screen bug

A digital on-screen graphic, digitally originated graphic (DOG, bug, or network bug) is a watermark-like station logo that most television broadcasters overlay over a portion of the screen area of their programs to identify the channel. They are thus a form of permanent visual station identification, increasing brand recognition and asserting ownership of the video signal.

The graphic identifies the source of programming, even if it has been time-shifted—that is, recorded to videotape, DVD, or a digital personal video recorder such as TiVo. Many of these technologies allow viewers to skip or omit traditional between-programming station identification; thus the use of a DOG enables the station or network to enforce brand identification even when standard commercials are skipped.

DOG watermarking helps to reduce off-the-air copyright infringement—for example, the distribution of a current series' episodes on DVD: the watermarked content is easily differentiated from "official" DVD releases, and can help identify not only the station from which the broadcast was captured, but usually the actual date of the broadcast as well.

Graphics may be used to identify if the correct subscription is being used for a type of venue. For example, showing Sky Sports within a pub requires a more expensive subscription; a channel authorized under this subscription adds a pint glass graphic to the bottom of the screen for inspectors to see. The graphic changes at certain times, making it harder to counterfeit.

On the other hand, watermarks pollute the picture, distract viewers' attention and may cover an important piece of information presented in the television program. Extremely bright watermarks may cause screen burn-in on some types of TV sets.

Usage of visually perceptible embedded watermarks requires program author to have a separate clean copy for archival purposes, but this practice was not common decades ago when watermarking became popular among broadcasters. Watermarks present an issue when archival videos are used for a documentary that strives to create a coherent story. In some cases, watermarks are blurred or digitally removed if possible to clean up the picture. In the absence of visually perceptible watermarks content control can be ensured with visually imperceptible digital watermarks.

In some cases, the graphic also shows the name of the current program. Some television networks may place additional logos or text alongside their DOG to advertise significant upcoming programs. For example, broadcasters of the Olympic Games often add the Olympic rings to their DOG for a period of time leading up to—and during—the Games.

Usage

Many news broadcasters, as well as a few television networks in such cases, also place a clock alongside their bug. In the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, DOGs may also include the show's parental guideline rating. In Australia, this is known as a Program Return Graphic (PRG). It has become common to place text above the station's logo advertising other programs on the network.

In many countries, some TV networks put "live" in the bottom of the DOG to advise viewers that the program is live, as opposed to a repeat. During televised sports events, a DOG may also display a few game-related statistics such as the current score. This has led many people in Canada and the United States to refer to it as a score bug.

In many countries, DOGs are removed in non-programme sections such as commercials and programme trailers, but TV channels in some other countries have not removed them in either of these sections or in all sections (like Turkey, Indonesia, Italy, Vietnam, Taiwan, and some TV channels in Russia).

Arab world

Arabic TV logos are placed in the top-right and top-left except for Al-Jazeera, whose logo appears on the bottom-right of the screen. Some of the Arabian TV stations hide their logos during commercial breaks and promos/trailers, such as Dubai TV, Dubai One, Funoon, the Egyptian CBC and Nile TV networks, ART Hekayat, ART Hekayat 2, Iqraa and Al-Jazeera.

Abu Dhabi TV and MBC1 initially had their logos at the bottom-right corner from their launch until the mid-2000s, when they were moved to the top-right corner.

Argentina

Beginning in the late 1990s, almost all television stations in Argentina had their logos being shown on the top-right of the screen. When Canal 9 relaunched in 2002 to replace Azul Televisión, its logo was shown on the bottom-left of the screen. After intense criticism, Canal 9 moved its logo to the top-right of the screen of which most Argentine broadcasters had almost always followed.

Australia

Australia first introduced the digital on-screen graphic in the early 1990s on Prime7 (then Prime Television) and WIN Television. The Seven Network was the first metropolitan network to broadcast digital on-screen graphics on all of their programs in May 1999, following Nine Network in December 2001, Network Ten in December 2004 and the ABC in January 2005. DOGs in Australia most commonly appear in the bottom-right-hand corner of the screen, but sports orientated content that uses the network's sports brand (e.g. Seven Network and Seven Sport) generally appear on the top-right hand corner of the screen. One originally placed its DOG in the top-right hand corner of the screen due to it being a sports-orientated channel at the time, but after the 2011 rebrand to allow a wide range of content to be broadcast, the channel's DOG was moved to the bottom-right-hand corner of the screen. The ABC3 and ABC Kids channels originally placed their DOGs in the top-left hand corner of the screen, but moved them down to the bottom-right-hand corner as of late 2013. Datacasting channels and home shopping channels show their DOGs in the top-right hand corner of the screen.

