] over the years which typically feature CGI hosts as continuity announcers. On the other hand, continuity in Creator/AdultSwim has no voices at all.

** Its successor, Creator/{{PBS}}, began with a simple, logoless slide, before adopting its [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf_gEptaPJg first real logo and ident in 1971]], a stabilization of the initials with the "P" resembling a human head. The "Everyman" logo was designed by Herb Lubalin, whose best known work is probably the ITC Avant Garde Gothic [[UsefulNotes/{{Fonts}} typeface]]. The current logo first came about in 1984, depicting the "P" from the previous logo flipped to the right and with two other profiles (one formed in negative space) to resemble a group of people (symbolizing the concept of public television); this rendition was designed by Chermayeff & Geismar, also known for the Chase logo and the aforementioned 1986 NBC peacock. Since 1998, this mark has been rendered on a circle; for a time, there were national bumpers with people jumping around the circled logo (held by a person as a prop). The network's presentation in the mid-2000's to 2019 used a more cinematic look, typically with the slogan "Be More PBS". In 2019, PBS underwent a major revamp with a focus on digital, tweaking the logo and dropping the "slab" font for a more modern sans-serif look, changing the network's main colors to bright blue and white, and adopting the current flat design trend (after having used a myriad of glossy and color-tinted versions of the circle logo not unlike ABC).

*** In 2007, the "Window on the World" idents were launched, which saw the 2 represented as a window or cut-out to various scenery. Often related to the show about to premiere, expect to see the 2 shape as a car sunroof or side mirror before ''Series/{{Top Gear|UK}}''. An ident of a tent door in the shape of a 2 unzipping open revealed many other tents outside to open broadcasts of the Glastonbury outdoor music festival. The tent ident also has varying levels of daylight outside, which seems to reflect the current time in Britain. Unfortunately, it downplayed the humor of the 2 by depicting it as an inanimate object in different forms to appeal to serious programmes; some fans were not happy about this and it only got worse twice (first in 2009, then in 2013). In July 2014, the 1991-2001 idents were revived alongside the current set (and a few special ones) to mark the channel's 50th anniversary. The Window on the World set was retired completely in November 2014 in favor of a full, second run for the 1991-2001 idents.

** In 2022, ITV adopted a new set of unified idents for all of its channels as part of a company-wide rebranding. Taking a page from BBC One's Lens idents, they feature different scenes filmed at common locations, but the scenes are different based on the channel and their programming (with ITV1 being more down-to-earth or entertaining, ITV2 and ITV Be being more lighthearted, ITV3 having more "cinematic" scenes, and ITV4 having allusions to films and sports).

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* From 1998 to 2001, ABC used bumpers and promos with a minimalist style, often incorporating yellow and black geometric patterns and greyscale photos of its stars, along with the tagline "We Love TV" or "America's (#1) Broadcasting Company". The network's "Start Here" branding featured bumpers and promos with glossy 3D discs adorned with symbols, representing different device platforms, such as TV, [=PC=]s, mobile, etc. The "Start Here" scheme was dropped in 2013 for a more cinematic look, with the main logo gaining a less complex gloss and new color variations (the butterscotch/gold-tinted version got the most screen time as the network's main bug. Red and steel blue versions were also common, especially among sports and news respectively, but they were otherwise interchangable). In 2018, another new scheme was introduced, now with concentric circle motifs, and the color variations dropped in favor of just the black/grey version.

* Creator/TheABC logo is probably the most famous of our lot, being a distinctive Lissajous curve or "squiggle", created to reference the network's radio origins. It is the only logo to have survived virtually intact since its inception, with the only major changes being the general design (it's now best explained as being a flat worm).

* VRT1, the main channel of the Flemish public broadcaster, still uses idents to this day. These idents are mostly different ways to show their logo before shows, but were also used to introduce the channel hosts (back when the channel still had them). They've changed regularly over the years, due to the channel changing name several times, but were always kept brief.

** Some sports leagues and competitions -- especially in international sports -- have similar requirements for their broadcasters to air an official intro sequence at the beginning and end of their telecasts, usually themed around the event's branding theme, and often containing an EnforcedPlug for official sponsors. The UEFA Champions League and is probably one of the most well-known examples, if only for the competition's iconic TitleThemeTune.