Digital on-screen graphic - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

A digital on-screen graphic (originally known as digitally-originated graphic) (known in the UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

and New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

by the acronym DOG; in the US

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

and Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

as a bug; and in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

as a watermark
Watermark
A watermark is a recognizable image or pattern in paper that appears as various shades of lightness/darkness when viewed by transmitted light , caused by thickness or density variations in the paper...

) is a watermark-like station logo

Logo

A logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition...

that many television broadcasters overlay over a portion of the screen-area of their programs to identify the channel. They are thus a form of permanent visual station identification

Station identification

Station identification is the practice of radio or television stations or networks identifying themselves on air, typically by means of a call sign or brand name...

, increasing brand recognition and asserting ownership of the video signal. In some cases, the graphic also shows the name of the current program. Some television network

Television network

A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...

s use an on-screen graphic to advertise later programs in the day's television schedule—this is generally displayed after the opening, during in-program credits, and when returning from a commercial break.

The graphic identifies the source of programming even if it is time-shifted

Time shifting

Time shifting is the recording of programming to a storage medium to be viewed or listened to at a time more convenient to the consumer. Typically, this refers to TV programming but can also refer to radio shows via podcasts....

—that is, recorded to videotape

Videotape

A videotape is a recording of images and sounds on to magnetic tape as opposed to film stock or random access digital media. Videotapes are also used for storing scientific or medical data, such as the data produced by an electrocardiogram...

, DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

, or via a digital personal video recorder such as TiVo

TiVo

TiVo is a digital video recorder developed and marketed by TiVo, Inc. and introduced in 1999. TiVo provides an on-screen guide of scheduled broadcast programming television programs, whose features include "Season Pass" schedules which record every new episode of a series, and "WishList"...

by possibly station identification. Many of these technologies allow viewers to skip or omit traditional between-programming station identification; thus the use of a DOG enables the station or network to enforce brand-identification even when standard commercials are skipped. DOG watermarking also helps minimize off-the-air copyright infringement

Copyright infringement is the unauthorized or prohibited use of works under copyright, infringing the copyright holder's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works.- "Piracy" :...

(for example the distribution of a current series' episodes on DVD): the watermarked content is easily differentiated from "official" DVD releases, and can help law-enforcement efforts by identifying not only the station an illegally copied broadcast was captured from, but usually the actual date of the broadcast as well.

Usage

Many news broadcasters also place a clock alongside their DOG. In the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, Canada

Canada

, Australia

Australia

, and New Zealand

New Zealand

, DOGs may also include the show's parental guideline rating. In Australia, this is known as a Program Return Graphic (PRG). It has also become custom to place text advertising other programs on the network above the station's logo.

During televised sports events, a DOG may also display a few game-related statistics such as the current score. This has led many people in Canada

Canada

and the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

to refer to it as a score bug
Score bug
A score bug is a digital on-screen graphic which is displayed at either the top or lower third bottom of a television screen during the broadcast of a sports game in order to display the current score and other statistics.-United Kingdom:In the United Kingdom, score bugs are commonly known as...

.

Canada

In Canada, networks and channels display logo bugs the same way as the UK and the US, with only minor differences.

Canadian networks often request the simultaneous substitution

Simultaneous substitution

Simultaneous substitution is a practice mandated by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission requiring Canadian cable, direct broadcast satellite and multichannel multipoint distribution service television distribution companies to substitute the signal of a foreign or...

of programs on US networks. The imported feed is either a clean feed without a bug from the US broadcaster, or a direct US feed with the US network's bug present.

When the US network's bug is present, the Canadian broadcaster will either:

cover up the logo with their own (opaque) logo - this strategy is used by CTVglobemedia
CTVglobemedia
CTVglobemedia , was one of Canada's largest private media companies. Its operations include newspaper publishing , television broadcasting and production , radio broadcasting , and their respective Internet properties.Originally established by BCE and the Thomson family in 2001 combining CTV Inc.,...

