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A digital on-screen graphic, digitally originated graphic (DOG, bug, or network bug) is a watermark-like station
logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wo ...
that most 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, increasing brand recognition and asserting ownership of the video signal. The graphic identifies the source of programming, even if it has been time-shifted—that is, recorded to
videotape Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog or digital signal. Videotape is used in both video tape recorders (VTRs) and, more commonly, videoca ...
, DVD, or a digital personal video recorder such as TiVo. 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 helps to reduce off-the-air
copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, ...
—for example, the distribution of a current series' episodes on DVD: the watermarked content is easily differentiated from "official" DVD releases, and can help identify not only the station from which the broadcast was captured, but usually the actual date of the broadcast as well. Graphics may be used to identify if the correct subscription is being used for a type of venue. For example, showing
Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...
within a pub requires a more expensive subscription; a channel authorized under this subscription adds a pint glass graphic to the bottom of the screen for inspectors to see. The graphic changes at certain times, making it harder to counterfeit. On the other hand, watermarks pollute the picture, distract viewers' attention and may cover an important piece of information presented in the television program. Extremely bright watermarks may cause screen burn-in on some types of TV sets. Usage of visually perceptible embedded watermarks requires program author to have a separate clean copy for archival purposes, but this practice was not common decades ago when watermarking became popular among broadcasters. Watermarks present an issue when archival videos are used for a documentary that strives to create a coherent story. In some cases, watermarks are blurred or digitally removed if possible to clean up the picture. In the absence of visually perceptible watermarks content control can be ensured with visually imperceptible digital watermarks. In some cases, the graphic also shows the name of the current program. Some
television network A television network or television broadcaster is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay television providers. Until the mid ...
s may place additional logos or text alongside their DOG to advertise significant upcoming programs. For example, broadcasters of the
Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a multi ...
often add the Olympic rings to their DOG for a period of time leading up to—and during—the Games.


Usage

Many news broadcasters, as well as a few television networks in such cases, also place a clock alongside their bug. In the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
,
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...
,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
, and
New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...
, DOGs may also include the show's parental guideline rating. In Australia, this is known as a Program Return Graphic (PRG). It has become common to place text above the station's logo advertising other programs on the network. In many countries, some TV networks put "live" in the bottom of the DOG to advise viewers that the program is live, as opposed to a repeat. 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 is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...
and the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
to refer to it as a score bug. In many countries, DOGs are removed in non-programme sections such as commercials and programme trailers, but TV channels in some other countries have not removed them in either of these sections or in all sections (like
Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...
,
Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...
,
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
,
Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making ...
, Taiwan, and some TV channels in
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...
).


Arab world

Arabic TV logos are placed in the top-right and top-left except for Al-Jazeera, whose logo appears on the bottom-right of the screen. Some of the Arabian TV stations hide their logos during commercial breaks and promos/trailers, such as Dubai TV, Dubai One, Funoon, the Egyptian CBC and Nile TV networks, ART Hekayat, ART Hekayat 2, Iqraa and Al-Jazeera. Abu Dhabi TV and MBC1 initially had their logos at the bottom-right corner from their launch until the mid-2000s, when they were moved to the top-right corner.


Argentina

Beginning in the late 1990s, almost all television stations in Argentina had their logos being shown on the top-right of the screen. When Canal 9 relaunched in 2002 to replace Azul Televisión, its logo was shown on the bottom-left of the screen. After intense criticism, Canal 9 moved its logo to the top-right of the screen of which most Argentine broadcasters had almost always followed.


Australia

Australia first introduced the digital on-screen graphic in the early 1990s on Prime7 (then Prime Television) and WIN Television. The
Seven Network The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, and is one of ...
was the first metropolitan network to broadcast digital on-screen graphics on all of their programs in May 1999, following Nine Network in December 2001,
Network Ten Network 10 (commonly known as Ten Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network owned by Ten Network Holdings, a division of the Paramount Networks UK & Australia subsidiary of Paramount Global. One of fiv ...
in December 2004 and the ABC in January 2005. DOGs in Australia most commonly appear in the bottom-right-hand corner of the screen, but sports orientated content that uses the network's sports brand (e.g. Seven Network and Seven Sport) generally appear on the top-right hand corner of the screen.
One 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...
originally placed its DOG in the top-right hand corner of the screen due to it being a sports-orientated channel at the time, but after the 2011 rebrand to allow a wide range of content to be broadcast, the channel's DOG was moved to the bottom-right-hand corner of the screen. The ABC3 and ABC Kids channels originally placed their DOGs in the top-left hand corner of the screen, but moved them down to the bottom-right-hand corner as of late 2013. Datacasting channels and home shopping channels show their DOGs in the top-right hand corner of the screen. DOGs are generally shown in a semi-transparent format, but are shown opaque during in-programme advertisements that take place at the very bottom of the screen. News services have their own DOGs placed where their network's DOG would normally be, but are only shown in an opaque format. News services generally show footage that was captured by another network (usually for sporting stories), but the semi-transparent DOG of the original network is still shown.
Current affairs Current affairs may refer to: News * ''Current Affairs'' (magazine) a bimonthly magazine of culture and politics. * Current affairs (news format): a genre of broadcast journalism * Current Affairs, former name for Behind the News Politics * An ...
programmes and other news programmes that are produced by the network generally show their own opaque DOG at the bottom-left hand corner of the screen, opposite to their network's semi-transparent DOG which still appears (e.g. Nine Network and A Current Affair/ AMV & Seven). Australian TV networks hide all of their DOGs during advertisement breaks, news and live sport programs. They only reappear during the promotion for a programme that will be shown on the station and are not shown during any other advertisement material. At times, networks will superimpose a semi-transparent watermark immediately adjacent to their DOG to advertise an upcoming special event that the network will be broadcasting (e.g.
Network Ten Network 10 (commonly known as Ten Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network owned by Ten Network Holdings, a division of the Paramount Networks UK & Australia subsidiary of Paramount Global. One of fiv ...
superimposed an advertisement for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics on their primary channel (Ten),
10 Bold 10 Bold is an Australian free-to-air digital television multichannel owned by Network 10. It originally launched on 26 March 2009 as One HD with a focus on broadcasting sports-based programming and events, but rebranded to One in April 2011 to ...
, and 10 Peach as they were to be the Australian broadcaster of the event), or to advertise a popular upcoming programme. In addition, during ABC's ABC News Breakfast, Seven's Sunrise and 10 Peach's Toasted TV (prior to 2018), a digital clock appears on the bottom right-hand corner of the screen while Nine's Today Show and Ten's Studio 10 appears on the bottom left-hand corner of the screen. Currently, ABC, Seven, Prime, Nine, WIN and 10 are on the bottom-right-hand corner, while SBS is on the top-right hand corner.


Austria

ORF, the Austrian public broadcasting agency, introduced digital on-screen graphics in 1992 on both television channels operated back then. Before, only the abbreviation "ORF" was shown randomly for several minutes during the programming in the top right corner of the screen, styled in a simple white sans-serif typeface. Nowadays, all Austrian television channels, both public and private, are required by law to display a digital on-screen graphic continuously in order to enable channel identification. However, during commercial and continuity breaks, it is forbidden to show digital on-screen graphics, to allow a further distinction between paid commercials or station announcements and programming content. The position on the screen varies between the top left and the top right corner: for instance, public broadcaster ORF shows the digital on-screen graphics on
ORF1 ORF 1 (''ORF eins'') is an Austrian public television channel owned by ORF. It was the first television channel in Austria, started in 1955. ORF 1 is one of four public TV channels in Austria. It is funded by a mixture of advertising revenue an ...
(first channel) in the top left corner, on ORF 2 (second channel) in the top right corner and on ORF III (third channel) again in the top left corner. Commercial broadcaster ATV places the graphic in the top right corner on its main channel and in the top left corner on its additional channel ATV II. Most other commercial channels, such as Puls 4, show their digital on-screen graphics in the top right corner of the screen.


Belarus

In Belarus, digital on-screen graphics were introduced in 1992. Until 1997, national television station
Belarus-1 Belarus 1 ( be, Беларусь 1) is a state-owned television channel in Belarus. It is the oldest television channel in the country. The channel is on air from 6:00 am to 2:00 am on the next day, in contrast with most public channels in Euro ...
showed their digital on-screen graphics in the bottom right corner of the screen. It was originally just text saying "ТБК", with the Б being red and the Т and К being white. In 1996, this changed to a semi-transparent black box with white text saying "БТ" in it. In 1997, the digital on-screen graphics for Belarus-1 was moved to the top left corner of the screen, with the digital on-screen graphics now being in color again for the first time since 1996. In 2011, the digital on-screen graphic moved to the top right corner, where it stays today.


Belgium

Dutch-language Belgian channels (i.e., those operating in
Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to cultu ...
) place their logo bugs at the top left corner, much like their counterparts in the
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
. Examples are the public broadcaster in Flanders, VRT, and the Flemish commercial broadcasters, DPG Media and De Vijver Media. However, French-language Belgian channels (i.e., those operating in
Wallonia Wallonia (; french: Wallonie ), or ; nl, Wallonië ; wa, Waloneye or officially the Walloon Region (french: link=no, Région wallonne),; nl, link=no, Waals gewest; wa, link=no, Redjon walone is one of the three regions of Belgium—al ...
), such as public broadcaster RTBF and commercial broadcaster RTL-TVI, use the bottom right corner of the screen, in contrast to French-language TV channels in France, Switzerland, etc., which use the top right or left corner.


