Clock

The current look of Clock

The YSTV clock was introduced in 1998Unverified or incomplete information as a way of identifying the station before live programmes begin, and making it easier for the director to count down a production to it's on air point. The software was written by Matt Hammond and it runs on an Acorn A3010 computer. Later modifications were made to the software to keep the machine in sync with the correct time.

YSTV has rarely used conventional short idents before live programmes - before the days of the clock, live programmes would usually be cut straight from Grapevine or a continuous spinning YSTV graphic (examples of which can be seen in the YSTV Gold ident).

The original design of the clock lasted until Autumn 2000 when the YSTV logo was changed, and the current design was adopted. The original design featured various elements such as the cube logo of the time and stills from Bona Dicta and Cooking With. The same design was used on the website at the time, finally being dropped from there in early 2003. It has on occasions given rise to YSTV being named "clock soc", implying that it is all we ever show. It also had a reputation for a while for being inaccurate by a few minutes.

The original YSTV clock, circa 1998

Now S4C, BBC One, C4 and all ITV regions have dropped their on-screen clocks, YSTV may be the only UK broadcasterUnverified or incomplete information left to use one.