Here’s 5 Classic British TV Symbol Signals

So I’ve decided to do a non-music post for once. If you don’t like that, sorry.

Anyway, I’ve always had a long interest in television presentation, including idents and stuff like that, and I’d thought I’d compile a list of five symbols broadcast on television that are used for some sort of signal. I am strict in my usage of the term “symbol”. It literally must be a symbol, so fully blown test cards don’t make the list. Anyway, let’s crack on.

5. Tuning signal (circle and bar) [BBC, 1934-37]

Although regular BBC television began in 1936, it has in fact produced television programmes from its own studios since 1932. As you should know, BBC was the first British television station. This was long before ‘BBC One’ and ‘BBC Two’. It was simply ‘BBC’, and later ‘BBC TV’.

In 1934, the very first simple patterns were broadcast to test the television equipment, and it consisted simply of a simple black circle outline above a black line (a line chart). It was to test the picture ratio and the first wedge-shaped “frequency grating” for testing high-frequency response, and was broadcast from Baird’s 30 line TV system. Apparently, the standard picture ratio for this was 7:3, therefore being “wide screen”, but it was portrait, being taller than it was wide, but it didn’t show up like that on the typical landscape television screen.

It became known as a “tuning signal”, and is a direct predecessor to the much later ‘test cards’, which more or less serve the same purpose, in that they also were experimental screens used to test equipment.  In fact, it probably the first television chart in history.

Although this is a largely unknown symbol, considering its 81 years old, it makes the list as both an important step in the evolution of television and television testing, and for being essentially the first test card in British television history – 33 years before the girl and her toy clown appeared on TV’s first colour test card, the world famous Test Card F.

4. Red button [BBC, September 1999-present]

The BBC, being the innovator that it was and still is, launched the world’s first ever teletext information service in 1974, Ceefax. Broadcasting until the end of 2012 (an impressive 38 years), it seems today like cute nostalgic analogue 70s technology.

But as I said, it lasted a long time. What if I was to tell you it was the BBC’s only teletext information service until September 1999? It’s true. But whilst Ceefax was analogue, the September 1999 teletext was digital! BBC Text was its name, and whilst its name changed to BBCi in 2001, its name was changed again in 2008 to BBC Red Button, which is still its name.

As if you didn’t already know, its accessible on digital television by pressing the red button on your Sky/Freeview/whatever remote and then you get the screens to access news and videos. But this list focuses on the symbols. And the symbol here is the red button. The red button symbol appears in the top right hand corner of the screen when a programme that a BBC channel is broadcasting might have “bonus material” on the Red Button service or even if there is just something interesting on there that the BBC is trying to remote. The red button does not appear alone on the screen, though, for the words “PRESS RED”, or sometimes just simply “PRESS” appear to its left.

It should perhaps be noted that sometimes on the red button service, you can access further services by pressing the ‘blue button’, which again is represented on the screen in the same top right hand corner. For example, when the Red Button service is showing festival coverage, the blue button will give you further options of bands to watch or even a line-up of who’s on.

Anyway, what’s left to say other than that basically every other television channel has adopted the red button for their own digital teletext service.

3. Product placement ‘P’ [Many channels that aren’t BBC, February 2011-present]

Proper, paid-for product placement used to be forbidden on British TV. It was to TV what payola was to raadio. Well, sort of. Close enough anyway.

Well, its not strictly true that it was properly forbidden, because imported television shows from, for example, America that were produced with product placement were always okay to air. Same with films. It was just British television productions themselves that weren’t allowed. But that changed on 28 February 2011, as TV programmes made for UK audience could now be allowed to use product placement. But it had to comply with Ofcom’s rules (Ofcom being the British television regulator). The rules are long, so I won’t list them, but not everything is allowed as product placement, and not everything in some sort of specific such and such a style. They also couldn’t be used in news, children’s, religious, current affairs and consumer advice shows made for the UK, nor could they on any BBC production for obvious reasons (its licence funded, guh!).