Brazil

In Brazil, digital on-screen graphics were introduced in the mid-1990s and are always used by all channels ( free and
pay Pay may refer to: *A wage or salary earned for work *The process of payment Places * Pay-e Borj, a village in Lorestan Province of Iran * Pay-e Kal-e Garab, a village in Ilam Province of Iran * Pay-e Rah, a village in Khuzestan Province of Iran ...
). In most free-to-air channels, the logos are located on the bottom-right-hand corner of the screen (except for RedeTV!,
TV Gazeta Rede Gazeta (), also known as TV Gazeta or only Gazeta (in English, (the) Gazette Network) is a Brazilian television network based in São Paulo. History TV Gazeta was founded in 1970 in São Paulo. It is part of Cásper Líbero Foundation. I ...
,
Rede Bandeirantes Rede Bandeirantes (, ''Bandeirantes Network''), or simply known as Band (), is a Brazilian free-to-air television network. It began broadcasting on May 13, 1967 on VHF channel 13 in São Paulo. Its founder was businessman João Saad with t ...
, and GloboNews, whose logos are placed on the top right corner of the screen; TV Cultura's logo moved from top left corner to bottom right corner of the screen in 2009) and in all free channels they are usually transparent, but if some program or event is being broadcast live or exclusive or if some archived footage is shown, they become colorful. Most pay channels usually have the logos on the top right corner of the screen. In some pay channels, the logos appear even in
commercial break A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...
s, but they become transparent in this situation.


Canada

Logo bugs are used by Canadian broadcasters in a nearly identical fashion to U.S. broadcasters. However, a complication emerges when Canadian broadcasters
simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simul ...
U.S. programming (a frequent practice among broadcast television networks, intended to invoke the
simultaneous substitution Simultaneous substitution (also known as simsubbing or signal substitution) is a practice mandated by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) requiring broadcast distribution undertakings (BDUs) in Canada to dis ...
rules requiring TV providers to substitute the feeds of U.S. broadcast channels with those of local, Canadian broadcast channel, if they are airing identically scheduled programming). While pre-recorded programs (e.g. dramas, sitcoms) can be delivered to the broadcaster by their distributor and played out locally (without depending on taking a feed from a U.S. network), live programs may not always have a clean feed available that is free of the U.S. network's bugs and imaging, necessitating the use of a dirty feed from the network instead. In these scenarios, some channels—including, most frequently, CTV and CTV Two, as well as its Bell Media sister channels—covered the U.S. network's bug with their own, opaque logo. However, Bell has since ceased this practice, and the majority of broadcasters "co-brand" the dirty feed by placing their own bug in a different corner of the screen than the U.S. logo. Some channels in Canada (such as YTV or Teletoon) used to display a ten-second animation as the screenbug that would play every segment after 1–3 minutes. This practice was mostly discontinued in 2012. Family Channel did this practice through 2017 however.


Chile

Chilean television stations started showing their logos permanently in the 1990s, though some channels, like Televisión Nacional de Chile, have made some tests with DOGs as early as 1981. During that time, logos were placed in the bottom-right of the screen. La Red was the first television broadcaster to move their logo to the top of the screen. Additionally, between 1992 and 1994, the logo shown as a DOG would replace the letter "E" in its name with any other object, depending on the context (for example, a soccer ball would replace the "E" during sports-related programming), something that was part of their general branding back then. In 1997, due to a logo change, the logo was placed at the top-left, and later due to the same reason, moved to the top-right until now. Other broadcasters, such as Mega, which its logo being originally shown on the bottom-left of the screen, moved to the top-right of the screen due to similar reasons; Canal 13, in a similar manner, moved its logo from the bottom-right to the top-right corner in 2002. Chilevisión has continued to have its logo being shown on the bottom-right of the screen until 2007, when it moved to the top-right of the screen, of which other television channels in Chile had followed in the previous years. Beginning in the late 2000s, separate logos are used for network newscasts; they are usually placed in the bottom-left corner and are shown in conjunction with the network logo.


China

TV stations in mainland China always place their logo (usually semi-transparent and sometimes animated) in the top-left corner of the screen in full colour or grey-scale, regardless of the content being broadcast (programme or advertisements), some channels like Phoenix Television hide their logos during commercial breaks; although in some rare cases, the DOG may be placed elsewhere to avoid covering the score bug during the broadcast of a sporting event. China introduced logos in 1983 on bottom-left corner of the screen but was used only during commercial breaks and clock idents. Later
China Central Television China Central Television (CCTV) is a Chinese state- and political party-owned broadcaster controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Its 50 different channels broadcast a variety of programing to more than one billion viewers in six lan ...
(CCTV) introduced permanent DOGs for all programmes in 1992, on the top-left corner of the screen. China also displays clock on top-right corner of the screen for 1 minute between 59:30-00:30 & 29:30-30:30 time in transition between programmes.


Czech Republic (Czechia)

Almost all Czech (and Slovak) TV channels place their logos in the top left corner of the screen, irrespective of the broadcasting network. The public television broadcaster Česká televize and the major commercial TV broadcasters ( TV Nova, FTV Prima and TV Barrandov) all place their logos in the top left corner, as do many pay channels from pan-European broadcasters (though some use the top right). This is also the case with Slovak TV channels, some of which are broadcast in the Czech Republic. The only exceptions from the major local broadcasters are the Nova Sport channels (Nova Sport 1 and 2, SD and HD), which place their logos in the top right corner instead of the usual top left, since score graphics for many sports use the top left corner and the public news broadcaster ČT24 between 2007 and 2010, where placed their logo in the bottom left corner.


Denmark

Unlike Scandinavian neighbours Norway and Sweden, which almost exclusively use the top right corner for their DOGs, TV channels in Denmark may use either the top left corner or the top right for their DOGs. The public broadcaster DR and the state-owned commercial broadcaster TV 2 display their logos at the top left, as does commercial broadcaster
Discovery Discovery may refer to: * Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown * Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown * Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence Discovery, The Discove ...
with its TV channels such as Kanal 4 and Kanal 5. However, TV3 and other Viasat channels owned by
Nordic Entertainment Group Viaplay Group AB, formerly known as Nordic Entertainment Group AB (NENT Group), is a Swedish media and entertainment company headquartered in Stockholm. The company operates the namesake video streaming services Viaplay and Viafree, advertisi ...
(formerly part of Modern Times Group) display their logos at the top right.


El Salvador

In the mid-1980s, Canal 12 started with a Video Cassette Recording text as "TV-12" white, and TCS's Canal 4 used as the channel's logo on the top-left position, both exclusively in live events. Telecorporación Salvadoreña (TCS) channels began using exclusively on newsreels and live events by 1987, and TVCE (today TVES), a Salvadoran public broadcaster began using as a VCR text with a cyan and sometimes yellow color on live in early-1990s. TCS Channels began using in 2000, for each one of the three channels permanently as a normal broadcasting; other channels did the same thing as today, commonly on the top-right screen. Each September the logo uses as an Independence Month with a Salvadoran flag for TCS Channels, and each December the logo uses as a Christmas decoration. Some television channels and programs uses as a transparent logo, a digital clock or both such as Agape TV.


Finland

Nelonen was the first channel in Finland to use a DOG from its launch in June 1997.
MTV3 MTV3 ( fi, MTV Kolme, sv, MTV Tre) is a Finnish commercial television station. It had the biggest audience share of all Finnish TV channels until Yle TV1 (from Yle) took the lead. The letters MTV stand for Mainos-TV (literally "Advertisem ...
started to use a DOG in the beginning of 1998, and Yle introduced DOGs in its two channels in August 1998. Public broadcaster Yle moved its logos from the top right corner to the top left when it rebranded on 5 March 2012. However, the commercial TV channels, like MTV3 and Nelonen, place their logos at the top right. This is exactly the opposite of what is seen with the
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
, where the public broadcasting consortium NPO places its logo bug at the top right, but the main commercial broadcasters use the top left. Most logos on free channels are small, white or gray and opaque, but some have colors like
National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widel ...
and TLC.


France

La Cinq La Cinq () was France's first privately owned free-to-air television network. Created by politician Jérôme Seydoux and Italian media mogul Silvio Berlusconi, the network broadcast from 1985 to 1992. The contract for France's fifth terr ...
was the first channel in France to use the DOG when it launched in February 1986; it remained on the bottom-right corner until the channel ceased operations in April 1992. After the first private channels launched between 1986 and 1990, DOGs began to be used on the public television channels operated by France Télévisions and TF1, where they were placed on the top right corner. Currently, the public TV broadcaster France Télévisions, as well as the majority of French commercial TV stations (such as the TF1 and M6 networks), display their logos at the top right corner of the screen. However, some channels, such as Franco-German cultural channel Arte, use the top left corner. During programming blocks aimed at children, TF1 and international channel TV5 uses another DOG.


