[James2001]

There is a video linked to in that thread as well with some early pres (presumably dating to 1995 going by the listed videos) with a :

www.youtube.com 

One ident there quite similar to the one that was used in 2019 and last month, which helps suggest that it was original, not recreated.

Interesting that the background to the selection screen is animated and with music, I only remember it being static and silent. With the amount of time it was shown for it would have been nice to have had some movement and sound.

And at the very end of the video there's a short bit from 2000- which looks like it must have come from one of the cable companies still running their own version of the channel, due to the different phone number and lack of DOG.

[James2001]

Oh, and looking at this video, the closing promo they aired was actually based on something from the US version of the channel (around 2:50 in):

www.youtube.com 

This video can only be viewed on YouTube.

[WillPS]

Good eye - I noted the US stylised phone number and thought that was a bit odd.

I didn't realise The Box US moved away from the graphical setup we had over here not long before completely going.

[James2001]

The ownership of the US and UK versions had split off by then anyway, EMAP buying the UK one in 1997 and Viacom the US version the following year, so not suprising they went in different directions (looks like the UK version did adopt the angled blue version of the logo that wasn't adopted in the US until after the split though- well, it looks like the US version had a couple of different variants of that logo at different angles, in the UK they only used one of them).

[WillPS]

The ownership of the US and UK versions had split off by then anyway, EMAP buying the UK one in 1997 and Viacom the US version the following year, so not suprising they went in different directions (looks like the UK version did adopt the angled blue version of the logo that wasn't adopted in the US until after the split though- well, it looks like the US version had a couple of different variants of that logo at different angles, in the UK they only used one of them).

Yes, the two versions of that logo look different to me in any case - perhaps the UK just copied what the former mothership did?

[James2001]

Yes, the two versions of that logo look different to me in any case - perhaps the UK just copied what the former mothership did?

The version at 0:35 and 2:40 in that video looks the same as the one we used in the UK. Not that it was particularly long lived over here anyway, replaced by the =▢X logo after less than 2 years.

Of course the Smash Hits You Control slogan was entirely a UK thing, I guess to tie it into another of EMAP's brands... which later got its own channel anyway.

[James2001]

There's a lot of US Box on YouTube, but not much UK sadly.

30 minutes of the US Box there, using the same graphics as the UK version (though a different font for the burnt-in song titles, they didn't credit the directors either):

www.youtube.com 

The sort of thing that makes you realise how different US and UK charts were- not heard of any of the songs played, or most of the songs in the playlist at the bottom either. Interesting to see Earth Song there though seeing as it wasn't even released in the US (even though it was MJ's biggest hit over here), as well as Wonderwall and Missing which I didn't realise were even that well known over there.

$2.50 per video request as well (or $3 for the non-touch tone number... I guess those operators need paying).

[WillPS]

$2.50 per video request as well

I suppose it could have been the middle of the night, but it doesn't look like many were paying!