To let viewers know if a UK programme has product placement, the TV channel must show the special “P” logo, which is a ‘P’ with an outline of a ‘P’ around it. There are two versions, one with a dark outline ‘P’ and white inner ‘P’, and another that’s the inverse, which are used for light and dark backgrounds respectively.

It is shown at the beginning of the programme, and repeated after any advert break during the programme. And then, finally, it is also shown at the end of the programme. It only features on the UK produced shows, and in [i]all[/i] cases. It usually appears translucent and in the corner of the screen. Exhibit A:

There is the ‘P’ on the opening titles for This Morning. The ‘P’ is higher than the red button because I enjoy the fact its probably ignored by many people even though its always there. In some ways, like the ‘slashed ear’ symbol used on 1986-era BBC idents to tell viewers that there would be subtitles.

2. Cue dot (a.k.a. cue mark) [Most channels, 1970s or 80s?-present]

In cinema, a cue mark (aka cue dot) is a round, black-filled circle put on the right-hand upper corner of the screen (the actual film print) to tell the projectionist that a specific reel of film is ending [as most films come on several reels lasting 14-20 minutes each] and that he must change over to the next one. They appear eight seconds apart at the end of each reel for 4 frames [aka a split second or so].

A similar thing happens with television. And with the same name, as they are usually referred to as ‘cue marks’ or ‘cue dots’. Distinctive to British TV, it is used to inform a control room that some sort of of transition, change or break is about to occur on the TV broadcast, such as an advert break. It looks nothing like the cue mark/dot used in cinema though, instead its a small square in the top right corner of the screen (sometimes left instead of right) with black and white moving stripes, so it looks like a ticker.

Another version is aired by the BBC (who don’t have adverts) which is basically a static square, exclusive to the top left hand corner, with a white-black-white pattern. It basically looks the same as the other one except it doesn’t scroll/move.

But I still haven’t really explained what they are for.

Basically, the first version I referred to (the moving version which is the one not used by the BBC) has been used very, very regularly on both ITV and Channel 4 for decades even. Let’s focus on ITV, which is a regional TV station in that it has both network shows (which air all over the country) and regional shows (which air only in specific regions, and therefore have their own region-specific advert breaks). To tell people in the regional control rooms that advert breaks were coming, they would put the cue mark in the top right hand corner of the screen a minute before an advert break, and it would stay for 55 seconds, finally disappearing 5 seconds before the ad break begins. When it first appears, it gives them enough time for them to sort out the region-specific adverts, and by leaving the screen 5 seconds short of the advert break, it tells them exactly when to cue the adverts too. You can count 5 seconds, right?

Today though, because of automation and playout servers, it is now longer used all the time, and only really used on live TV programmes, where obviously, by being live, there is no certainty when things are going to start, end or change.

In more recent times, there have been [i]two[/i] slightly different cue marks on the screen during the ITV live broadcasts. The regular ones appears where it usually does – in the top right, whilst another one with slimmer bars and slower scrolling appears in the top left. In fact, I am lying by saying this is a new practice, because they’ve been doing it for years, decades. But what is the other one for?

Well as you may know, ITV shows have sponsorship adverts, and these were, and I guess still are, stored on separate tapes/discs than the regional adverts and the main show. So the other cue mark is to cue the sponsorship advert instead. This of course changes the system slightly, because it means this cue mark takes the other cue mark’s time (60-5 seconds before adverts) whilst the original cue mark beigns 50 or 55 seconds before the advert break and then finishes at the end of the part of the programme or 5 seconds into the sponsorship advert.

For the BBC’s static cue mark, its purpose was simply to cue the following programme from either a studio or outside broadcast. They are rarely used today.