DOGs are generally shown in a semi-transparent format, but are shown opaque during in-programme advertisements that take place at the very bottom of the screen. News services have their own DOGs placed where their network's DOG would normally be, but are only shown in an opaque format. News services generally show footage that was captured by another network (usually for sporting stories), but the semi-transparent DOG of the original network is still shown. Current affairs programmes and other news programmes that are produced by the network generally show their own opaque DOG at the bottom-left hand corner of the screen, opposite to their network's semi-transparent DOG which still appears (e.g. Nine Network and A Current Affair/ AMV & Seven).

Australian TV networks hide all of their DOGs during advertisement breaks, news and live sport programs. They only reappear during the promotion for a programme that will be shown on the station and are not shown during any other advertisement material.

At times, networks will superimpose a semi-transparent watermark immediately adjacent to their DOG to advertise an upcoming special event that the network will be broadcasting (e.g. Network Ten superimposed an advertisement for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics on their primary channel (Ten), 10 Bold, and 10 Peach as they were to be the Australian broadcaster of the event), or to advertise a popular upcoming programme.

In addition, during ABC's ABC News Breakfast, Seven's Sunrise and 10 Peach's Toasted TV (prior to 2018), a digital clock appears on the bottom right-hand corner of the screen while Nine's Today Show and Ten's Studio 10 appears on the bottom left-hand corner of the screen.

Currently, ABC, Seven, Prime, Nine, WIN and 10 are on the bottom-right-hand corner, while SBS is on the top-right hand corner.

Austria

ORF, the Austrian public broadcasting agency, introduced digital on-screen graphics in 1992 on both television channels operated back then. Before, only the abbreviation "ORF" was shown randomly for several minutes during the programming in the top right corner of the screen, styled in a simple white sans-serif typeface. Nowadays, all Austrian television channels, both public and private, are required by law to display a digital on-screen graphic continuously in order to enable channel identification. However, during commercial and continuity breaks, it is forbidden to show digital on-screen graphics, to allow a further distinction between paid commercials or station announcements and programming content.

The position on the screen varies between the top left and the top right corner: for instance, public broadcaster ORF shows the digital on-screen graphics on ORF1 (first channel) in the top left corner, on ORF 2 (second channel) in the top right corner and on ORF III (third channel) again in the top left corner. Commercial broadcaster ATV places the graphic in the top right corner on its main channel and in the top left corner on its additional channel ATV II. Most other commercial channels, such as Puls 4, show their digital on-screen graphics in the top right corner of the screen.

Belarus

In Belarus, digital on-screen graphics were introduced in 1992. Until 1997, national television station Belarus-1 showed their digital on-screen graphics in the bottom right corner of the screen. It was originally just text saying "ТБК", with the Б being red and the Т and К being white. In 1996, this changed to a semi-transparent black box with white text saying "БТ" in it. In 1997, the digital on-screen graphics for Belarus-1 was moved to the top left corner of the screen, with the digital on-screen graphics now being in color again for the first time since 1996. In 2011, the digital on-screen graphic moved to the top right corner, where it stays today.

Belgium

Dutch-language Belgian channels (i.e., those operating in Flanders) place their logo bugs at the top left corner, much like their counterparts in the Netherlands. Examples are the public broadcaster in Flanders, VRT, and the Flemish commercial broadcasters, DPG Media and De Vijver Media.

However, French-language Belgian channels (i.e., those operating in Wallonia), such as public broadcaster RTBF and commercial broadcaster RTL-TVI, use the bottom right corner of the screen, in contrast to French-language TV channels in France, Switzerland, etc., which use the top right or left corner.

