COMPILATION OF CHANNEL FOUR IDENTS AND PROMOTIONS - 1982-2002

A great movie showcasing many of Channel 4's idents and promotions from 1982-2002.

I believe this originally appeared on the 'Sounds Familiar' website - it is not my own work.

All copyrights acknowledged.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• channel
• four
• on
• air
• identity
• promo
• ident
• 1982
• 2002
• blocks
• circles
• squares

[jonhants]

@geniusburger the later music was ok i just thought it was abit of a come down compared to the old fourscore tune but as you say it was to update it and you could still tell it was fourscore. i like the ident that looks like the blocks are coming towards u and looks like the camera turns left and you see the 4. i always wondered how that was done well im guessing clever computer graphics.

[geniusburger]

Some minor corrections (though I understand that @ChannelFourderman can't do much about them but here goes anyway. The 1993 music switch was to actually save C4 money as each time it was played a royalty payment (around £3.50 per play, 20-30 a day) went to David Dundas. They never aired Sumo to a big enough audience to justify a special ident, that I think was a Japan themed night ident and the logo made by Matt Forrest was used but for a brief period as the logo on Channel 4 News around 1991.

[geniusburger]

@jonhants I rather liked the other music, nicely updated sounding just enough like Fourscore but not so much they end up paying royalty fees each time it's played.

[jonhants]

good vid. i was only a kid in the 1980s im now 32 and i still remeber the coloured blocks joining together to form the channel 4 ident and the fourscore tune and still to this day if i hear a drumroll on tv or radio it makes me think of the drumroll that was used for fourscore. i remeber in the 90s when the music changed slightly it didnt sound as good. be good if they did bring the blocks (and original music) back for good but dont think they will.

[geniusburger]

@geniusburger And, just because I'm giving a second runthrough, it's very telling there's a solid 20 minutes on the blocks identity and only 7 minutes for both Circles and Squares.

[geniusburger]

Very interesting retrospective, won't lie but their promotional style during the 80's though incredibly diverse was also a mess when it came to branding. Nice to see so many idents and stings clean.