Indent

An an ident is a small clip that helps identify a particular channel brand. The ident is a strongest visual representation of the channel. These are usually played before programmes. Indents represent the channel with Logos and a corresponding colour. Usually the lengths of intend are around 10-20 seconds sometimes during this a voice over is conducted to introduce the channel and the programme. Animation is used in some indents such as E4 where in one of the indents toys and random graphics are being played about on screen. This encourages the audience to believe that the channel is aimed at young people. Some adverts use the same audio for their different indents to make the brand memorable. Indents are developed by marketing departments which involves a lot of money being spent.

Before Sky, viewers only had the choice of watching 4 channels which made the the viewer count equally leveled for the four channels. But In 1989 Sky was invented to give viewers a Multi channel viewing experience. This made all channels in a competition to keep the viewers interested in the channels. Channels introduced graphics and animations in their idents to keep the viewer interacted. Channels were hungry to keep the viewer levels high by improving their quality and entertaining drive to keep viewers on their channel. Sky's release encouraged other media brands to provide multiple multi channel providers.