1. Red triangle [Channel 4, September 1986-February 1987]

Ah, this didn’t last long. But you need an important back story to explain this one. Basically, Channel 4 began in 1982, and right from the start (from launch night!) it had a reputation for being edgy and showing things that other TV channels wouldn’t have dared. The launch night saw them show their TV film Walter, a shocking, acclaimed film about mental illness, and then the first short film of its flagship comedy show The Comic Strip Presents, namely Five Go to Rehab, taking the classic Famous Five novels and having the main characters appear like the originals on the surface, but really they are tangled with their ignorant racism and cruelness. Channel 4 would go on to have a reputation for showing shocking television, including when they aired Derek Jarman’s fucked up punk film Jubilee in I think 1983, but when they announced in 1986 that they would be showing explicit art films, the public had outcry at this “filth”.

Basically, it was a film season of foreign, avant-garde art house films that had never been show on TV before, or even really been seen in the UK before. After much debate with the then television regulator IBA, they were allowed to show them at very late hours. All of the films were rated ‘X’ by the British Board of Film Censorship (the highest rating, and the equivalent to the ’18’ rating we have today), and their content transcended what had been considered the limit by the UK’s TV censors. They were all graphic, either violently or sexually.

The broadcasts began on 19 September (my birthday) 1986, most of them starting after midnight, and were introduced with the above image of a white triangle with a red outline with the caption “Special Discretion Required”. The TV announcer would tell us of the inappropriate content and tell us we might not want to watch. The white triangle with red outline symbol is known as the “red triangle”, despite it being more accurately a white triangle with a red outline, but whatever. And the films themselves became known as the “red triangle films”. Anyway, after the warning appeared at the start, the red triangle would then be shown in the top left-hand corner of the screen throughout the film.

This was not the first time a symbol appeared on British TV to warn us about content. The 10th episode (“Genocide”) of the brilliant 1973-74 ITV documentary series The World at War had to be introduced with a warning symbol to warn us of the episode’s upsetting content. That was broadcast on 27 March 1974. And before then, ITV’s broadcast of their documentary Life by Misadventure: A Film About the Seriously Burned broadcast on 7 August 1973 had a small white outline of a rectangle appear in the lower left-hand corner of the screen throughout. However, the red triangle was the real pick up of this method.

The thing was, the red triangle did little to calm people down. The idea that Channel 4 would be showing these films was controversial before they even showed them. Campaigns from newspapers and even the National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association bemoaned the entire series. And the huge controversy meant that after the final red triangle film aired on 17 February 1987, Channel 4 would never do this sort of thing again.

However, whilst that was the end of the red triangle symbol, it has been retained somewhat in later times. Even at the time, Channel 4’s sketch comedy show Who Dares Wins featured parodies of the red triangle symbol and films. Long after it had been somewhat forgotten about (and Channel 4 instead drawing controversy from specific television moments, a ‘Banned’ season in 1991, and choosing its avant-garde in the form of, say, an 80 minute film where all you saw was a blue screen), Channel 4 finally went for a fully controversial late night television season again, namely ‘The Red Light Zone’ in 1995, which focused on sex, including both more avant-garde films as well as more straight up dirty content, was still controversial, but the 90s didn’t care for it, so it wasn’t anyway near as controversial as the red triangle films, even though it was more explicit.

Also, notice how they use the “red” term again. There was no actual warning symbol this time but instead there was logos and idents, like:

Years later. 2013, in fact, Channel 4 did a new season of programmes about itself being off-kilter, controversial, edgy and taboo-breaky over the years. The season was called ‘Born Risky’, and its main presentation package (including on the idents, adverts and promo trails) featured a red pyramid:

This is clearly a nod to the old red triangle, which is perhaps the symbol of Channel 4 controversy. A big difference between the red pyramid for Born Risky and the old red triangle was that the risky was literally a 3D model, whether computer generated or not, that was seen from different angles in the “films”.

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Anyway, thanks for reading. I know it wasn’t music but maybe it was maybe still a bit interesting?