's TV stations (the logo is normally grey), and NTV
CJON-TV
CJON-DT is a Canadian English language television station broadcasting on channel 21 in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, with additional transmitters and cable coverage throughout the province. It is known on-air as NTV, for Newfoundland Television...

in Newfoundland
Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada. Situated in the country's Atlantic region, it incorporates the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador with a combined area of . As of April 2011, the province's estimated population is 508,400...

), or
"co-brand" the show by placing their logo in a different corner of the screen.

As of mid-March 2011, CTV and "A" no longer cover up the Fox

Fox Broadcasting Company

Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...

logo during American Idol, due to Bell Canada's taking over of CTVgm. But both CTV and "A" now put their logo at the bottom-left corner.

Germany

In the 1980s, public broadcasters started to randomly show logos during programs to prevent video piracy, following the lead of Italian broadcasters RAI

RAI

RAI — Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A. known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Ministry of Economic Development. Rai is the biggest television company in Italy...

and Canale 5

Canale 5

Canale 5 is an Italian private television network of Mediaset, the media branch of Fininvest. Canale 5 was the first private television network to have a national coverage in Italy in 1980, based on a local channel, TeleMilano 58, founded in 1978....

. After the first private stations emerged in 1984, permanently showing their logo most times, the public broadcasters soon followed.
Today practically all TV stations show their logo during the programs and often these are an integral part of their design using fluent motion graphic animations to make the transition between programs, previews and advertising, as well as displaying additional information such as teletext numbers or the name of the following program.
Most logos are transparent during programming though some channels don't. (e.g. kabel eins uses a bright orange coloured logo.)
Also the majority of the channels show their logo in either the top-left or top-right corner of the picture though there are exceptions (e.g. RTL II

RTL II

RTL II is a privately owned, commercial, general-interest German television channel.It was founded as a second-generation commercial broadcaster in 1993. It quickly became infamous for its perceived "trash programming", comprising lots of soft porn as well as shows such as Peep and many...

in the bottom-right or N24

N24 (Germany)

N24 is a television news channel based in Germany. It is owned N24 Media GmbH. It was previously owned and operated by ProSiebenSat.1 Media. N24 provides regular news updates to ProSiebenSat.1 Media properties like kabel eins and ProSieben.-History:...

logo in the bottom-left and date and time in the top-right).

Ireland

The Irish Language channel TnaG first used their DOG during simulcast of QVC

QVC

QVC is a multinational corporation specializing in televised home shopping. Founded in 1986 by Joseph Segel in West Goshen Township, Pennsylvania, United States, QVC broadcasts in five countries as QVC US, QVC UK, QVC Germany, QVC Japan and – QVC Italy to 200 million households...

and their coverage of the Oireachtas

Oireachtas

The Oireachtas , sometimes referred to as Oireachtas Éireann, is the "national parliament" or legislature of Ireland. The Oireachtas consists of:*The President of Ireland*The two Houses of the Oireachtas :**Dáil Éireann...

(Irish Parliament). In 1998 TV3 launch as Ireland's first commercial operator and the first Irish channel to permanently use a DOG in the Left hand corner of the screen. In 1999 TnaG re-branded as TG4

TG4

TG4 is a public service broadcaster for Irish language speakers. The channel has been on-air since 31 October 1996 in the Republic of Ireland and since April 2005 in Northern Ireland....

and began showing their logo during all programmes. In 2002 RTÉ

RTE

RTÉ is the abbreviation for Raidió Teilifís Éireann, the public broadcasting service of the Republic of Ireland.RTE may also refer to:* Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 25th Prime Minister of Turkey...

introduce their DOG however it would only appear for 20 seconds at the beginning of each show and it was there to classify the suitability of the content of the show, in 2004 the dog became a permanent part of the on screen presentation for both RTÉ One

RTÉ One

RTÉ One is the flagship television channel of Raidió Teilifís Éireann , and it is the most popular and most watched television channel in Ireland. It was launched as Telefís Éireann on 31 December 1961, it was renamed RTÉ Television in 1966, and it was renamed as RTÉ One upon the launch of RTÉ...

and RTÉ Two

RTÉ Two

RTÉ Two is a free-to-air general entertainment channel operated by Irish state broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann. RTÉ Two is available throughout the island of Ireland through digital terrestrial service Saorview, VHF and UHF bands, and is also available via satellite to Irish subscribers of...

