1998-2001 2001-03 1998-2000 BBC Choice was launched on 23rd September 1998 and was the UK's first digital-only channel - and indeed began a week before digital television was even available to the public! It was DOG-free between November 1998 and October 1999 (although Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which each had their own version of Choice, stayed DOGless for some time afterwards).   
 
The five original idents - Heart  , Fan , Punch , Mouse and Trumpet . Heart was the ident that launched the channel; ITV bosses were none too pleased when they saw this ident, as their own 'hearts' branding device was just weeks away from launching! It was used until July 2000, and was the sole survivor of this set; the other four had all been dropped by May 2000. As with all ident images on this page, you can hover the pointer over each picture for more information.  
Left: an early BBC Choice slide from November 1998. Right: a menu from August 1999 which, until December 1999, was shown each day for half an hour with music before programmes started. From 1st December onwards, Choice's daytime hours were filled with CBBC.   
Three programmes which typify the early days of Choice - Backstage, Hotlinks and Inside Tracks. Click here for more on the channel's programming throughout its life; and click here for the first day's schedule.
2000-01   
During 2000 BBC Choice moved away from its original 'best of the BBC' schedule, and towards a youth entertainment format. Most notably, 30th May saw the launch of Choice's most successful show, Liquid News. And to reflect the change in emphasis, 24th July saw the introduction of three rather lurid new idents - but they seemed suspiciously familiar...   
Left and middle: between-trail bumpers such as this, using the 'Refreshing TV' theme, were introduced in April 2000 and continued beyond the introduction of the new idents. Right: a BBC Choice trailer from mid 2000, following the standard BBC layout, although from around the introduction of the new idents, the programme title and time remained throughout the trail, rather than appearing at the end. This particular example promotes Micro TV, which was the short-lived early evening strand of continually repeated 15-minute shows such as Hotlinks, A Little Later and 15 Minutes of Fame.  
Left: the nations' variants of BBC Choice had broadly similiar presentation to the network version, although Northern Ireland broke ranks by using in-vision presentation as well. This is Jennie Brown, one of their three regular announcers. The background design varied over time. Right: a BBC Choice Wales ident/menu. 
This caption - a still from one of the idents - was used during the June 2001 BBC power cut to read an apology over. 1998-2001 2001-03 | 
