REN-TV

Background
In 1991, Irena Lesnevskaya and her son Dmitriy founded REN TV, an independent production company. The first show, Irony of Fate, or Merry Christmas!, was broadcasted on December 24, 1991. In 1996, Lesnevskaya bought a TV franchise and the company became a TV channel. In 2006, it was partially sold to German RTL Group, while other 70% are still owned by Russian industry holdings. Later that year, the name was changed to Cyrillic and finally, the "tv" was omitted in 2007. The channel was known as the last uncensored source of news, but this is no longer the case. All state channels in Russia are censored and controlled, meaning they are banned from showing news which could spoil any party's image; though this is not officially admitted.

1st Logo (December 24, 1991-1992)


Visuals: On a rotating space background, two sky blue arcs with flashing // lines inside, and the planet Earth appear and spin counterclockwise. When they stop, the sky blue letters "tv", with flashing lines inside, appear and stand between arcs in the upper right part of forming circle. The sky blue word "REN", with same flashing lines as arches and "tv" inside, flies from top and zooms out to the logo. The whole logo then zooms out and the word "Times New Roman " flips upwards from bottom.

Technique: Analog computer animation.

Audio: An uplifting synth-truimphant fanfare with a drum/cymbal beat and a choir tune.

2nd Logo (1992-1998)


Visuals: On a cerulean smoke background, the 3D rough light blue REN tv logo appears from the right and moves to the center. When it stops, the spark appears and makes the logo look smoother, moving along the bottom arch and shining. As the letters "tv " shine, the spark disappears and reappears lower, moving parallel to bottom arc, wiping in the word "ПРЕДСТАВЛЯЕТ " and goes backwards. The logo then flashes, making a starfield background inside of the logo and the screen zooms through it, transitioning to the said starfield background, where the same REN-TV logo appears from the bottom flying in the background, and the screen fades to white.

Technique: CGI animation.

Audio: A calm, slow theme consisting of pipe organs, xylophones, choir, and a synth hit.

3rd Logo (1998-December 27, 2005)


Visuals: On a black background, there are /dark green/ circular ripples. Three seconds later, the logo from before (but the font of its letters is set in a font resembling Arial Bold Italic) forms in the middle of the screen as an outline, and then fills itself with the color as it shines and disappears. After that, the word "Arial Black" appears shining from left to right; then it shines and disappears after a few seconds.

Closing Variant: This variant has a smaller REN-TV logo, along with smaller ripples, appearing in the darkness in the same way as the opening logo. The ripples behind the logo appear only twice; when the logo is revealed and when the logo turns into a golden color with bright shades of blue. During all of this, a copyright stamp "Arial" appears below.

Technique: CGI animation.

Audio: A peaceful theme with tribal drums, and a flute tune which ends with a 3-note jingle.

Audio Variant: A closing variant has a shortened version of the theme including a 3-note jingle, which ends with a ding.

Availability: Can be found on Soldaty (seasons 1-4) and other old DVD releases. Also seen on the first season of the TV series Боец.

4th Logo (September 4, 2005-2006)


Visuals: On a black background, a white glowing vertical line appears by expanding, and flips into the wide tilted oval, in a silver gradient, with the narrower and more tilted oval and the letters "TV" connected to the oval, cut out, while "Arial Black " slides inside the oval cut out from the right, forming the logo of the time. The words "телевизионный канал", in white, appear by zooming out letter-by-letter to the near top-left hand corner when it's almost formed.

Variant: A still version exists.

Technique: CGI animation.

Audio: The shortened version of the theme from the previous logo.

Availability: Seen on seasons 6-9 of Soldaty, Tourists, Corporate history and the 2nd season of Students.

5th Logo (September 4, 2006-August 5, 2007)


Visuals: An glass disc, facing sideways to the house right/stage left, zooms in on a black background and turns to face the camera. The word "РеН" (in ITC Avant Garde Gothic font) fades in on the disc, while the top-right bit wipes out, making a room for the circling light streak and the "ТВ", which zooms in, and the logo shines afterwards.

Technique: CGI animation.

Audio: A synth-string chord accompanied with the iconic 3-note chime.

Availability: Appeared on several series and saved on DVDs.

6th Logo (August 6, 2007-May 3, 2009)
Visuals: On a dark gradient background, a bunch of diagonal  stripes, with rapid-scrolling still frames of shows produced by REN TV inside (ala Marvel Studios), rain down, forming a big diagonal stripe. Then, the stripe transforms into the orange-red ring, which in turn flips to reveal the REN-TV logo of the time, consisting of the white letters "РЕН" (in Franklin Gothic font) on the dark circle with a thick orange-red border around it, in center of the  striped background, then the logo flashes to the guitar chord, becoming a little flat and shines.