Germany

In the 1980s, public broadcasters started to randomly show logos during programs to prevent video piracy, following the lead of Italian broadcasters RAI and Canale 5. 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 do not. (For instance, kabel eins uses a bright orange coloured logo.) TV channels generally may show their logos at the top left or top right of the screen, depending on the network. Public broadcaster ARD’s national channels display logo watermarks at the top right corner, but the individual regional broadcasting organisations’ TV channels may show their logos at either the top left or the top right (for instance, BR and HR’s TV channels use the top left for their logos, but MDR Fernsehen and RBB Fernsehen use the top right). Commercial network
ProSiebenSat.1 Media ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE (officially abbreviated as P7S1, formerly ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG) is a German mass media & digital company. It operates in three segments: Entertainment, Dating and Commerce & Ventures. The company is listed on the Fran ...
, like ARD, uses the top right corner for all its channels, such as ProSieben, Sat.1, kabel eins and sixx. (However, Sat.1 used the top left corner until 2001, and again between 2008 and 2009.) But secondary public broadcaster ZDF and commercial broadcaster Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland use the top left corner for their channels, such as ZDF, RTL or VOX (exceptions in RTL's case are youth-oriented commercial channel RTL Zwei and news channel n-tv, whose logos are displayed at neither the top left nor the top right but the bottom right). News channel Welt (formerly N24) does not use any of these corners for its logo: its logo is placed in the bottom left corner. Another channel using this corner is documentary and parliament channel Phoenix, which moved its logo from the top left to the bottom left during its June 2018 rebrand. Channels (except Phoenix) that are collaborations between ARD and ZDF (e.g., KiKa), or between ARD, ZDF and foreign broadcasters (e.g., Arte, a collaboration with France Télévisions, and 3sat, a collaboration with
SRG SSR The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (german: Schweizerische Radio- und Fernsehgesellschaft; french: Société suisse de radiodiffusion et télévision; it, Società svizzera di radiotelevisione; rm, Societad Svizra da Radio e Televisiun; SRG ...
and ORF), use the top left corner.


Greece

On all Greek network television networks, DOGs appear on the top left corner of the screen, with the exception of
Skai TV Skai TV ( Greek: ΣΚΑΪ) is a Greek free-to-air television network based in Piraeus. It is part of the Skai Group, one of the largest media groups in the country. It was relaunched in its present form on 1 April 2006 in the Athens metropol ...
, which moved its logo from the top left to the top right as part of its rebrand in October 2018. Since 1997, almost all television stations in Greece keep their logos on the screen their logos during advertisements, although in channels such as
Skai TV Skai TV ( Greek: ΣΚΑΪ) is a Greek free-to-air television network based in Piraeus. It is part of the Skai Group, one of the largest media groups in the country. It was relaunched in its present form on 1 April 2006 in the Athens metropol ...
the logo becomes transparent.


Hong Kong

Hong Kong TV introduced DOGs in 1994. Hong Kong DOGs can be both color & semi-transparent & always removed during commercial breaks.
Television Broadcasts Limited Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) is a television broadcasting company based in Hong Kong SAR. The Company operates five free-to-air terrestrial television channels in Hong Kong, with TVB Jade as its main Cantonese language service, and TVB ...
(TVB) placed their logos at top-right corner of the screen while now-defunct Asia Television & other channels placed their logos at top-left corner of the screen. Sometimes, weather information, date & time clock had been used alongside DOGs in news programmes, continuity & live broadcasts.


Hungary

Hungarian DOGs were first introduced in
MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
’s channel M2 from 1989, but they were very rare until 1991. M2 was the first network to always display its DOG, which was a quarter-circle (which was bright and noticeable). It first showed up in 1992 but it changed in 1994 due to logo change. This was followed by many broadcasters and TV channels. Most DOGs are semi-transparent (either in colour or grayscale), but some including Hír TV,
PRIME A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways ...
, Viasat 3 and their sister channel Viasat 6, and the long-defunct TV3 have opaque, colour DOGs. By and large, the corner used by the logo of a TV channel depends on the network. Public broadcaster
Magyar Televízió Magyar Televízió (''Hungarian Television'') or MTV is a nationwide public television broadcasting organization in Hungary. Headquartered in Budapest, it is the oldest television broadcaster in Hungary and today airs five channels: M1 HD, ...
moved its channels’ logos from the top right corner to the top left during its 2012 corporate rebrand, much like Yle in Finland, which also rebranded in that year, and their logos had changed from colour to gray-scale beginning in March 2015. MTV's thematic TV channel, M4 Sport, due to it being a sports channel, shows its logo in the top right corner. RTL Hungary's channels, such as
RTL Klub RTL (formerly: RTL Klub) is a Hungarian free-to-air television channel owned by RTL Group. The channel began broadcasting three days after its main rival TV2, one of Hungary's first commercial TV channels. History Since its start, RTL Klub ...
, RTL II,
Cool TV Cool TV is a Hungarian television channel owned by RTL Group. It was launched as m+ on 15 September 2003, but a year later, it was relaunched as Cool TV on 4 September 2004. History 2003–2010 Originally Cool TV had the target audience of ...
and Film+, have always placed their logos in the top left corner. Since 2021, RTL Klub hide the
rainbow flag A rainbow flag is a multicolored flag consisting of the colors of the rainbow. The designs differ, but many of the colors are based on the spectral colors of the visible light spectrum. The LGBT flag introduced in 1978 is the most recognize ...
in the left side of the logo during
Pride Month LGBT Pride Month is a month, typically in June, dedicated to celebration and commemoration of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) pride. Pride Month began after the Stonewall riots, a series of gay liberation protests in 1969, and ha ...
events. TV2 Csoport's channels, such as TV2, SuperTV2 and FEM3, have always used the top right. Age ratings have been included since 17 October 2002 onwards at the bottom of the screen as well as before the start of the program, but some channels dislike the requirement and use a different age rating system instead (mostly the Romanian ones, like the DIGI's educational channels, RTL (previously), and the independent TV2's sister channels) or none at all. Since July 2021, channels are required to depict the age rating 'circles' even during advertisements (the same for a single package, decided by the highest rated ad, e.g. if a commercial of a sexual medicine is being aired, the whole pack receives 18+ ratings and should be broadcast between 21:00 and 05:00 local time). This rule is in connection to the so-called '''anti-pedofile, according to its many critics, anti-LGBT law. Many channels hide their logos in commercial breaks, such as the RTL network's channels, but some such as the independent TV2 and its sister channels include them during ads. Hungarian version of Comedy Central and Hungarian-voice simulcast of the sports network Eurosport 2 are the only channels which have used all of their four corners of the screen during their lifetime, depicting their bugs. At the humor channel it's due to the rebrands, while at the latter, it's because of the urge not to cover the graphics of the licensed broadcasts like
Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footb ...
(top left corner until
2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...
when licenses had moved to Sport TV), FIS Ski Jumping World Cup (usually top left corner) or PGA golf events (bottom left or bottom right corner, even
online In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed "on line" ...
). However, Eurosport 2 has been using originally the top right corner to its DOG. During the lifetime of the now-defunct Hálózat TV (Hungarian for ''Network Television''), while the original 24-hour cable channel placed their DOG in the top left corner, local (mainly
free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscripti ...
) television stations being subscripted to the evening programming, mainly the news and one or two pieces of movies, put the channel's own logo into the top right corner. Hálózat used bottom-left for ratings which isn't common in Hungary, even nowadays. Hálózat TV ceased broadcasting by January 2013.


Iceland

All Icelandic TV channels, such as
RÚV Ríkisútvarpið (RÚV) (pronounced or ) ( en, 'The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service') is Iceland's national public-service broadcasting organization. Operating from studios in the country's capital, Reykjavík, as well as regional ce ...
,
Stöð 2 Stöð 2 (literally Station 2) is an Icelandic subscription television channel, owned and operated by Sýn. Founded in 1986, it was the first privately owned television station in Iceland following the lifting of the state monopoly on televisi ...
and Stöð 3, place their transparent logo bugs in the top right corner of the TV screen, often with an 888 bug for subtitles.


