4 Schools 1997 – 1999 Branding

Up until 1996 Channel 4 Schools continued to use ITV Schools programmes. Many were revamped but continued to use the same title for example, How We Used To Live and Stop, Look, Listen, to name but a few. Many independent production companies were now supplying the programmes. Programme durations continued to range from 10 minutes to 20 minutes. Suffice it to say that by now most schools had a modern video recorder. From the second half of the nineties, a new home video technology known as Programme Delivery Control (PDC) was being implemented in video recorders. Schools with PDC equipment were at an advantage escpecially if daytime programmes were affected by unforseen circumstances. Prime Minister speeches from 1993 introduced a rare appearance of night-time programming to repeat programmes displaced by speeches.

By 1996 Channel 4 Schools ran regularly overnight (usually from 4am – 6am). Little understood at this time but overnight broadcasts were to set another benchmark that, years from this point, would eventually end daytime schools television! When the 9:00am – 9:30am slot was occupied by an episode of Bewitched during the 1997 – 1999 circles era, a massive power failure during the commercial break knocked out Channel 4 until about 9.07am. The few minutes of interruption that morning delayed the start of Channel 4 Schools until around 9:35am. To facilitate the miss-timings select countdowns were cut to a minimum, where they had otherwise been scheduled differently (10 second breathless intros into programmes). Remarkably, timings got back to normal by about mid-morning (10:30am – 11:00am). Schools with PDC did not miss out due to taping the programmes to cope with the overrun (PDC automatically controls the video recorder based on a programme’s PDC number at the point it is transmitted)

In October 1996 Channel 4 changed their corporate coloured block logo in favour of a monochromatic look. Branding across the channel changed with the revamped Channel 4 logo enclosed in a circle. Their schools television service presentation was also changed. Structurally, it still maintained opening, countdown and closing sequences but static screens from the previous era were replaced with children. From January 1997 (Winter term) a new look featuring children in live motion was adopted. More effects were also applied to the continuity. Children appeared to touch ‘virtual’ screens where images of an educational nature appeared. Different children and virtual scenes appeared as the countdown progressed. There were numerous junctions made to create variation. Channel 4 enlisted their in-house designer to design the Channel 4 Schools junctions. A young Billie Piper also made her TV debut on Channel 4 Schools (Countdown C first image).

Understanding The Junction – At A Glance Designer: Crawford Wilson (Channel 4 in-house) Sequences: 1x 10 second opening junction &rarr 1x 30 seconds (max) countdown &rarr 1x 10 second closing junction Running: January 1997 – April 1999

Some images of teachers notes