Variants: An alternate version exists: On a dark - background, the camera quickly zooms on and stop at orange-red diagonal stripes. One of the stripes turn into the REN-TV logo in same actions as the regular variant (morphing into the ring and into the logo, flattening a little and shining), but this time it's on the right and against the /orange-red/dark red striped background, while the word "представляет" is wiped in on the left by the light.
 * A New Year variant of this version has a snowfall in the background.

Technique: CGI animation.

Audio: An energetic-sounding techno music, ending with the guitar strum.

7th Logo (May 4, 2009-February 7, 2010)


Visuals: In the darkness, some parts quickly forming the gray Frisbee-shaped device with the orange-red LED blinking, which soon shuts off, and flips around to reveal the logo and zooms back quickly to the comfortable distance on the animated background with concentric rings and the word "представляет" appears below.

Variant: A variant without "представляет" appearing exists.

Technique: CGI animation.

Audio: An echoing beep followed by short techno soundtrack with a 3-note synthesized chime.

Audio Variant: The variant mentioned above, doesn't have a 3-note chime.

Availability: Available on a few DVD-released television series. The variant was used as the network ID.

8th Logo (February 7, 2010-February 2011)
Visuals:
 * Nighttime/Black: The REN-TV logo of the time, consisting of an circle with the slanted "РЕН" (in Magistral Extra Bold Italic font) cut out, with  and black shadows, zooms out to the near top on the worn black background. Then, the slanted "ПРЕДСТАВЛЯЕТ" with the  shadow slides in from the left, and everything slowly zooms in.
 * Daytime/Amber: Same as the Nightime version, but with the black logo and "ПРЕДСТАВЛЯЕТ" with the elongnated black shadow and the background with the light on the top.

Technique: 2D computer animation.

Audio: A whoosh followed by the synthesized wind-blowing sound.

9th Logo (February 2011-2013)


Visuals: On a light gray gradient background, the glossy REN-TV logo zooms in slowly and shines, while the word "ПРЕДСТАВЛЯЕТ" wipes in below and zooms in slowly as well.

Variants:
 * A variant has the glowing logo and italicized "ПРЕДСТАВЛЯЕТ" against a black background, flickering in one-by-one.
 * In a New Year variant used between December 2010 and January 2011, the logo is made out of ice against a dark blue background with a snowfall, and the word "ПРЕДСТАВЛЯЕТ" appears and shines.

Technique: CGI animation.

Audio:
 * Regular: An ethereal pad sounder.
 * Variant: A whoosh followed by a laser zap, with the techno rave theme with some male yelling sounds in the background.
 * New Year: An electronic track with some wind chime sounds.

10th Logo (August 2011-April 2012)


Visuals: Against an gradient background, the REN-TV logo (which is more shiny, and the text isn't slanted) pops out while orange circles pop out like radio transmitter waves and shines afterwards, while the white text "ПРЕДСТАВЛЯЕТ" wipes in below.

Technique: 2D computer animation mixed with CGI effects.

Audio: A jazzy tune followed a 6-note chime played on the acoustic guitar.

Availability: Available on a few DVD-released television series produced by Ren-TV.

11th Logo (April 2012-January 2014)
Visuals: Various rotating golden/ bars are seen in the whole screen area; one of them brings up the REN sphere logo from the previous logo. Then, the word "ПРЕДСТАВЛЯЕТ" wipes in below the logo.

Technique: CGI animation.

Audio: An uplifting synth/guitar/piano theme accompanied by an accordion note.

12th Logo (January 2014-February 15, 2015)
Visuals: On a light gray spotlight background, the REN-TV logo of the time, consisting of a gradient circle with a cut out of the letters "РЕН", slowly zooms in the middle of the screen. Light gray circles appear behind the logo, echoing outwards and fading out as the stacked text "Arial" slides in below the logo.

Technique: 2D computer animation.

Audio: A slow, calm 3-note piano theme.

13th Logo (February 16-August 31, 2015)


Visuals: On a black background, an ribbon rises in the middle of the screen and bends to the bottom-right and to the left, forming the abstract uppercase Cyrillic "Р", which looks like the backwards "4", while the white text "РЕН ТВ ПРЕДСТАВЛЯЕТ" flips in below letter-by-letter.

Technique: CGI animation.

Audio: Reversed piano ditty with some metallic sounds, followed by the piano ditty playing normally.