India

The first on-screen logo in India was introduced in 1984 by DD2 Metro (now DD News). It was white and slightly transparent. All Indian TV channels have on-screen logos. They are always full-colour, never transparent, and they are almost never removed during commercial breaks (though the channels of the South Indian Sun TV Network did so until 2015). The great majority of Indian TV channels place their logos in the top right corner of the screen, though there are exceptions. The corner used may be broadcaster-dependent. Among the big national broadcasters: * Channels from the
Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
network always use the top right corner, without exception. *
Star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...
channels also use the top right, with the exception of
National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widel ...
and
Nat Geo Wild National Geographic Wild (shortened as Nat Geo Wild and abbreviated NGW) is a global pay television network owned by National Geographic Partners, a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (73%) and the National Geographic Society (27%) ...
, which use the top left corner in line with their international counterparts. Past exceptions include The History Channel, whose logo was placed in the top left until it rebranded to Fox History & Entertainment in 2008; the now-defunct
Channel V Channel '' ("V" standing for the letter, not the Roman numeral "5") is a Chinese and former Asian pay television musical network originally launched by Star TV Hong Kong (now Fox Networks Group Asia Pacific). It was part of the unit of Disney ...
, which used the top left between 2013 and 2016; and
Nat Geo People Nat Geo People was an international pay television channel owned by National Geographic Partners, a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (73%) and the National Geographic Society (27%). Targeted at female audiences, with programming fo ...
,
Nat Geo Music Nat Geo Music is a television music channel operated as a part of National Geographic Global Networks, which is a business unit of National Geographic Partners (a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company and the National Geographic Society) ...
and
BabyTV BabyTV (stylised as Baby''tv'') is a multilingual international television channel for babies, toddlers and preschoolers aged 3 or lower, owned by Fox Networks Group, a subsidiary of the Disney International Content and Operations division of T ...
, which will be withdrawn from India in June 2019. * TV18 and Viacom18 channels use the top right corner as well, with the exceptions of regional-language movie channels (e.g., Colors Kannada Cinema and Colors Gujarati Cinema) as well as Colors Super, which have shown their logos at the top left corner since 2018; and VH1, which has always used the bottom right corner. Also, CNBC-TV18, CNBC Awaaz and CNBC Bajar use the bottom right. Moreover,
MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
showed its logo in the top left corner until 23 April 2018, when it was moved to the top right (its HD version, launched in 2017, has always used the top right). * Unlike most other major networks, the Zee Network’s ''non-news'' channels containing ‘Zee’ in their name display their logos at the top ''left'' corner and not the top right. This has been the case since 15 October 2017, when almost all the Zee-branded TV channels of the Zee network rebranded with a new logo and, in many cases, a new graphics package and look. Before then, the logos were shown at the top right, as with other broadcasters. (News channels’ logos—i.e., logos of channels owned by
Zee Media Corporation ''Zee Media Corporation Limited'' (abbreviated as ZMCL; formerly Zee News Limited) is the news broadcasting company of the Essel Group which is controlled by Subhash Chandra. The company is engaged mainly in the business of broadcasting of ne ...
—stayed put at the top right corner, with the exception of WION, which uses the ''bottom'' left.) All the major Zee-branded channels—such as Zee TV, Zee Cinema,
Zee Café Zee Café is an Indian pay television channel owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. The channel mainly syndicates popular American and British television shows to appeal to the English-speaking population of India. History Zee English was ...
and the regional-language channels like
Zee Tamil Zee Tamil is an Indian Tamil language general entertainment pay television channel owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. The channel started broadcasting on 2008 and is available internationally. The channel broadcasts from Guindy, Chennai ...
, Zee Telugu, Zee Marathi and Zee Bangla—show their logos at the top left; moreover, the Odia-language channel Sarthak TV rebranded to Zee Sarthak and moved its logo to the top left. * Among the Zee channels not containing the word ‘Zee’ that moved their logos to the top left during the big rebrand in 2017 was English movie channel Zee Studio; when it was renamed to &flix on 3 June 2018, the logo remained at the top left. Moreover, Hindi movie channel &pictures has always shown its logo at the top left since its launch in 2013. However, &privé HD, Zee's other English movie channel, and Hindi entertainment channel &TV place their logos at the top right corner. Other Zee channels not containing the word ‘Zee’, such as Zing and Living Foodz, use the top right corner. * In stark contrast to the national broadcasters, the channels of major South Indian broadcaster Sun TV Network have always shown their logo at the bottom right corner, without exception. Furthermore, the Tamil-language Jaya and Kalaignar networks always show their logos at the bottom left corner, as opposed to Sun's bottom right.


Indonesia

Indonesian television DOGs have been occasionally used since 1982. At that time, TVRI (with its main channel) was Indonesia's only television channel. When
RCTI RCTI (''Rajawali Citra Televisi Indonesia'') is a West Jakarta-based Indonesian free-to-air television network. It is best known for its soap operas, celebrity bulletins, news, and sports programmes. It was first launched in 1989, original ...
began broadcasting in 1989, the DOG began to be used at the same time. Today, in most national networks, the logo usually appears in the top-right hand corner. Some networks placed its logo in the top-left hand corner, such as networks owned by Media Nusantara Citra (e.g. RCTI,
MNCTV MNCTV (legally PT MNC Televisi Indonesia,GTV, and iNews) as well as Indosiar. Only a few of them – most are news networks – displayed its logo in either the bottom-right hand corner (such as Metro TV, CNN Indonesia and CNBC Indonesia) or the bottom-left hand corners (such as BeritaSatu). The DOGs of local stations differ by each station, either in the top-right hand or the top-left hand corners. Most of the networks/stations had their DOGs placed on-screen in color. Few appeared in transparent format, e.g. NET. (since the first broadcast in 2013), ANTV (since 20 July 2012 until 24 March 2018) and TVRI (since 2019). Trans TV is the first to place its transparent logo since it began broadcasting in 2001 until 2013 when the network logo changed. Some DOGs featured a moving element, most with a shining effect. The network may have moved their DOGs to the other part of the screen: TVRI was the first to move theirs to the bottom-right hand corner in 1999 (the year the network changed its logo, used until 2001 when the new logo moved to upper-right), followed by Metro TV in 2010 and iNews TV (former name of iNews) in the end of 2016, when the logo moved to upper-left hand corner. TVRI, RCTI, SCTV and TPI (former name of MNCTV) while using the text logo at the start of their broadcast, did not begin to use their own logo on the screen until the end of 1990 for RCTI and SCTV, 1995 for TPI, and 1996 for TVRI. Unlike neighboring countries, since 2004 most networks/channels never leave their DOGs during commercial breaks, instead the logo becomes transparent and usually light grey (before 2004, DOGs were removed during commercial breaks and sponsor bug appears during program show with rating approximately 2-3 minutes beforehand since 1982 until 1990s, but since 2000s until 2004 most of networks/channels removed its logo with rating 10-15 second beforehand, usually removed/appeared with fade in/fade out effect). Indosiar is one of channel which still removed its logo 15 seconds beforehand although Indosiar have used its transparent logos during commercial breaks (since 2005) until 2012. Trans TV is the first TV channel that never leaves its logo during commercial breaks since 2001, the practice later followed by other networks as well as local channels. For the station identification, the logo will remain on-screen, but sometimes it will disappear prior to the identification. However, not all (mainly local or pay) TV channels follow, as some of them were done by retaining it in full color or removing it during commercials. Some networks/channels always show its logo in color even in the breaks, such as TVRI and its owned channels ( TVRI Kanal 3/TVRI World and TVRI Sport, until its massive rebranding in 2019), ANTV (since 2004 until mid 2005), Lativi (former name of tvOne), since 2003 until mid 2010), Global TV (former name of GTV) during relaying
MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
program shows simultaneously (since 2002 until 2005), B Channel (former name of RTV, from 2009 until 2012), and some of local channels. TVRI also mixes usage of retaining and removing on-air bugs for some advertisements from 2004 until the end of 2009. Metro TV first used different logo during advertisement since 25 November 2020, with its on-air bug (consisting of eagle icon of its logo) without the text "METRO TV". Some Indonesian TV networks/channels, such as ANTV (sometime in 2005), Indosiar (since end of 2005 to its DOGs change in March 2007), tvOne (since late 2010 to its logo change in February 2011) always used transparent logos with colors. Since 2011, tvOne on air bug logos still animated although its DOGs color transparent during commercial breaks. Since 2011, most networks started to display additional contents on their programming that disappeared during commercial breaks, such as content rating classifications and, in some networks since 2013, the name of the current program.


Ireland

The Irish language channel
TnaG TG4 ( ga, TG Ceathair, ) is an Irish free-to-air public service television network. The channel launched on 31 October 1996 and is available online and through its on demand service TG4 Player in Ireland and beyond. TG4 was formerly known a ...
first used their bug during simulcast of QVC and their coverage of the
Oireachtas The Oireachtas (, ), sometimes referred to as Oireachtas Éireann, is the bicameral parliament of Ireland. The Oireachtas consists of: *The President of Ireland *The two houses of the Oireachtas ( ga, Tithe an Oireachtais): ** Dáil Éireann ...
(Irish Parliament). In 1998 TV3 launch as Ireland's first commercial operator and the first Irish channel to permanently use a bug in the left hand corner of the screen. In 1999 TnaG re-branded as TG4 and began showing their logo during all programmes. In 2002
RTÉ (RTÉ) (; Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the national broadcaster of Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, whil ...
introduced their bug however it would only appear for twenty seconds at the beginning of each show and it was there to classify the suitability of the content of the show, in 2004 the bug became a permanent part of the on-screen presentation for both
RTÉ One RTÉ One ( ga, RTÉ a hAon) is an Irish free-to-air flagship television channel owned and operated by Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ). It is the most-popular and most-watched television channel in the country and was launched as ''Telefís ...
and
RTÉ Two (RTÉ) (; Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the national broadcaster of Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, while ...
. RTÉ's classification guide also appears for twenty seconds at the beginning of each show. Unlike British TV channels, which generally display their logo bugs at the top left corner of the screen, TV channel logo bugs in the Republic of Ireland generally appear in the top right. For RTÉ, TG4 and
Setanta Ireland Eir Sport 1 (formerly Setanta Ireland) was an Irish pay television sports channel featuring local and international sporting events. The channel is available on some basic cable packages in Ireland, while it is available upon direct subscription t ...
, the logo bugs appear in the top right corner of the screen. TV3's bugs appeared in the bottom right hand corner of the screen between the early 2000s and its rebrand in 2009; TV3 then moved its logo bug to the top right corner to match the other Irish channels, and it has stayed there ever since, even after the channel's rebranding as Virgin Media One in August 2018. RTÉ does not use their bug during news or current affairs programming. The now-defunct Channel 6 also displayed a bug during its two years on the air. The new digital services from RTÉ also display bugs on RTÉjr,
RTÉ Two (RTÉ) (; Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the national broadcaster of Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, while ...
HD and RTÉ One+1. 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 advised viewers "Text & Comment Lines are Closed", Setanta replaced 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 bug in the late 2000s. All of the community and local channels in Ireland display a bug. All bugs also display 888 for subtitles. In March 2020, a lockdown was imposed by the government in response to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
. All bugs were updated on RTÉ and Virgin Media channels to include “Stay at Home” beside each channel's logo.