. RTÉ's classification guide also appears for 20 seconds at the beginning of each show. RTÉ's, TG4's and Setanta Ireland

Setanta Ireland

Setanta Sports Ireland is a subscription based Irish sports channel featuring local and international sporting events. The channel is available on some basic cable packages in the Republic of Ireland, while it is available upon direct subscription to the Setanta Sports package on other networks...

's DOGs appear in the upper right hand corner of the screen, while TV3's DOGs appear in the bottom right hand corner of the screen. RTÉ and TV3 do not use their DOGs during News or Current Affairs Programming. Channel 6 (now 3e

3E or 3-E may refer to:*3e, general entertainment channel operated in Ireland*3rd meridian east*Third edition in the Editions of Dungeons & Dragons*NY 3E, alternate name for New York State Route 104*OK-3E, abbreviation for Oklahoma State Highway 3...

) also displayed a dog during its 2 years on the air, 3e continue to display an on screen logo. The new Digital services from RTÉ also display DOGs/BUGs RTÉjr

RTÉjr

RTÉjr is a children's channel operated by Ireland's national broadcaster RTÉ Television, which targets a demographic between 2 – 6 years of age. The channel launched as part of Saorview's line-up on May 26, 2011. The channel broadcasts daily between 06:00 to 19:00, sharing broadcasting space with...

, RTÉ TWO

RTÉ Two

HD and RTÉ One

RTÉ One

+1. DOGs/BUGs are also used to tell viewers when shows are live or when they are replays. RTÉ use the word "replay" during repeats of live programming while TV3 advise viewers "Text & Comment Lines are Closed", Setanta replace the word "Ireland" with the word "LIVE" to advise viewers that they are watching live events rather than repeats and TG4 places the Irish word "beo" (live) below the number 4 in their logo during live programming. RTÉ refer to DOGs as BUGs. In Northern Ireland UTV began displaying their DOG in the late 2000s. All of the community and local channels in Ireland display a BUG. All BUGs also display 888 for subtitles.

Malaysia

TV3 of Malaysia introduced DOGs to Malaysian television in 1995, and 1997 for RTM (although DOGs has been partially used starting in 1991). Malaysian TV logos are in full-color, the logos are removed during commercial breaks, trade test transmissions and transitions between programs. All Malaysian television stations, show the logos in the top-right of the screen, with the exception of 8TV

8TV (Malaysia)

8TV is a private Malaysian Chinese television station, previously known as MetroVision Channel 8. Metrovision closed on 1 November 1999. 8TV was officially launched on Thursday, 8 January 2004 as 8TV after being acquired by Media Prima Berhad....

, in which the logo is shown in the top left.

Poland

Polish television introduced the logos in 1992 because TP was rebranded to TVP. At that time, TVP was the only broadcaster in Poland with two channels: TVP1 and TVP2. The DOGs of TVP are white, while the PolSat one was in full-color until 1994, local TV broadcasters show the logo in full-color. Polish television removes the logo in commercials, trailers and other non-program broadcasts, except test cards. The TVP logo is always shown in the top right side of the screen.