Brazil

In Brazil, digital on-screen graphics were introduced in the mid-1990s and are always used by all channels (free and pay). In most free-to-air channels, the logos are located on the bottom-right-hand corner of the screen (except for RedeTV!, TV Gazeta, Rede Bandeirantes, and GloboNews, whose logos are placed on the top right corner of the screen; TV Cultura's logo moved from top left corner to bottom right corner of the screen in 2009) and in all free channels they are usually transparent, but if some program or event is being broadcast live or exclusive or if some archived footage is shown, they become colorful. Most pay channels usually have the logos on the top right corner of the screen. In some pay channels, the logos appear even in commercial breaks, but they become transparent in this situation.

Canada

Logo bugs are used by Canadian broadcasters in a nearly identical fashion to U.S. broadcasters. However, a complication emerges when Canadian broadcasters simulcast U.S. programming (a frequent practice among broadcast television networks, intended to invoke the simultaneous substitution rules requiring TV providers to substitute the feeds of U.S. broadcast channels with those of local, Canadian broadcast channel, if they are airing identically scheduled programming). While pre-recorded programs (e.g. dramas, sitcoms) can be delivered to the broadcaster by their distributor and played out locally (without depending on taking a feed from a U.S. network), live programs may not always have a clean feed available that is free of the U.S. network's bugs and imaging, necessitating the use of a dirty feed from the network instead.

In these scenarios, some channels—including, most frequently, CTV and CTV Two, as well as its Bell Media sister channels—covered the U.S. network's bug with their own, opaque logo. However, Bell has since ceased this practice, and the majority of broadcasters "co-brand" the dirty feed by placing their own bug in a different corner of the screen than the U.S. logo.

Some channels in Canada (such as YTV or Teletoon) used to display a ten-second animation as the screenbug that would play every segment after 1–3 minutes. This practice was mostly discontinued in 2012. Family Channel did this practice through 2017 however.

Chile

Chilean television stations started showing their logos permanently in the 1990s, though some channels, like Televisión Nacional de Chile, have made some tests with DOGs as early as 1981. During that time, logos were placed in the bottom-right of the screen. La Red was the first television broadcaster to move their logo to the top of the screen. Additionally, between 1992 and 1994, the logo shown as a DOG would replace the letter "E" in its name with any other object, depending on the context (for example, a soccer ball would replace the "E" during sports-related programming), something that was part of their general branding back then. In 1997, due to a logo change, the logo was placed at the top-left, and later due to the same reason, moved to the top-right until now. Other broadcasters, such as Mega, which its logo being originally shown on the bottom-left of the screen, moved to the top-right of the screen due to similar reasons; Canal 13, in a similar manner, moved its logo from the bottom-right to the top-right corner in 2002. Chilevisión has continued to have its logo being shown on the bottom-right of the screen until 2007, when it moved to the top-right of the screen, of which other television channels in Chile had followed in the previous years. Beginning in the late 2000s, separate logos are used for network newscasts; they are usually placed in the bottom-left corner and are shown in conjunction with the network logo.

China

TV stations in mainland China always place their logo (usually semi-transparent and sometimes animated) in the top-left corner of the screen in full colour or grey-scale, regardless of the content being broadcast (programme or advertisements), some channels like Phoenix Television hide their logos during commercial breaks; although in some rare cases, the DOG may be placed elsewhere to avoid covering the score bug during the broadcast of a sporting event.

China introduced logos in 1983 on bottom-left corner of the screen but was used only during commercial breaks and clock idents. Later China Central Television (CCTV) introduced permanent DOGs for all programmes in 1992, on the top-left corner of the screen. China also displays clock on top-right corner of the screen for 1 minute between 59:30-00:30 & 29:30-30:30 time in transition between programmes.

Czech Republic (Czechia)

Almost all Czech (and Slovak) TV channels place their logos in the top left corner of the screen, irrespective of the broadcasting network. The public television broadcaster Česká televize and the major commercial TV broadcasters ( TV Nova, FTV Prima and TV Barrandov) all place their logos in the top left corner, as do many pay channels from pan-European broadcasters (though some use the top right). This is also the case with Slovak TV channels, some of which are broadcast in the Czech Republic.

The only exceptions from the major local broadcasters are the Nova Sport channels (Nova Sport 1 and 2, SD and HD), which place their logos in the top right corner instead of the usual top left, since score graphics for many sports use the top left corner and the public news broadcaster ČT24 between 2007 and 2010, where placed their logo in the bottom left corner.