Israel

In Israel, channel watermarks most often appear on the top left or the top right corner since Israeli cable and satellite-based services often have the channel description and programming ( OSD) on the bottom of the screen. Most channels have an opaque, full-colour watermark, though exceptions exist, for example Channel 9, which displays a blue-tinted semi-transparent logo. In ad breaks, it is required to replace the channel watermark with another symbol - sometimes on the other edge of the screen - indicating there are ads at the moment. The Israel Broadcasting Authority, whose channels placed their logos in the top left corner, ceased broadcasting in May 2017. The new public broadcaster, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation, displays its logos at the top right instead. The erstwhile Channel 2 as well as its successors, Keshet 12 and
Reshet 13 Channel 13 ( he, ערוץ 13), formally known as Reshet 13 ( he, רשת 13), is an Israeli free-to-air television channel owned by RGE Media Group and Reshet. It was launched on 1 November 2017 as one of two replacements of the outgoing Channel ...
, also use the top right corner. However, Channel 10 used the top left corner before rebranding to Eser (Literally "Ten") in 2017 and simultaneously moving its logo to the top right (Not long after, in January 2019, it ceased broadcasting as it merged with Reshet 13). Channel 14 as well as its predecessor Channel 20 use the top right corner as well. The
Knesset Channel The Knesset Channel ( he, ערוץ כנסת; ''Arutz Knesset'', "Knesset Channel") is a public Israeli terrestrial channel that broadcasts the sessions of the Knesset as well as some other programs concerning the Israeli parliament. Prior to the e ...
, however, uses the top left corner.


Italy

In Italy, the channel watermark usage is different for every television network. RAI, at the end of the 1970s, introduced its first watermark, to minimize copyright infringement by private channels. The bug "jumped" around the four corners of the image. At the end of 1987, the bug added the number of the station, until 2010 in words and from 2010 in numbers. RAI's on-screen logos are not shown during news programs (e.g. TG1). RAI's on-screen logos were placed at the bottom right until 2010, much like commercial broadcaster Mediaset and commercial TV channel La7, which have always used that corner. However, during RAI's 2010 corporate rebrand, they were moved to the top right corner. During a second corporate rebrand in 2016, the logos were moved once again, this time to the top left (with some programmes having the logo on the top right corner), which has rarely been used by Italian TV networks (barring some newer channels like Discovery's Nove). On the SD feeds of RAI channels that have an HD feed, the HD channel number (starting from 501) is posted below the channel's bug.
Sky Italia Sky Italia S.r.l. is an Italian satellite television platform owned by the American media conglomerate Comcast. Sky Italia also broadcasts three national free-to-air television channels: TV8, Cielo and Sky TG24. As of 2018, following an agre ...
channels, like TV8, use the top right corner for their logos. Commercial broadcasters Mediaset and La7 have always placed their logos at the bottom right corner of the screen. However, during some shows or sport events, they may be moved to the top right. Mediaset's DOGs consist of a transparent channel logo with ‘MEDIASET’ written immediately below the logo. ( Mediacorp, the sole free-to-air broadcaster of Singapore and effectively the state broadcaster, follows a similar approach: a transparent Mediacorp wordmark appears immediately above the channel logo in full colour. Note that Mediacorp, unlike Mediaset, places its logos at the top right corner, and has the channel logo in full colour.) DOGs are not removed during commercial breaks, with an exception of some channels like
Disney Channel Disney Channel, sometimes known as simply Disney, is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Comp ...
.


Japan

On all Japanese network television key stations and their affiliates, DOGs appear on the top-right hand corner of the screen. In addition, during some programs, a digital clock appears on the top-left corner of the screen. The digital clock had been in place on most programs prior to the introduction of DOGs; the first DOGs were introduced in 1999 on the NHK's satellite services, before expanding to terrestrial television with the start of digital broadcasting in that country between 2003 and 2006.


Kazakhstan

Television stations in Kazakhstan introduced DOGs in mid-1990s. Kazakh DOGs are mostly opaque, full-color & sometimes animated. Most of Kazakh DOGs are placed in either top or bottom corner of screen.


Lithuania

In Lithuania, DOGs usually appear on the top right corner of the screen, though LNK group's channels place their DOG on the top left corner. If programming is not suitable for younger viewers, a DOG showing the age rating is placed in the bottom right corner.


Malaysia

All Malaysian TV channels have on-screen logos since 1993 and usually appear on the top-right hand of the screen corner, except for 8TV owned by Media Prima, on the top-left and Bernama TV, without DOG.


Mexico

In Mexico Once TV and XEIMT-TV were the first channels to use their logos permanently in the top-right of the screen since 1997. The channels of Televisa and
TV Azteca TV Azteca, S.A.B. de C.V. is a Mexican multimedia conglomerate owned by Grupo Salinas. It is the second-largest mass media company in Mexico after Televisa. It primarily competes with Televisa as well as some local operators. It owns two natio ...
did not start use logos permanently until 2000 and 2004, respectively, in their channels.


Mongolia

Mongolian TV introduced DOGs in early 2000s. This make Mongolia the latest East Asian country to introduce DOGs. MNB displays their logo on top-left corner of the screen while private channels place their logos on top-right corner of the screen.


Morocco

The SNRT and 2M use permanent on-screen DOGs for their TV channels. In contrast, other channels including Medi 1 TV and Télé Maroc hide their DOGs during commercial breaks.


Netherlands

Most Dutch channels, including Belgian Dutch channels (i.e., in Flanders), place their logos in the top left corner of the screen. Examples are the two main commercial TV broadcasters in the Netherlands, RTL Nederland and Talpa Network; the public broadcaster in Flanders, VRT; and the Flemish commercial broadcasters, DPG Media and De Vijver Media. However, NPO, the public broadcasting consortium in the Netherlands, displays its logo bugs in the top right corner of the screen, and the logo bug of the presenting broadcaster (such as NOS, AVROTROS and KRO-NCRV) at the top left. This is the opposite of the situation in
Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bot ...
, where Yle, the public broadcaster, has placed logo bugs in the top left since 2012, but the commercial TV broadcasters use the top right.


New Zealand

New Zealand introduced the digital on-screen graphics in 2001, starting with TV3 and FOUR. New Zealand FTA now placed their logos on the bottom right hand corner, with the exception of Māori Television and as of 9 February 2017, TV3. TV One had the logo on the top right hand corner until the switch to the bottom right hand corner on 1 July 2013. TV2 usually had the logo from the top right hand corner until New Year's Day 2012 when they switched it to the bottom right hand corner. Prime Television New Zealand now placed their logo on the bottom right hand corner as of March 2016.


North Korea

Mansudae Television, Ryongnamsan Television and Sports Television all have their bugs in the top right hand corner of the screen, conventional for East Asian stations. Korean Central Television - the largest, main TV station in the DPRK - didn't air any on-screen graphic until at least 1994; since then, the bug has been placed in the top left hand corner of the screen, making it an anomaly. Unlike the neighbouring South Korea, the bugs are not removed during non-programme sections.


Philippines

Radio Philippines Network Radio Philippines Network, Inc. (RPN) is a Philippine television and radio company based in Quezon City. It is the flagship media property of Nine Media Corporation of the ALC Group of Companies; along with the Office of the Press Secreta ...
and
GMA Network GMA Network (Global Media Arts or simply GMA) is a Philippine free-to-air television and radio network. It is the flagship property of publicly traded GMA Network, Inc. Its first broadcast on television was on October 29, 1961. GMA Network (f ...
first introduced DOGs in 1995, as the
Movie and Television Review and Classification Board The Movie and Television Review and Classification Board ( fil, Lupon sa Rebyu at Klasipikasyon ng Pelikula at Telebisyon; abbreviated as MTRCB) is a Philippine government agency under the Office of the President of the Philippines that is respon ...
had implemented a television content rating system from November that year. Most stations do not display DOGs during commercial breaks, except Net 25, ETC (since 2012), and some cable channels, which display DOGs all the time. The DOGs can most often be seen in the upper-right corner, aligned with the TV content rating logo, but on several cable channels they are placed in the upper-left or bottom-right corners. Formerly,
ABS-CBN ABS-CBN (an initialism of its two predecessors' names, Alto Broadcasting System and Chronicle Broadcasting Network) is a Philippine commercial broadcast network that serves as the flagship property of ABS-CBN Corporation, a company unde ...
removed the DOG and rating 3 minutes before commercial breaks, however from 2000 these are now removed 10 seconds beforehand. ABS-CBN, RPN and GMA previously did not use DOGs during their newscasts but started doing so in 2012. ABS-CBN and its sister channel
S+A S, or s, is the nineteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ess'' (pronounced ), plural ''esses''. Histor ...
append the word HD to their respective HD feeds' DOGs and place the DOGs outside the 4:3 safe zone. Satellite pay-TV provider Cignal also appends its DOG to the channels it carries. Hence, those who view channels through Cignal will see its DOG. The network logo and the MTRCB rating of the program (green 'G', blue 'PG' and red 'SPG') are shown 1 to 5 seconds after the start of the program. Hashtags, promotions and announcements are also shown in the middle of the program. All DOGs appear in a solid color.


