MTV

Background
Oy Mainos-TV-Reklam Ab was founded on April 29, 1957 from the idea of producing American-style commercials between Finnish television programs. On August 13, 1957, MTV was launched before Yleisradio began regular broadcasting on its own Suomen Televisio channel. Ever since its launch, the logo for the television company featured an owl and the letters "MTV" stand for Mainos-TV ("commercial television"). Before becoming the Finnish commercial television station in 1993, MTV had programming blocks on both of Yleisradio's TV1 and TV2 channels, and also contained its own programs with commercial breaks. In 1981, MTV began Ten O'Clock news broadcasts on its own programming block and one year later, Oy Mainos-TV-Reklam Ab was renamed to MTV Oy. MTV launched the first nationwide commercial channel in Finland called Kolmoskanava along with Yleisradio and Nokia Oy on December 1, 1986. This gave even more program time to MTV Oy, that towards the 1990's bought the rest of the channel's shares from Yleisradio and Nokia Oy. As a result of the TV channel reform in 1993, all of MTV Oy's programs moved out from Yleisradio's channels and at the New Year's Eve of December 31, 1992, MTV Oy replaced Kolmoskanava with its own commercial television station, MTV3. Not to be confused with the American television channel MTV (Music Television), that was launched on August 1, 1981.

Note: You can find these logos in this compilation.

1st Logo (August 13, 1957-1963)
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Nicknames: "Original Owl", "TV Owl"

Logo: We see an owl zoom in on a white background, with its pupils replaced by the letters "T" and "V". The owl's beak and feathers make up a stylized "M", completing the name "MTV". It's also sitting on a black line, with the part that overlaps with its body being white. The eyes blink a few times, before the owl winks its right eye.

Trivia: The logo was designed by an artist Per-Olof "Peppe" Nyström. The logo idea was centered around the slogan "Buy wisely, buy with caution". The original suggestion for the logo involved "Mercury's helmet with wings", but Nyström then sketched an egg, that ultimately lead into an wise bird, such as an owl in this case.

FX/SFX: Primitive 2D animation.

Music/Sounds: A calm guitar theme that is a re-composed version of Les Paul's single "Brazil" from 1947, specifically the first part. In comparison, the very first three notes from the original single were moved to the end point of the ident.

Availability: Extinct. The logo was used as both opening and closing ident for programming blocks, and as the commercial bumper. Years later, it is featured during the MTV3's 50 anniversary gala in the New Year's Eve of 2007 and the three-part documentary series Taistelu Televisiosta. It is also used in the official YouTube promo video in October 2013.

Editor's Note: The strange look of the logo along with the owl zooming in can give people the shakes. The owl might be cute for some.

2nd Logo (1963-1975)
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Left: The finished ID. Right: The owl in the closing variant.

Nicknames: "Original Owl II", Animated Owl", "Chubby Owl"

Logo: We see a cartoon owl fly onto a branch. The owl then lands on the branch, dipping down for a second before positioning itself, transforming into the logo from before, albeit darker. The owl then winks like it did before, before transforming into the cartoon owl and flying off to the left.

Variants: Two separate variants cut the entire animation in half: the first variant plays the first half of the owl flying to the branch and transforming into the logo and the second variant plays the second half of the owl transforming back and flying away.

FX/SFX: More primitive animation here, but at least it has a bit more movement.

Music/Sounds: A similar guitar theme to the first logo,composed with glockenspiel and guitar.

Availability: Extinct. The main variant is used as opening and closing ident, while separated variants are used as commercial bumpers.

Editor's Note: Some might be surprised in the change of the owl's appearance, but it's harmless, and some people are gonna find it cute.

3rd Logo (December 17, 1975–1988)
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Nicknames: "MTV Owl", "Commercial Owl", "Pop Culture Owl", "Round Owl", "Blue Owl"

Logo: One circle, flashing between blue and white, sticks itself out and lays itself on the background as other circles (colored light blue, light green, dark green, jungle green, violet, pink, purple and mauve purple) form around it, bringing the total up to 48 circles. The same circle flashes again, and zooms into the screen. The circle then "rotates" and reveals the face of a simplistic owl as "Impact" appears below. The owl then winks its right eye.

Trivia:
 * The blue, round-shaped owl logo nicknamed "Mainospöllö" (Commercial Owl), was designed by Ilkka Levonranta, who was on the work list in marketing communications agency "Markinointi Viherjuuri (nowadays known as "Evia Oyj".)
 * MTV Oy's official YouTube promo video from October 2013 featured briefly a custom 16:9 version of the 1983-1988 ident.

