Ident

A channel ident is a small advert which represents the channel brand that the audience can remember them.  The key characteristics of a channel ident is by using a logo or corresponding colours which is a strong visual respresentation of the channel.
Another key characteristic is defined as the length as its important to know how long the audience will sit there and watch it for before they get bored. They also would include a audio which is easy to remember such as a simple beat/rhythm or a theme tune so they have more to remember them by. A voiceover also helps the audience understand more about the advert and who they are, so its not just for them to read and watch themselves, as there are also announcements to be made the brands know how long to keep the advert going for or end it before a film as it will include more important information in a short period of time rather than making a whole blank advert of them talking.
As there are a variety of multi channels all competiting against other channels to make sure the audience watches them it puts more pressure on them to made their ident more recognisable and eye catching which can tell them more about the brand itself and what is stands for. As channels now spend millions of pounds on just a ident they all have to be more unique and trendier than each other such as bbc2 and channel 2 who want to me as modern.