Poland

Virtually all Polish TV channels show their logos in the corner of the screen during all programming, and have done so since the early 1990s. The two TVP channels first introduced them as a test in 1991 and then permanently in early 1993. Various positions of the logo were tested, before settling on the top-right corner on 19 April 1993. Polsat, the first commercial Polish-language broadcaster, launched initially on satellite on 5 December 1992, with a DOG in the top-left corner from the beginning. Nowadays, most channels, including the major networks such as TVP, Polsat (since 28 February 2005) and TVN, show their logos in the top-right corner of the screen. Top-left corner is also a common location, used by TTV and several cable and satellite channels. News-oriented channels such as TVP Info and
TVN24 TVN24 is a Polish 24-hour commercial news channel, launched on 9 August 2001. Being a part of the TVN Network, TVN24 has been owned since July 2017 by US-based media company Warner Bros. Discovery. It gained broader popularity after the Sept ...
that display news tickers at the bottom of the screen most of the time, usually integrate their DOGs in the ticker design, typically in the bottom-left corner. Few minor cable and satellite channels show their logos in the bottom-right corner. Most broadcasters remove their DOGs during commercial breaks, although the practice is not universal. Some channels, including most basic
free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscripti ...
ones, use alternate logos containing the "HD" branding for their
HDTV High-definition television (HD or HDTV) describes a television system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since 1936; in more recent times, it refers to the g ...
feeds. This may be related to the fact that Polish digital terrestrial TV lineup consists almost entirely of
SDTV Standard-definition television (SDTV, SD, often shortened to standard definition) is a television system which uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. "Standard" refers to it being the prevailing sp ...
streams, with HDTV available through cable and satellite. Since 15 August 2005, all broadcasters licensed in Poland are also required to display the age rating at all times, during all programming except news, sports and advertising but has been criticised by viewers for exaggeration of age rating to +12 in case of animated or family movies on some TV channels, mainly from TVN, and also on talent show with participation of children (e.g. You Can Dance - Next Generation), for pathologizing of system and for
screen burn-in Screen burn-in, image burn-in, or ghost image, is a permanent discoloration of areas on an electronic display such as a cathode ray tube (CRT) in an old computer monitor or television set. It is caused by cumulative non-uniform use of the s ...
. It is usually shown in the top-left corner, opposite the channel logo. However, Polish broadcasts of international cable networks (such as Discovery Channel, HBO, etc.) usually operate under foreign licenses and are legally treated as rebroadcasts of foreign channels. As such, they don't need to follow this requirement and may use a different rating system instead.


Portugal

RTP introduced DOGs in the late 1980s, when it was the only broadcaster in Portugal that operated two television channels. Initially, the logos were placed on the top-right corner, but in 1991 they were moved permanently to the top-left corner, to allow television ratings to be shown in the top-right corner. Until 2004 and RTP1's rebranding, their DOGs were placed on the bottom-left corner during newscasts. On some programs or live sport broadcasting, DOGs are placed in the top-right corner. Logos are removed during advertising breaks and trailers. For subtitle information, on RTP1 and RTP2 a number such as 884, 885, 886, 887 or 888 is placed near the logo; in other cases ''Direto'' (Live) is sometimes used instead of a number (some programmes use neither numbers nor ''Direto'' (Live), ''Gravado'' (Recorded) or ''Repetição'' (Repetition)). DOGs of privately owned channels were introduced in the mid-1990s. Initially, the logo of TVI was placed in the bottom left corner during only some of its programmes; in the mid-2000s the logo was moved into the top left corner, and has been shown across all programmes since then. The two Brazilian-owned television services ( Globo and RecordTV Europa) have their DOGs placed in the bottom-right corner.


Romania

Romanian TV channels display their logos in a particular corner of the screen depending on the network. Public broadcaster TVR and commercial network Intact Media Group (which owns Antena 1, one of the country's most popular channels) display their logos at the top right corner (except for news channel Antena 3, which uses the bottom right). However,
Pro TV PRO TV (, often stylized as PRO•TV as of 2017) is a Romanian free-to-air television network, launched on 1 December 1995 as the fourth private TV channel in the country (after TV SOTI, Antena 1, and the now-defunct Tele7ABC). It is owned by CME ...
, the most popular commercial station, and its sister channels show their logos at the top left corner (except during news broadcasts, where the Pro TV logo at the top left is removed and a Știrile Pro TV logo is placed at the bottom left). This channel along with Acasă TV (nowadays called Pro 2) and Pro Cinema had also the DTH provider logo in the top-right corner, on the transmissions from these DTH platforms, to prevent CATV piracy. The top left corner is also used by national commercial station Kanal D, as well as smaller national TV stations like National TV and Prima TV. Note that the Pro network channels which are available in HD (namely Pro TV, Pro 2 and Pro X) display the channel logo in the top left but the HD watermark in the top right.


Russia

In Russia, television channels usually have watermarks, which are usually placed in the top-right or top-left corner of the screen (some notable exceptions are HTB, which places its logo on the bottom-left corner, and the Disney Channel which places its logo on the bottom-right corner). In some channels the watermark becomes half-transparent on ad breaks (it used to be removed on ad breaks, but not on trailers), but on main channels such as Channel One or Russia-1 they never disappear nor become half-transparent. Channel One was the first channel to have introduced their watermark in 1992 and by 1993 watermarks appeared on other channels.


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 black and white, 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. Most local and regional stations and some national commercial broadcasters (Pink from 2001–present, as of September 2012, when the national news start at 18:30, clock disappears up until the end of its morning program, B92 from 2004 to 2011, Avala from 2007 until 2011) in Serbia along with station logo also show a digital clock below the logo.


Singapore

Singaporean television channels began showing the channel logos during television programs in 1994. The first one was Channel 5, then Channel 12 and lastly Channel 8. The television stations show the logo in full-color, and are usually shown in the top right of the screen. Also, since around 2004, logos of Mediacorp television channels also include the parent company's logo, and this expanded in 2005, with Channel U became a part of Mediacorp. Mediacorp, the sole free-to-air broadcaster of Singapore and effectively the state broadcaster, shows its on-screen logos in two parts: a transparent Mediacorp wordmark appears immediately above the channel logo in full colour. The channel logos are almost always in the top right, with the exception of
Channel NewsAsia CNA (stylised as cna), which is an acronym derived from its previous name, Channel NewsAsia, is a Singaporean multinational news channel owned by the country's national public broadcaster Mediacorp. It broadcasts free-to-air domestically in Si ...
, which uses the bottom left. Even with Channel NewsAsia, the Mediacorp wordmark remains at the top right corner. Like its neighbouring country, Malaysia, Singaporean channels remove the channel logos during commercial breaks except for Channel NewsAsia, whose DOG is integrated into the ticker which remains on the screen during breaks.


Slovakia

Much like the
Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...
, TV channels in Slovakia always place their logos in the top left corner of the screen, irrespective of the broadcasting network. The flagship public channel, STV1 (now
Jednotka Jednotka (formerly STV1) is a Slovak television generalist channel owned and operated by public broadcasting, state-funded RTVS. Programming News and journalism * Góly, body, sekundy (''Goals, points, seconds'') - sport news * O 5 minút 1 ...
), using the top left ever since 1993 with exception for 2000–2001 and between 2004 and 2012 which used top right corner. The main commercial TV channels, such as TV JOJ and Markíza and their sister channels, have always used the top left corner. The news TV channel TA3 has used the bottom left corner between 2011 and 2017. This is also the case for Czech-language channels that broadcast in Slovakia. Since 2004, almost all commercial television stations in Slovakia keep their logos on the screen and RTVS, the country's public broadcasting network, does the opposite during advertisements and programme trailers.


South Korea

South Korean national broadcaster Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) introduced DOGs for all programmes in 2001, followed by Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) & Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS) in 2002. However, South Korea had used DOGs since 1986 but only for news programming. Some cable TV channels in South Korea have been using DOGs for all programmes since mid-1990s such as when South Korean music channel KMTV introduced DOGs in 1995 & Now-defunct KBS-Based satellite channels "KBS Wiseong 1 & 2 in 1997. Most of South Korean TV channels place their logo at top-right corner of the screen & removed during commercial breaks.