Denmark

Unlike Scandinavian neighbours Norway and Sweden, which almost exclusively use the top right corner for their DOGs, TV channels in Denmark may use either the top left corner or the top right for their DOGs. The public broadcaster DR and the state-owned commercial broadcaster TV 2 display their logos at the top left, as does commercial broadcaster Discovery with its TV channels such as Kanal 4 and Kanal 5. However, TV3 and other Viasat channels owned by Nordic Entertainment Group (formerly part of Modern Times Group) display their logos at the top right.

El Salvador

In the mid-1980s, Canal 12 started with a Video Cassette Recording text as "TV-12" white, and TCS's Canal 4 used as the channel's logo on the top-left position, both exclusively in live events. Telecorporación Salvadoreña (TCS) channels began using exclusively on newsreels and live events by 1987, and TVCE (today TVES), a Salvadoran public broadcaster began using as a VCR text with a cyan and sometimes yellow color on live in early-1990s. TCS Channels began using in 2000, for each one of the three channels permanently as a normal broadcasting; other channels did the same thing as today, commonly on the top-right screen. Each September the logo uses as an Independence Month with a Salvadoran flag for TCS Channels, and each December the logo uses as a Christmas decoration. Some television channels and programs uses as a transparent logo, a digital clock or both such as Agape TV.

Finland

Nelonen was the first channel in Finland to use a DOG from its launch in June 1997. MTV3 started to use a DOG in the beginning of 1998, and Yle introduced DOGs in its two channels in August 1998.

Public broadcaster Yle moved its logos from the top right corner to the top left when it rebranded on 5 March 2012. However, the commercial TV channels, like MTV3 and Nelonen, place their logos at the top right. This is exactly the opposite of what is seen with the Netherlands, where the public broadcasting consortium NPO places its logo bug at the top right, but the main commercial broadcasters use the top left.

Most logos on free channels are small, white or gray and opaque, but some have colors like National Geographic and TLC.

France

La Cinq was the first channel in France to use the DOG when it launched in February 1986; it remained on the bottom-right corner until the channel ceased operations in April 1992. After the first private channels launched between 1986 and 1990, DOGs began to be used on the public television channels operated by France Télévisions and TF1, where they were placed on the top right corner.

Currently, the public TV broadcaster France Télévisions, as well as the majority of French commercial TV stations (such as the TF1 and M6 networks), display their logos at the top right corner of the screen. However, some channels, such as Franco-German cultural channel Arte, use the top left corner. During programming blocks aimed at children, TF1 and international channel TV5 uses another DOG.

Germany

In the 1980s, public broadcasters started to randomly show logos during programs to prevent video piracy, following the lead of Italian broadcasters RAI and Canale 5. After the first private stations emerged in 1984, permanently showing their logo most times, the public broadcasters soon followed.
Today practically all TV stations show their logo during the programs and often these are an integral part of their design using fluent motion graphic animations to make the transition between programs, previews and advertising, as well as displaying additional information such as teletext numbers or the name of the following program.
Most logos are transparent during programming though some channels do not. (For instance, kabel eins uses a bright orange coloured logo.)

TV channels generally may show their logos at the top left or top right of the screen, depending on the network. Public broadcaster ARD’s national channels display logo watermarks at the top right corner, but the individual regional broadcasting organisations’ TV channels may show their logos at either the top left or the top right (for instance, BR and HR’s TV channels use the top left for their logos, but MDR Fernsehen and RBB Fernsehen use the top right). Commercial network ProSiebenSat.1 Media, like ARD, uses the top right corner for all its channels, such as ProSieben, Sat.1, kabel eins and sixx. (However, Sat.1 used the top left corner until 2001, and again between 2008 and 2009.) But secondary public broadcaster ZDF and commercial broadcaster Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland use the top left corner for their channels, such as ZDF, RTL or VOX (exceptions in RTL's case are youth-oriented commercial channel RTL Zwei and news channel n-tv, whose logos are displayed at neither the top left nor the top right but the bottom right). News channel Welt (formerly N24) does not use any of these corners for its logo: its logo is placed in the bottom left corner. Another channel using this corner is documentary and parliament channel Phoenix, which moved its logo from the top left to the bottom left during its June 2018 rebrand.