Serbia

The Serbian national television RTS began showing logos in the early 1990s. Their logo was sometimes turned on manually during certain broadcasts but shortly afterwards remained permanently on-screen. One could notice how they were manually controlled, as the "logo-free" time during the begin of a program varied. Until around 1994–1995 their logos were opaque white and black, presumably due to being inserted into the analog CVBS signal just before being broadcast instead of an analog YUV, RGB or digital SDI signal, while in the mid-1990s they upgraded to colorized but still opaque logos. RTS's predecessor RTB (Radio Television of Belgrade) had DOGs of varying sizes, but rather than being introduced one after another they appear to have been used simultaneously at different broadcast sites. At least three different sizes and styles of their opaque black-and-white logo are known today. On the satellite channel "RTS-SAT", Latin letters were used, but after the destruction of RTS headquarters in 1999 during a NATO air strike, it could be noticed how the logo appeared to have been quickly re-drawn and was being inserted by different equipment as it varied in shape and size, presumably because of the original equipment used to insert it being destroyed. Today RTS has the same opaque color logo from 1999 on RTS-SAT and new translucent logos were introduced in the 2000s for the analog terrestrial programs. Old logos remain on most archived recordings presumably due to lack of a cleanfeed archiving policy in the past, as can be seen in the "Trezor" historical series: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbLujWaoJl0

Trivia: During a football victory in 1990, the logo jumped from the left to the right corner and back many times, presumably due to a technician playing with the DOG inserter out of happiness over the victory. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dI7tkw09NnI

Most local and regional stations and some national commercial broadcasters (Pink, B92, Avala) in Serbia along with station logo also show a digital clock below the logo.

Singapore

Singaporean televisions began showing the logo during television programs in 1994. The television stations show the logo in full-color, and are usually shown in the top right of the screen. Like its neighbouring country, Malaysia, Singaporean channels remove logos during commercial breaks.

Thailand

Thai television started showing the DOGs in 1988, the first channel was TV3. The logos are removed in the commercials and test cards, and usually removed during the transition between programs. TV5 does not remove logo in the movie trailers. In 2000, TV3, TV5 and TV7 added the station's website URL to the logo, and later, in 2007, MCOT and ITV. ITV removed their website URL from the logo on 8 March 2007, when ITV rebranded to TITV, and show the website again in 2009, called TVThai. Thai television logos are in full-color, and usually the logo is in red, green and blue, with the channel name in the middle. TV5 used to show the current status above the logo in 3 colors, green means everything is normal, yellow means there will be something happening later, red means its in bad situation. The status was added in 26 December 2004 (tsunami) and was removed in 2006. In 2007, every channel showed the logo of the King's 80th birthday in the left of screen. Thai TV logos are usually shown in top right side of the screen, the top left side is for the clock, the bottom left side is for the program logo and the bottom right side is for hand language, but in rare cases, the logo is moved to the bottom right side. Logos, tickers, clocks are usually removed when in the royal news at 8pm.

United Kingdom

In the UK, DOGs most commonly appear in the top-left hand corner on British channels. DOGs were first used on satellite

Satellite television

Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...

and cable television

Cable television

Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...

systems in their early days, when broadcasts were unmarked. Channel 5 was the first to use DOGs on an analogue terrestrial channel in 1997. The DOG was originally very bright and noticeable, and was soon toned down. Channel 5 said that the DOG was used to assist viewers in tuning to the new channel once its test transmissions had ceased. Following the rebrand to "five" in 2002 the DOG disappeared until October 2008.

The BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

has a DOG on each of its digital-only channels. In October 1998, it added DOGs to BBC One

BBC One

BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...

and Two

BBC Two

BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...

but following a large number of complaints they were removed just two months later. The DOGs appear in the top left-hand corner on other channels except BBC News (which is bottom left and forms part of integrated information graphics) and its international counterpart, BBC World News. Whilst BBC One HD, BBC Four

BBC Four

BBC Four is a British television network operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation and available to digital television viewers on Freeview, IPTV, satellite and cable....