Spain

Unlike all other European countries, where channels generally display their logos at the top left or right corner of the screen, the great majority of TV channels in Spain use the bottom right corner to display their logos—much like in the Americas and Australia (except SBS, which uses the top right). Italy is the only other European country to have a significant proportion of channels that use the bottom right corner. This is partly a function of Italian commercial broadcaster Mediaset operating several TV channels in both Italy and Spain (via Mediaset España Comunicación), all of which use the bottom right corner. Therefore, the channels of most of the major broadcasters—such as public broadcaster
RTVE The Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española, S.A. (; ), known as Radiotelevisión Española or RTVE, is the state-owned public corporation that assumed in 2007 the indirect management of the Spanish public radio and television service kno ...
and commercial networks Atresmedia and Mediaset España—place their logos in the bottom right corner. The main exceptions are
Telemadrid Telemadrid is a public regional television station in the Community of Madrid, Spain, the flagship channel of the regional public broadcaster Radio Televisión Madrid (RTVM). It began its broadcast on 2 May 1989. History First years Telema ...
, which uses the top left, and TV3 in Catalonia, which uses the top right.
TVE TVE may stand for: Television * Televisión Española, a Spanish state-owned public-service television broadcaster ** TVE HD, a high-definition channel run by Televisión Española * Televisão Educativa, a defunct Brazilian TV network * TV Eduk ...
introduced DOGs in 1984 on
TVE1 La 1 (, ''The One'') is a Spanish free-to-air television channel owned and operated by Televisión Española (TVE), the television division of state-owned public broadcaster Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE). It is the corporation's flagship tel ...
and
TVE2 La 2 (, ''The Two'') is a Spanish free-to-air television channel owned and operated by Televisión Española (TVE), the television division of state-owned public broadcaster Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE). It is the corporation's second tele ...
. The DOG of TVE1 was all white until 1991, when the number 1 was changed from white to blue. It remained so until 2003. Antena 3, Telecinco and Canal+ were the first channels to use DOGs from their launch, with the DOGs placed in the top-left and bottom-left corners. In 1992, Antena 3 and Telecinco repositioned their DOGs in the bottom-right, making it the same as TVE. TV3, an Autonomical Channel of Catalonia, used DOGs from 1991, earlier shown only alongside clock indents, and from 1994 until 1999, showed DOGs throughout broadcasting. From 1991 the DOG was removed during advertisements. In 1999, the DOG was removed during the clock. Most DOGs are removed during advertisements, trade test transmissions or when a program is not aired. An exception to this is Intereconomia. Canal 3/24 did not remove their DOG during advertisements between 2011 and 2014.


Taiwan

Many cable TV & some terrestrial channels in Taiwan have introduced DOGs since 1990s. Chinese Television System &
China Television China Television Company, Ltd. (CTV; ) (Formerly called Taiwan Daytime TV (TDT) in 1969-1975) is a television broadcasting company based in Taipei, Taiwan. It was established on September 3, 1968, by the then-ruling Nationalist Party (KMT) of ...
have introduced DOGs for some programmes since 1994. Sanlih E-Television is the first cable & overall TV station to introduce DOGs in 1995. Later
Formosa Television Formosa Television () is a television station based in New Taipei, Taiwan. Established on March 27, 1996, FTV began broadcasting on June 11, 1997. Formosa Television is also the first free-to-air television station which was established w ...
became first Taiwanese TV channel to introduced DOGs permanently in 1997. Taiwan Television did not introduce DOGs until 1999 when all of 3 stations (TTV, CTV & CTS) began to use DOGs on all of their programmes. Most of DOGs in Taiwanese TV channels are in color or opaque & placed permanently without any removing during commercial breaks. (With the exception of Sanli-E Television that have logos removed during ad breaks.) Prior to introduction of DOGs, Taiwanese TV stations display 24-hour digital clocks at the top corner of screen since early 1980s. (Unlike Japan, that uses 12-hour digital clock without seconds)


Thailand

Thailand introduced DOGs in 1991. Thai TV logos are in full-color (With the exception of ITV/Thai PBS that used transparent logo from 2003 to 2014), and the logos are removed during commercial breaks, trade test transmissions, transitions between programs and when a Thai Royal Family member is shown during the broadcast. All Thai-based television stations show the logos in the top-right of the screen since 2003 (the logos sometimes used to be shown in its bottom-right corner). During
2006 Thai coup d'état The 2006 Thai ''coup d'état'' took place on 19 September 2006, when the Royal Thai Army staged a '' coup d'état'' against the elected caretaker government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The ''coup d'état'', which was Thailand's f ...
& 2014 Thai coup d'état All Thai DOGs were removed from TV channels during live speech of NCPO. During the mourning period after the
death of Bhumibol Adulyadej King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand died at the age of 88 on 13 October 2016 ( B.E. 2559), after a long illness. A year-long period of mourning was subsequently announced. A royal cremation ceremony took place over five days at the end of Octo ...
all television stations aired black-and-white, monochrome DOGs and showed the logo on the bottom-right of the screen for a period of a hundred days until 21 January 2017. After the period ended, all television stations reverted DOGs back to regular color scheme but remained on showing the logo on the bottom-right of the screen (except during foreign sports programming and some foreign series and domestic sports programming on some channels, when television stations still show the logos on the top-right corner of the screen).


Turkey

In Turkey, screen graphics, bugs, or DOGs are known as screen badges. On analogue/digital television, screen badges were introduced to TRT1 in 1996 and some private channels had screen badges beginning in the mid-1990s. Beginning 1 January 2000, all television channels at the time had screen badges usually located in the top right hand of the screen. However, on 1 January 2010, One got a new theme package and the screen badge was moved down to the bottom right hand of the screen. All of the TRT channels' screen badges were on the bottom right of the screen by the end of 2010. Commercial TV channels usually place their logos in the top left corner of the screen: among the larger channels Kanal D,
Show TV Show TV is a nationwide television channel in Turkey owned by Albayrak Holding since 2018, acquired from Sadık Albayrak which in turn seized from Ciner Media Group after Turgay Ciner was forced to sell due to tax debts. The channel replaces Cin ...
, Fox and ATV use the top left, but Star TV uses the top right. A similar situation exists in Turkey's neighbour Greece, where most TV channels use the top left corner (including Star Channel, which is not related to its Turkish or
Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...
namesakes), with only
Skai TV Skai TV ( Greek: ΣΚΑΪ) is a Greek free-to-air television network based in Piraeus. It is part of the Skai Group, one of the largest media groups in the country. It was relaunched in its present form on 1 April 2006 in the Athens metropol ...
using the top right. The badges are either simplified or transparent during commercial breaks.


Ukraine

Ukrainian TV introduced DOGs in 1991 shortly after
Dissolution of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...
. Ukrainian national broadcaster
Pershyi Pershyi ( uk, Перший, ; meaning First) is the Ukrainian public television channel, operated by the Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine. It is the only Ukrainian TV channel covering over 97% of Ukraine's territory. Its programs are orien ...
introduced DOGs in 1991 as "УТ-1" (UT-1) in the bottom-right corner but changed to top-left corner of the screen from 1995 to 1998. Since 1998 most of Ukrainian TV channels place their DOGs in top-right corner of screen.


