ITV National Weather
The ITV National Weather was launched in early 1989 and shortly afterwards became one of the first things to be sponsored on UK Television in what would then go on to become one of the longest sponsorship deals too. Powergen sponsored the forecasts from 1989 through until 2007, surviving past the name change to EON after the company was bought, before they finally dropped their involvement. Since then, a variety of different companies have taken on much shorter sponsorship deals with ITV. Thanks to Ashley B for a lot of content on this page.
ITV Weather - 1989
From 1989, and who wouldn't want to know what the weather on LWT's birthday weekend was like? The national forecast from ITV was still very new at this point having only been introduced in February of that year. There were still no visible signs of Powergen as a sponsor this early in life, and the 'ITV National Weather' text at the start would be updated a few months later to incorporate the new corporate ITV logo. Alex Hill presents the forecast here.
ITV Weather - 1994
Powergen began sponsorship of the ITV National Weather later in 1989, and continued this relationship throughout all of the 90s. A weather sequence from 1994 here, using an onscreen graphic set introduced a few years prior as well as a large Powergen logo with notes from the 1989 'Get Ready' jingle playing. By the mid 90s, this was one of the few places where most regions who had dropped the ITV generic look (such as Scottish Television here who'd kept the idents for mere months) would still hear this.
ITV Weather - 1995
Into 1995, and although the sponsorship and intro stings remain the same, new graphics for the forecast have been introduced which would last through until 2001. The intro this time features the Powergen logo cast against material to represent wind, once again with notes of the 1989 'Get Ready' jingle playing.
ITV Weather - 1996
ITV Weather (Cloudy Rain/Nimbella) - 1998
First commissioned in November 1996, one of the most memorable set of sponsorship sequences produced during Powergen's era were the Weathergens. A bunch of elaborately dressed people, each designed to represent a particular weather condition. In this forecast, Nimbella, the Weathergen representing cloudy with rain, leads into a forecast with Martin Davies. The Powergen stings all still featured the initial rendition of the IT\* logo at this point.
ITV Weather (Wind/Norwin) - 1999
ITV Weather (Sun/Gilda) - 1999
ITV Weather (Rain/Brellina) - 2000
ITV Weather (Rain/Brellina) - 2001
ITV Weather (Snow/Shivra) - 2001
ITV Weather (Sun/Gilda) - 2001
ITV Weather (Jon Mitchell) - 2001
ITV Weather (Gilda/Cyan - Sun/Cold) - 2001
ITV Weather (Emotion - Clouds) - 2001
When the Weathergens were finally consigned to history in October 2001, this is one of a series of new sponsor ads that were brought in to replace them. Now the weather is depicted as reacting to the emotions of various 'normal' people onscreen. These replacement sequences were to have a much shorter shelf life than their predecessor - probably because, as all broadcasters will tell you, that 'emotion' branding schtick has such a good success rate!
ITV Weather End (Emotion - Clouds) - 2001
ITV Weather (Snow) - Christmas 2001
ITV Weather sees a few festive additions for Christmas 2001 with weather presenters blowing magic stars and snow in the background. The forecast itself, presented here by Sian, remains a little more traditional, although the graphics have been updated and moved to 16:9 production by now. Even the Powergen sponsorship stings feature the snow here.