, BBC HD

BBC HD

BBC HD is a high-definition television network provided by the BBC. The service was initially run as a trial from 15 May 2006 until becoming a full service on 1 December 2007...

and BBC Parliament

BBC Parliament

BBC Parliament is a British television channel from the BBC. Its remit is to make accessible to all the work of the parliamentary and legislative bodies of the United Kingdom and the European Parliament...

have static DOGs, the ones on BBC Three

BBC Three

BBC Three is a television network from the BBC broadcasting via digital cable, terrestrial, IPTV and satellite platforms. The channel's target audience includes those in the 16-34 year old age group, and has the purpose of providing "innovative" content to younger audiences, focusing on new talent...

, CBBC

CBBC Channel

CBBC is a BBC television channel aimed at 6 to 12 year olds. It complements the CBBC programming that continues to air on BBC One and BBC Two. Launched on 11 February 2002, it broadcasts from 7am to 7pm on Freeview, cable, IPTV and digital satellite, occupying the same bandwidth as, but a different...

and CBeebies

CBeebies

CBeebies is the brand used by the BBC for programming aimed at children 6 years and under. It is used as a themed strand in the UK on terrestrial television, as a separate free-to-air domestic British channel and used for international varients supported by advertising, subscription or both...

alongside other channels such as Channel 5 and Nick Jr. feature moving elements. ITV

ITV

ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

uses DOGs on all its channels besides ITV1

ITV1

ITV1 is a generic brand that is used by twelve franchises of the British ITV Network in the English regions, Wales, southern Scotland , the Isle of Man and the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey. The ITV1 brand was introduced by Carlton and Granada in 2001, alongside the regional identities of their...

. UTV

UTV

UTV is a television channel based in the UK region of Northern Ireland. The channel is the Channel 3 or Independent Television licensee for Northern Ireland and is operated by UTV Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of UTV Media.- Terrestrial :* Analogue: Normally tuned to 3 * Freeview : 3...

provide a DOG in the top left hand corner of the screen.

The logos on channels such as Sky Sports

Sky Sports

Sky Sports is the brand name for a group of sports-oriented television channels operated by the UK and Ireland's main satellite pay-TV company, British Sky Broadcasting. Sky Sports is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland...

, Channel 5, BBC Three

BBC Three

, ITV2

ITV2

ITV2 is a 24 hour, free-to-air entertainment television channel in the United Kingdom owned by ITV Digital Channels Ltd, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998, and is available on digital television via satellite, cable, IPTV and terrestrial platforms. The channel has the...

, 3

ITV3

ITV3 is an entertainment television channel in the United Kingdom that is owned by ITV Digital Channels Ltd, a division of ITV plc. The channel was launched on 1 November 2004. ITV3 is the second largest UK multi-channel, second only to ITV2.-History:...

and 4

ITV4

ITV4 is a British television station which was launched on 1 November 2005. It is owned by ITV Digital Channels Ltd, a division of ITV plc, and is part of the ITV network. The channel has a male-oriented line-up, including sport, cop shows and US comedies and dramas, as well as classic ITV action...

, E4, E!

E! Entertainment Television is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by NBCUniversal. It features entertainment-related programming, reality television, feature films and occasionally series and specials unrelated to the entertainment industry.E! has an audience reach of...

, Disney XD, Sky Arts 1 and 2

Sky Arts

Sky Arts and Sky Arts HD is the brand name for a group of art-oriented television channels offering 18 hours a day of programmes dedicated to highbrow arts, including theatrical performances, movies, documentaries and music...

, Sky1, 2

Sky2

Sky2 is a British television channel originally launched on 2 December 2002 as Sky One Mix. Sky2 is now available on Sky, Virgin Media, Smallworld Cable and TalkTalk TV platforms in the UK. It is also available in the Republic of Ireland on the UPC Ireland platform.-Rebrand:Sky One Mix was...

and 3, The History Channel and More4

More4

More4 is a digital television channel, run by British broadcaster Channel 4, that launched on 10 October 2005. It is carried on Freeview, on satellite broadcasters Freesat and Sky, UK IPTV broadcaster TalkTalk TV and on UK cable network Virgin Media and in the Republic of Ireland cable networks...

are almost transparent, whereas others like those on Comedy Central

Comedy Central (UK)

Comedy Central in the United Kingdom and Ireland is a localised version of Comedy Central which first began in the United States in the 1990s. The television channel is available through the Sky, Virgin Media, TalkTalk TV in the United Kingdom, Sky Ireland, UPC Ireland and Magnet Networks in the...