United Kingdom

DOGs most commonly appear in the top-left hand corner on British channels. DOGs were first used on
satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioiso ...
and
cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...
systems in their early days, when broadcasts were unmarked. Channel 5 was the first to use DOGs on an analogue terrestrial channel when it launched 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 late 2007. There have been two known predecessors to the digital on-screen graphic on British television, namely a small white outline rectangle that was broadcast on the screen throughout ITV's broadcast of the documentary ''Life by Misadventure: A Film about the Seriously Burned'' on 7 September 1973 to warn people that may be uncomfortable with its content, and similarly,
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
's infamous red triangle symbol, which was applied in the corner of the screen throughout a series of controversial late-night art films broadcast 1986–87, in addition to an ident before the films began, again in both cases to warn viewers of the content. The BBC initially introduced a DOG on each of its digital-only channels. In October 1998, it added DOGs to
BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...
and
BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream a ...
on Sky Digital but following a large number of complaints they were removed just two months later. However, a BBC TWO DOG was used during the overnight
BBC Learning Zone The BBC Learning Zone (previously The Learning Zone) was an educational strand run by the BBC as an overnight service on BBC Two. It shows programming aimed at students in Primary, Secondary and Higher Education and to adult learners. Viewers a ...
strand until 2015. The DOGs for the other channels appear at the top left-hand corner on other channels except
BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadc ...
(which is bottom left and forms part of integrated information graphics), its international counterpart,
BBC World News BBC World News is an international English-language pay television network, operated under the ''BBC Global News Limited'' division of the BBC, which is a public corporation of the UK government's Department for Digital, Culture, Media an ...
, and BBC Parliament. The BBC News Channel's DOG does not appear when it airs Breakfast. Whilst BBC Four and
BBC Parliament BBC Parliament is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel from the BBC that broadcasts live and recorded coverage of the House of Commons, House of Lords and Select Committees of the British Parliament, the Scottish Parliam ...
have static DOGs, the ones on
CBBC CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 7–16 ...
and CBeebies alongside other channels such as Nick Jr. feature moving elements. ITV uses DOGs on all its channels, as do its counterparts STV in central and northern
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...
, and UTV in Northern Ireland. ITV doesn't use a DOG during news programming except for STV which uses a DOG for all news programming The logos on channels such as ITV (excluding STV), Channel 5, E4, E!, Disney XD, Sky Arts 1 and 2, Sky1, Sky2,
Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...
,
History History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
, More4 and CITV are almost transparent, whereas others like those on Comedy Central,
Disney Junior Disney Junior is an American pay television network owned by the Walt Disney Television (part of Disney General Entertainment Content) unit of The Walt Disney Company through Disney Branded Television. Aimed mainly at children two to seven ...
, some
UKTV UKTV Media Limited, simply known as UKTV, is a British multi-channel broadcaster, which, since 2019, has been wholly owned by BBC Studios (formerly BBC Worldwide), a commercial subsidiary of the BBC. It was formed on 1 November 1992 throug ...
channels,
CBBC CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 7–16 ...
, CBeebies, the Discovery channels, Nick Jr., Nicktoons, Boomerang and
Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...
are bright and noticeable. Sky Movies and
Film4 Film4 is a British free-to-air television network owned by Channel Four Television Corporation launched on 1 November 1998, devoted to broadcasting films. While its standard-definition channel is available on Freeview and Freesat platforms ...
do not use DOGs, but
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
(starting on 19 June 2017),
Channel 4 HD Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service in ...
and the timeshift channel Channel 4+1 all do. Some stations display their on-screen graphics permanently. The
UKTV UKTV Media Limited, simply known as UKTV, is a British multi-channel broadcaster, which, since 2019, has been wholly owned by BBC Studios (formerly BBC Worldwide), a commercial subsidiary of the BBC. It was formed on 1 November 1992 throug ...
channels remove them during commercials and trailers, with some Sky channels removing them altogether at certain times into a programme. In addition to a fixed (sometimes animated) motif,
MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
includes the programme title in the top-right hand corner. During widescreen programmes, the DOGs on most channels including ITV, BBC Three, BBC Four, ITV2, ITV3, ITV4, CITV, CBBC, CBeebies, E4, and
4Music 4Music is a British music television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. The original incarnation was launched on 15 August 2008, and until 29 June 2022, showed a mix of music and entertainment programming. I ...
stay in the far corner of the screen, it is now rare for a channel to place their DOG in a 4:3 " title safe area". On digital systems such as Sky and
Freeview Freeview may refer to: *Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia *Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand *Freeview (UK), a ...
, where stations have a set EPG 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'' 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 when
BBC One HD BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...
launched in 2010. As of 2022, neither BBC One HD nor BBC Two HD has been using their own DOG. 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. However, a generic BBC logo appears on the top left-hand corner of their iPlayer feeds as is the case with other BBC channels. This generic BBC DOG also appears on catch-up or on-demand programmes on the iPlayer.


United States

The first logo bug appeared in the 1970s on cable networks and local TV stations. It was often displayed on the bottom of the screen for 5 to 10 seconds. It was usually displayed once per hour, or every 10 or 15 minutes during a program. One of the popular title generator machines during that time was made by Chyron, but other brands were also used. The first transparent logo bug to be displayed throughout an entire program was the '' CBS Evening News'' in 1990. It was part of a graphical redesign of the news broadcast done by branding design firm Novocom. The reason for its introduction was so that domestic
business travel Business travel is travel undertaken for work or business purposes, as opposed to other types of travel, such as for leisure purposes or regularly commuting between one's home and workplace. According to a survey, 88% small business owners ...
ers would know which channel in their hotel carried a CBS affiliate immediately without a glance at a printed channel list, and soon it spread to the entirety of the CBS network schedule. The "big four" networks ( CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX) began using full-time on-screen bugs in September 1993, with the bug removed during commercial breaks. Other major networks such as
The WB The WB Television Network (for Warner Bros., or the "Frog Network", for its former mascot, Michigan J. Frog) was an American television network launched on broadcast television on January 11, 1995, as a joint venture between the Warner Bros. ...
and UPN also used logo bugs in the same manner. Since then, the use of digital on-screen bugs among cable and broadcast networks has become standard. The bug is usually placed on the lower right hand corner of the screen, with the notable exception being during the broadcasting of sports events and on some religious television networks (where logo bugs have largely been placed in the top-right to accommodate descriptive text, prayer lines, or Bible verses), and on most NBCUniversal networks (including NBC) and Ion Television, where their standard bugs were moved to the bottom left during prime time programming in 2006 and the early 2010s, respectively. CBS followed suit with its bug moving to the bottom left in September 2021. During sports broadcasts, ''
NFL on Fox The ''NFL on Fox'' (also known as ''Fox NFL'') is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games produced by Fox Sports and televised on the Fox broadcast network. Game coverage is usually preceded by '' Fox NFL Kick ...
'' introduced
FoxBox 4Kids TV (often stylized as 4K!DSTV and formerly known as FoxBox from September 14, 2002 to January 15, 2005) was an American television programming block and Internet-based video on demand children's network operated by 4Kids Entertainment. I ...
, a permanent graphic at the top left-hand side of the screen showing the score of the game, along with the network's logo.
Univision Univision () is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the Latino public and include ...
, while being on the bottom right for a majority of its programs, leaves its network bug on the top right when broadcasting ''
Hoy Hoy ( sco, Hoy; from Norse , meaning "high island") is an island in Orkney, Scotland, measuring – the second largest in the archipelago, after Mainland. A natural causeway, ''the Ayre'', links the island to the smaller South Walls; the two ...
'', a Televisa news program from Mexico, and in some programs. Bugs are usually monochrome to minimize distraction, while some cable networks like
Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...
, The Weather Channel,
MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...
, Fox News Channel, and
CNBC CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk s ...
use full-color identifiers. Broadcast stations and networks typically only use solid, full-color bugs during local newscasts, network newscasts, and sports broadcasts; at other times the bug is switched to the transparent, gray variant. Also, broadcast channels typically show their local affiliate's
call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally ass ...
and/or the channel number on the screen bugs during local newscasts and in some cases syndicated programming. First-run syndicated programs often display their own logo, in addition to the bug of the station they are running on. Meanwhile, network-based programming (including prime time programs and national newscasts) is typically shown with only the network's bug for most of the broadcast (although an automated system may allow a local bug to be overlaid onto network programming for a few seconds after the start of a program or a commercial break). Before the 2009 digital television transition, early high definition broadcasts often used bugs placed outside the 4:3 safe zone (sometimes with special "HD" branding) to distinguish them from the standard definition broadcast. By the late-2000s, due to networks switching to a singular HD feed downconverted for SD (assuming that the SD feed will be center-cut from the HD feed, or using
Active Format Description In television technology, Active Format Description (AFD) is a standard set of codes that can be sent in the MPEG video stream or in the baseband SDI video signal that carries information about their aspect ratio and other active picture charac ...
(AFD) metadata to specify the framing format) as their network feed rather than distinct feeds for both formats, most broadcast networks dropped HD-specific logo bugs and used bugs in the 4:3 safe zone for all viewers, regardless of feed. By 2018, most bugs and on-air presentations have been oriented exclusively for 16:9 framing. The inclusion of text advertisements for upcoming programs alongside the bug is also particularly prevalent among some broadcasters. Since the mid-2000s, some stations and networks showed their websites alongside their bugs, especially during newscasts. National morning shows like ''Today'' and ''Good Morning America'' have also shown their specific websites rather than their network's main website in addition to the bug that shows their program. Beginning in 2010, some networks began to display show-specific hashtags alongside their bugs, which encourage viewers to discuss and interact with the program online via
social networking service A social networking service or SNS (sometimes called a social networking site) is an online platform which people use to build social networks or social relationships with other people who share similar personal or career content, interests, ac ...
s such as
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
.


Vietnam

Vietnamese TV stations started showing their digital on-screen graphical DOGs in 1995. Logos are not removed during commercial breaks, but remain in full-color, unlike their counterparts in Indonesia. A digital clock and programme name may also be shown. Some cable channels show its cable provider logo and its logo. For example, VTV Cable's channels has the logo of the cable provider on the top-left, and the channel logo on the top-right. Other providers and international channels were in the top-right, while K+ in VTV Cable bug used in the bottom-left.


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.


Usage in ham radio and TV

In most countries, the ham station is required to periodically identify their amateur-TV transmission. Such stations frequently overlay their callsign on the signal instead of placing a card in the background. Most hams use homebuilt devices or old consumer character generators to generate such identifications rather than using graphical superimposes of high cost to do so. Only rarely one can see real graphics, as the callsign is usually written in the "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 XV-T500 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 is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore International, Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and sign ...
computers with genlock interfaces.


See also

* Broadcast designer *
Screen burn-in Screen burn-in, image burn-in, or ghost image, is a permanent discoloration of areas on an electronic display such as a cathode ray tube (CRT) in an old computer monitor or television set. It is caused by cumulative non-uniform use of the s ...
, a side effect in some cases of digital on-screen graphics * On-screen display * Television news screen layout * Digital watermark * Score bug, an on-screen graphic specifically for sport broadcasts * Clock ident


References


External links

{{Broadcasting Computer graphics Film and video technology Television terminology Logos