Carlton Television: Difference between revisions

'''Carlton Television''' began broadcasting on 1 January 1993 as the third holder of the ITV franchise for London weekdays, after outbidding [[Thames Television]] - for which it had previously made two unsuccessful takeover attempts - in the auction-style 1991 franchise round. The company quickly became notorious for its corporate acquisitions. These included fellow ITV stations [[Central Independent Television|Central]] and [[Westcountry Television|Westcountry]] - both of which were rebranded with the Carlton name on 6 September 1999 - and the license and broadcast facilities of [[Harlech Television/HTV|HTV]], as well as [[Technicolor]] and the film libraries of [[ITC Entertainment Group|ITC Entertainment Group]] and [[The Rank Organisation|The Rank Organisation]]. Carlton eventually ran into financial difficulties (spurred on by ONdigital, a failed digital television joint venture with [[Granada Television|Granada]] and an expensive TV rights deal with the English Football League that went bad), and on 2 February 2004, it merged with Granada to form ITV plc. Subsequently, the Carlton name was dropped from most uses, with ITV reinstating the Central and Westcountry names, while Technicolor Corporation was sold off. The Carlton archive holdings (including the ITC, [[Associated Television|ATV]]/Central, Westcountry, HTV, [[London Film Productions|London Films]] and Rank Film Distributors libraries) are now the property of ITV plc.

|Carlton2.jpeg|2nd Logo (1 January, 1993-1 September, 1995)

|Carlton9.jpeg|3rd Logo (4 September, 1995-22 November, 1996)

|Carlton-right-on-1996.jpg|4th Logo (25 November, 1996-3 September, 1999)

|Carlton_(1999,_orange)_(Credit_-_JontyMaster).png|5th Logo (6 September, 1999-27 October, 2002)

===2nd Logo (1 January, 1993-1 September, 1995)===

* If the programme was in Stereo or in subtitles, a white box in the top right corner containing either "Stereo", "888", or both will be seen.

* In January 1993, 70 variants consisted of one or more people, supposedly representing "ordinary Londoners", fading in over the background and announcing to the viewer: "You're watching Carlton" or "This is Carlton, Television for London." For instance, the very first logo, broadcast a few seconds after midnight on 1 January 1993, featured town crier Maurice Jones shouting out the latter and ringing his bell three times, as the Carlton logo morphed into the word "'''LONDON'''" above.

* For the former ident, or rarely on its own, the background colour and also the shadowed object will change. The text would also change colour to white for these, but it could be other colours.

* A 1994 ad for Del Monte parodied this logo. The text "'''CARLTON'''" was changed to "'''CARTON'''", and The Man from Del Monte (played by Brian Jackson) appeared pouring juice into a glass cup. An announcer says "You're watching...Carton" at the end.

===3rd Logo (4 September, 1995-22 November, 1996)===

'''Logo:''' On a coloured background of swirling white rays and lines, these lines slowly reveal the transparent Carlton logo from before, shining on the edges and casting shadows as well. After a bit, they fade to a solid white as the rays and shining continue.

* "888" fades in the top right corner like usual if the following programme has subtitles.

* In both cases, the background can be one or more of six colours - {{color|red}}, {{color|orange}}, {{color|#FFD900|yellow}}, {{color|green}}, {{color|blue}} and {{color|darkviolet|purple}}.

'''Trivia:''' This logo was produced by the promotions team at Central Television, which Carlton acquired in 1994, so it's no real coincidence that the aforementioned background colours are the same as the colours in the Central "cake".

===4th Logo (25 November, 1996-3 September, 1999)===

Programme idents=

'''Logo:''' Just the Carlton logo on a coloured background, the combination differing depending on the variant. A soft spotlight also shines across the background. The logo is usually presented in a large myriad of different animated scenarios, over 50 of them. An example would be the "Generic" ident, where the Carlton logo in yellow is seen on a red background. The logo zooms in except for the "T", which morphs into the "T" of the 1989 ITV logo, and then the rest appear around it.

* Much like the other logos beforehand, "888", (later changed to "Subtitles" beginning in May 1999), is displayed in the top right corner if subtitles are available.

* The "Generic" ident is also updated on October 5, 1998 with a different end result and colour scheme to match the new ITV logo at the time.

===5th Logo (6 September, 1999-27 October, 2002)===

{{YouTube|id=h2s1E_A0bqA|id2=-NGwpt63DrA}}'''Logo:''' An animation of heart shape is shown in varying different styles is shown off, where at the end of the animation, a star shape appears in the upper right part of it and glows brightly before the screen flashes white. It then brings forth a differently coloured background with revolving Carlton stars (which is a 5-pointed star with another 5-pointed star cut out of it), with the flash receding into a blurry white version of it that focuses in, where it also has the "CARLTON" text along with the ITV (later ITV1) logo below it. A byline reading "www.carlton.com" is also seen below. The logo continues to glow a hazy white aura around the edges.

* The logo exists in both 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios.

* "Subtitles" can also be seen in the top right corner if the following programme or movie contains them.

* For the local idents, the background colour might be {{color|orange}}/{{color|gold}}, {{color|blue}} and {{color|darkviolet|purple}}/{{color|blue}}/{{color|orange}}. The final variant also introduces a transparent star that also appears and quickly rotates around the logo as well.