, Eurosport

Eurosport

Eurosport is a pan-European television sport network operated by French broadcaster TF1 Group. The network of channels are available in 59 countries, in 20 different languages providing viewers with European and international sporting events...

, Playhouse Disney, the UKTV

UKTV

UKTV is a digital cable and satellite television network, formed through a joint venture between BBC Worldwide, a commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation, and Scripps Networks Interactive, spun off from The E.W Scripps Company in 2008...

channels, CITV, Channel One

Channel One

Channel One and TV One, or variations thereof, may refer to:*Channel One , a satellite television channel from Bangladesh*BNT 1 , , a Bulgarian-language public television station...

, CBBC

CBBC Channel

, CBeebies

CBeebies

, the Discovery channels, Nick Jr., Nicktoons, Boomerang and Nickelodeon are bright and noticeable. Sky Movies

Sky Movies

Sky Movies is the collective name for the premium subscription television movie channels operated by Sky Television, and later British Sky Broadcasting. It has around 5 million subscribers, via satellite, cable and IPTV in the UK and Ireland...

, Film4

Film4

Film4 is a free digital television channel available in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, owned and operated by Channel 4, that screens films.-Programming:...

and Channel 4

Channel 4

Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

do not use DOGs. Some stations display their on-screen graphics permanently. Sky1 and Dave are examples that remove them during commercials and trailers. In addition to a fixed (sometimes animated) motif, MTV includes the programme title in the top-right hand corner. During widescreen

Widescreen

Widescreen images are a variety of aspect ratios used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than the standard 1.37:1 Academy aspect ratio provided by 35mm film....

programmes, the DOGs on BBC Three, BBC Four, CBBC, CBeebies, E4, 4Music

4Music

4Music is a music and entertainment channel in the United Kingdom and available on some digital television providers in the Republic of Ireland - its web component can be found at with its own and pages. It is the only channel within the Box Television Network to be branded under Channel 4 and...

and More4 stay in the far corner of the screen while most other channels keep theirs within the 4:3 "title safe area".

On British digital systems such as Sky Digital

Sky Digital (UK & Ireland)

Sky is the brand name for British Sky Broadcasting's digital satellite television and radio service, transmitted from SES Astra satellites located at 28.2° east and Eutelsat's Eurobird 1 satellite at 28.5°E. The service was originally launched as Sky Digital, distinguishing it from the original...

and Freeview, where stations have a set EPG

Electronic program guide

Electronic program guides and interactive program guides provide users of television, radio, and other media applications with continuously updated menus displaying broadcast programming or scheduling information for current and upcoming programming...

number and a name displayed across the bottom of the screen when changing channel, DOGs have been deemed unnecessary by some users. Despite this, broadcasters persist with the practice. In response to negative feedback, the BBC has responded, "We believe it is important to ensure that viewers can quickly identify when they are watching a BBC service." It reinforced this position in both 2008 and 2009 following continual complaints to its Points of View
Points of View
Points of View is a long-running television show shown in the United Kingdom on BBC One, featuring the letters of viewers offering praise, criticism and purportedly witty observations on the television of recent weeks...

programme, citing channel identification as the sole reason for the policy. In its website FAQs, Five's stated reason for its use of a DOG is that "the vast majority of channels carry them, most permanently and virtually every channel at some point has one during the day." However, on 21 October 2008, the BBC announced that it was removing the DOG from BBC HD for all films and most dramas, acknowledging that there was an "irritation factor". However, the dog came back on the same day as when BBC One HD launched. More recent additions are graphics which appear near the end of a programme to tell the viewer what's up next, despite this information being available at a touch of a button on digital TV. Many viewers also find this practice annoying, distracting and unnecessary.