Variant: Circa 1983, an updated variant was used with significant modifications. The circle pattern had been changed with the amount of circles being decreased from 48 into 42. All circles also have detailed shading on them and the colors are changed to green, purple, crayola red, brown, orange and light blue. The dark blue owl has also shading, that disappears around it before it winks the right eye. The "MTV" is also in a softer and larger font compared to the original version.

FX/SFX: The circles appearing and the owl being revealed from one of the circles. Despite the primitive animation, it was a relatively new concept for the time.

Music/Sounds: A soft synth theme with an uprising sounder as the circle zooms in, along with two acoustic notes.

Availability: Extinct on TV. Each variant was used as both opening and closing idents for programming blocks on Yle TV1 and TV2. Between 1984 and 1985, there have been occasions when the original 1975-1983 ident was being used instead of the updated 1983-1988 variant. Both two variants can be found in numerous preserved Betamax and VHS recordings from 1980's.

Editor's Note: The original 1975-1982 variant has a choppy zooming effect and a bleak color palette for its circles. It may have worked in the 1970's, but it was gladly updated with the second variant in the early 1980's. Some may not like logos with zooming shapes and synth music, but this should be pretty comfortable to watch. It has become a quite fondly remembered television ident by many in Finland, who have seen it from the mid-1970's to the late 1980's.

4th Logo (1988–1989)
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Left: The finished ID. Right: The trademark owl.

Nicknames: "MTV Owl II", "Commercial Owl II", "Polygon Owl", "Cyberspace Owl"

Logo: In a cyberspace with neon lights, we see three polygon spheres (colored black, blue and white) and a yellow equilateral triangle revolving around each other. All of these parts are then linked together and morph into the blue owl from the previous logo, with detailed shading on it. The owl winks its left eye and then zooms away, disappearing with a flash when it reaches the center of the screen. As this happens, the word "MTV", in a round font with detailed lighting on its background, zooms in from the center with one letter at a time. A dark blue stripe with light lines on it then passes behind the logo and through the screen, while the cyberspace background slowly transitions into a medium blue background with a shadow seen on the edges of the stripe.

Variant: An abridged variant exists, that begins with the blue owl staring towards the screen and winking its left eye before zooming away.

FX/SFX: The background, polygon parts of the owl and the dark blue stripe, in neat CGI.

Music/Sounds:
 * A mystical, yet calm synth tune, that ends on a bombastic note.
 * An abridged version of the tune for the short variant, that consists of the bombastic ending.

Availability: Extinct on TV. Both the long and short variants were used as both opening and closing idents for the programming blocks.

Editor's Note: None.

5th Logo (January 1990-December 31, 1992)
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Nicknames: "MTV Owl III", "Commercial Owl III", "Giant MTV", "MTV-1", "MTV-2", "MTV-3", "Rotating Plates"

Logo: As the screen fades in, we see five plates suddenly popping up on a dark blue background: a yellow one appears on the upper left corner, a white one on the upper right corner, a black one on the lower left corner, a red one down the middle and a light blue one on the lower right corner, leaving an empty space on the top of the middle. The light blue plate spins around, revealing the other side of the plate featuring a "1" with detailed lighting on its font, while the white plate also spins around to reveal its back side stating "TV" on a black and white shaded background. At the same time, a huge "M" with red and milky white lighting on its font flips in vertically, while another "M" with straight gray and white stripes swings down from the top of the screen to overlap the other "M". While this happens, the light blue plate spins around again, as the other side features the trademark owl. After the "M" has finished its animation, the owl winks its right eye and the screen fades to black few seconds later.

Variants:
 * The prototype variant of both MTV-1 and MTV-2 idents aired between January and March 1990 with slight alterations. The logo has somewhat brighter colors compared to the less opaque ones in the original, most notably the bluish background. The ident also fades to black as soon as the owl has winked its right eye.
 * The MTV-2 variant plays much like the original MTV-1 variant, except the number "1" on the light blue plate is replaced by a number "2".
 * The MTV-3 variant features a number "3" on the light blue plate.

FX/SFX: Two different shaded, half-invisible spotlights can be seen rotating clockwise direction on the blue background (one spins slowly and other on medium speed), the spinning plates, the two large M letters and the winking owl itself.

Music/Sounds:
 * A loud, bombastic synth tune.
 * A more relaxed, re-arranged version of the original tune on the prototype variant.

Availability: Extinct on TV, like many MTV idents. The MTV-1 and MTV-2 variants were used as both opening and closing idents for their programming blocks on TV1 and TV2, respectively. The MTV-3 variant is known to exist due to being shown on Kolmoskanava before and after the breakfast television program Huomenta Suomi, as it has yet to be found in any cassette recordings uploaded online! In 1992, the prototype variant was also used occasionally.

Editor's Note: None.