Virgin Media Television

Background

Living TV Group was a British TV consortium that owned channels such as Living, Bravo, Trouble, Channel One (formerly FTN and Virgin1) and Challenge. It was founded in 1983 as Flextech, initially an oil services group. In 1986, the new CEO Roger Luard shifted the company's focus to become a TV programme provider and by 1990 it had acquired its first media stake for 20% of HIT Communications.

In 1999, talks began about a merger between Flextech and the telecom company Telewest. The merger was agreed upon in December 1999 and the two companies were fully merged by April 2000. Telewest would later merge with rival telecom company NTL in March 2006 to become NTL:Telewest.

When NTL:Telewest bought Virgin Mobile in July 2006, it also licensed the Virgin name and in November of that year it rebranded itself as Virgin Media. As part of this rebrand, Flextech was renamed Virgin Media Television in February 2007. When Virgin Media sold Virgin Media Television to BSkyB in 2010, it did not include the licensing to the Virgin name, thus it was rebranded Living TV Group before being integrated into BSkyB's own operations, with this consolidation being completed by the end of January 2011.

The only 2 remaining channels from Living TV Group that remain on the air today are Challenge and Living, now known as Sky Witness.

Logo (2007-2010)

Bylineless Variant
2007 Variant
2008 Variant
GRB Co-Production Variant
2009 Variant
October Films Copyright Variant
2010 Variant
Superimposed Living Variant
Superimposed Bravo Variant
Superimposed Virgin1 Variant

Original Variant

Later Variant

Later Variant with Original Music

Bylineless Variant

October Films Copyright Variant

Silent Variant

GRB Co-Production Variant

Superimposed Living Variant

Superimposed Bravo Variant

Superimposed Virgin1 Variant

Visuals: On a black background with a red glow at the bottom, a yellow glowing infinity symbol fades in, which quickly fills up with red. The familiar Virgin script logo writes itself in on the left portion as "media television" fades in below. The whole thing zooms out slightly as copyright info fades in below.

Variants:

Beginning in 2009, the Virgin text animates a lot slower and the infinity symbol shines differently. It also lacks the first "whoosh" sound effect. This was used in tandem with the earlier variant until 2010.
There were occasions where the later variant of the logo had the first "whoosh" at the start from the earlier variant.
A bylineless version exists.
Another variant exists with the October Films copyright instead of the Virgin Media Television copyright. The copyright year on this variant is also in Roman numerals instead.
Beginning in 2010, the logo would appear superimposed on backgrounds relating to the channel the programme was produced for, for example Living or Bravo. The logo simply fades in and shines here.
Sometimes, the logo is still.
On some Season 1 episodes of Danny Dyer's Deadliest Men, the GRB Entertainment logo is added above the Virgin Media Television logo.

Technique: CGI by BDA Creative.

Audio: A few synthesized metallic whooshes corresponding with the animation. This is a shortened version of the sound used on the endcaps of most Virgin Media adverts at the time. Composed by Adelphoi Music.

Audio Variants:

The earlier version had an additional whoosh at the beginning of the logo. This version was also used on Virgin Media's TV adverts in 2007.
Sometimes, the logo is silent or has the closing theme of the show.

Availability:

Can be found on most programming made for Virgin Media Television's line-up of channels from the time such as Most Haunted, Four Weddings, Caribbean Cops and Psychic Sally: On the Road.
The bylineless variant was seen on It's Not What You Know, a game show made for Challenge.
The variant with the October Films copyright can be seen on Season 1 episodes of Sun Sea and A&E, which is left intact on Sky airings.
The variant with the GRB Entertainment logo on top was seen on Danny Dyer's Deadliest Men Season 1, Episode 4.
The later variant with the earlier variant's music has so far been seen on Sky airings of Most Haunted Season 14, Episode 2.
The superimposed Living variant was seen on Season 2 episodes of Four Weddings and Britain's Next Top Model Season 6, Episode 1.
The superimposed Bravo variant was seen on Brit Cops Season 4, Episode 5 and Sun Sea and A&E: South Africa (also known as World Cup A&E) Episode 2.
The superimposed Virgin1 variant was seen on Duncan Bannatyne's Seaside Rescue.

Virgin Media Television

Sky Originals

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