United States

From its inception, cable network VH1

VH1

VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...

commonly used a bug in the corner of the screen while broadcasting music videos for copyright purposes. MTV

MTV

MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

also did the same, beginning in 1993. MTV first began using a bug while videos were shown on the program Beavis and Butt-head
Beavis and Butt-Head
Beavis and Butt-head is an American animated television series created by Mike Judge. The series originated from Frog Baseball, a 1992 short film by Judge. After seeing the short, MTV signed Judge to develop the concept. Beavis and Butt-head originally aired from March 8, 1993 to November 28, 1997...

, displaying the show's logo during the videos (but not Beavis and Butt-head's commentary of them).

Digital on-screen graphics have been a permanent part of the broadcasting of sports events

Broadcasting of sports events

The broadcasting of sports events is the coverage of sports as a television program, on radio and other broadcasting media. It usually involves one or more sports commentators describing the events as they happen.-United States:...

since the mid-1990s, when the NFL on Fox

NFL on FOX

NFL on Fox is the brand name of the Fox Broadcasting Company's coverage of the National Football League's National Football Conference games, produced by Fox Sports...

introduced a permanent box at the top left-hand side of the screen showing the score of the game. From that point forward, the display of digital on-screen graphics with NFL games has evolved rapidly, with the addition of virtual first-down markers

1st & Ten (graphics system)

1st & Ten is the name for a computer system that generates and displays one version of the yellow first down line that a TV viewer sees during a live broadcast of a college or professional American football or Canadian football game A competing system that performs the same task using different...

for football games and numerous other miscellaneous graphics.

One infamous use of a digital on-screen graphic was FoxTrax

FoxTrax

FoxTrax was a specialized ice hockey puck with internal electronics that allowed its position to be tracked designed for NHL telecasts on the Fox television network...

, an ice hockey puck that was designed to impose a glowing aura

Aura (paranormal)

In parapsychology and many forms of spiritual practice, an aura is a field of subtle, luminous radiation surrounding a person or object . The depiction of such an aura often connotes a person of particular power or holiness. Sometimes, however, it is said that all living things and all objects...

on the television feed to aid the puck's visibility. The "glowing puck" was a source of derision among hockey fans and was discontinued shortly after its debut.

Connections with sponsor tags

Another graphic on television usually connected with sports (particularly in North America, though not in Europe) is the sponsor tag. It shows the logos of certain sponsors, accompanied by some background relevant to the game, the network logo, announcement and music of some kind.

Use in ham radio

In most countries, hams are required to periodically identify their amateur-TV transmission. Therefore they nowadays frequently overlay their callsign on the signal instead of having a paper card in the background. Most hams use for this purpose homebuilt devices or old consumer character generators. Only rarely one can see real graphics, as most of the time their callsign is written out in the typical "OSD font".

Live DOGs by hobbyists

One of the easiest and most sought-after devices used to generate DOGs by hobbyists is the 1980s vintage Sony XVT-500 video superimposer. This device can luma-key a signal, capture a still frame into memory and then overlay the keyed graphic in one of eight colors onto any CVBS signal. Another method commonly used by hobbyists and even low-budgeted TV stations in former times was Amiga

Amiga

The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...

computers with genlock

Genlock

Genlock is a common technique where the video output of one source, or a specific reference signal from a signal generator, is used to synchronize other television picture sources together. The aim in video and digital audio applications is to ensure the coincidence of signals in time at a...

interfaces.

External links

DOG Watch! - 625.uk.com - Website documenting and questioning the use of DOGs on British television

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Usage

Canada

Germany

Ireland

Malaysia

Poland

Serbia

Singapore

Thailand

United Kingdom

United States

Connections with sponsor tags

Use in ham radio

Live DOGs by hobbyists

See also

External links