TV Asahi (Japanese: テレビ朝日), shortly known as テレ朝 i.e. Tele Asa, and its acronym EX since 2003, is a Japanese commercial television station serving the Kantō region, broadcasting on virtual channel 5 and UHF digital channel 24 with the call sign JOEX-DTV. The station is owned by TV Asahi Corporation, a subsidiary of TV Asahi Holdings Corporation since 2014.
TV Asahi was founded on November 1, 1957 as Nihon Educational Television (NET) by investors including ABC (United States) and Toei. NET signed on the air on February 1, 1959 as an educational station broadcasting on the analog channel 10 with the station's original call sign (JOEX-TV) lasting until July 24, 2011. The first logo was a concave figure as a lighting bolt, with the initial letters.
1960-1977
On December 10, 1960, NET introduced a station name, NET Television. On November 1, 1973, NET was transitioned into a general entertainment station. The logo consists of the number ten & the station's name enclosed within a black rounded rectangle, similar to that of contemporary television screens.
Asahi National Broadcasting (ANB, TV Asahi)
1977-2003
Designer:
Unknown
Typography:
Universe
Launched:
Unknown
On April 1, 1977, two years after ABC switched its affiliation to ANN, NET changed its company name to Asahi National Broadcasting Co.,Ltd. (ANB) and its station name to TV Asahi.
1977–1996
Designer:
Unknown
Typography:
Universe
Launched:
Unknown
Following a major revamp, TV Asahi introduced a new logo: an origami number ten, consisting of the number one as a stick, and the number zero as a rhombus. Each number has two colours, green on the left and orange to the right; and as for the wordmark, it was orange to match the former's colour.
1996–2003
Designer:
Tim Gervin
Typography:
Futura Universe
Launched:
Unknown
In 1996, following the sign-on of ANN's last affiliate Iwate Asahi Television, the "Network Symbol" logo, designed by American designer Tim Gervin, was introduced for TV Asahi's television network and its affiliates, lasting for seven years. The logo was made with five rectangles forming a pinwheel-like symbol in different colours - red, orange, sky blue, navy blue and green - with the circular shadow in yellow, and the wordmark in red.
On October 1, 2003, after moving to a new headquarters located in Roppongi Hills, TV Asahi's company name was changed to TV Asahi Corporation, with a new logo being introduced.
This new logo, called "Visual Identity", was designed by British design agency Tomato, who also designed Channel 4's 1996 logo. It is a departure from traditional logo designs, and rectangles called "Block" were developed to respond sounds (in a similar technique to BBC Four's 2002 ident). A Block is also used on TV Asahi's print logo, and its layout can be arranged freely. A new site for the logo, powered by Adobe Flash Player, was also launched on August 1, 2004.