Channels (except Phoenix) that are collaborations between ARD and ZDF (e.g., KiKa), or between ARD, ZDF and foreign broadcasters (e.g., Arte, a collaboration with France Télévisions, and 3sat, a collaboration with SRG SSR and ORF), use the top left corner.

Greece

On all Greek network television networks, DOGs appear on the top left corner of the screen, with the exception of Skai TV, which moved its logo from the top left to the top right as part of its rebrand in October 2018. Since 1997, almost all television stations in Greece keep their logos on the screen their logos during advertisements, although in channels such as Skai TV the logo becomes transparent.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong TV introduced DOGs in 1994. Hong Kong DOGs can be both color & semi-transparent & always removed during commercial breaks. Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) placed their logos at top-right corner of the screen while now-defunct Asia Television & other channels placed their logos at top-left corner of the screen. Sometimes, weather information, date & time clock had been used alongside DOGs in news programmes, continuity & live broadcasts.

Hungary

Hungarian DOGs were first introduced in MTV’s channel M2 from 1989, but they were very rare until 1991. M2 was the first network to always display its DOG, which was a quarter-circle (which was bright and noticeable). It first showed up in 1992 but it changed in 1994 due to logo change. This was followed by many broadcasters and TV channels.

Most DOGs are semi-transparent (either in colour or grayscale), but some including Hír TV, PRIME, Viasat 3 and their sister channel Viasat 6, and the long-defunct TV3 have opaque, colour DOGs.

By and large, the corner used by the logo of a TV channel depends on the network. Public broadcaster Magyar Televízió moved its channels’ logos from the top right corner to the top left during its 2012 corporate rebrand, much like Yle in Finland, which also rebranded in that year, and their logos had changed from colour to gray-scale beginning in March 2015. MTV's thematic TV channel, M4 Sport, due to it being a sports channel, shows its logo in the top right corner.

RTL Hungary's channels, such as RTL Klub, RTL II, Cool TV and Film+, have always placed their logos in the top left corner. Since 2021, RTL Klub hide the rainbow flag in the left side of the logo during Pride Month events.

TV2 Csoport's channels, such as TV2, SuperTV2 and FEM3, have always used the top right.

Age ratings have been included since 17 October 2002 onwards at the bottom of the screen as well as before the start of the program, but some channels dislike the requirement and use a different age rating system instead (mostly the Romanian ones, like the DIGI's educational channels, RTL (previously), and the independent TV2's sister channels) or none at all. Since July 2021, channels are required to depict the age rating 'circles' even during advertisements (the same for a single package, decided by the highest rated ad, e.g. if a commercial of a sexual medicine is being aired, the whole pack receives 18+ ratings and should be broadcast between 21:00 and 05:00 local time). This rule is in connection to the so-called '''anti-pedofile, according to its many critics, anti-LGBT law.

Many channels hide their logos in commercial breaks, such as the RTL network's channels, but some such as the independent TV2 and its sister channels include them during ads.

Hungarian version of Comedy Central and Hungarian-voice simulcast of the sports network Eurosport 2 are the only channels which have used all of their four corners of the screen during their lifetime, depicting their bugs. At the humor channel it's due to the rebrands, while at the latter, it's because of the urge not to cover the graphics of the licensed broadcasts like Bundesliga (top left corner until 2018 when licenses had moved to Sport TV), FIS Ski Jumping World Cup (usually top left corner) or PGA golf events (bottom left or bottom right corner, even online). However, Eurosport 2 has been using originally the top right corner to its DOG.

During the lifetime of the now-defunct Hálózat TV (Hungarian for ''Network Television''), while the original 24-hour cable channel placed their DOG in the top left corner, local (mainly free-to-air) television stations being subscripted to the evening programming, mainly the news and one or two pieces of movies, put the channel's own logo into the top right corner. Hálózat used bottom-left for ratings which isn't common in Hungary, even nowadays. Hálózat TV ceased broadcasting by January 2013.

Iceland

All Icelandic TV channels, such as RÚV, Stöð 2 and Stöð 3, place their transparent logo bugs in the top right corner of the TV screen, often with an 888 bug for subtitles.

India

The first on-screen logo in India was introduced in 1984 by DD2 Metro (now DD News). It was white and slightly transparent.

All Indian TV channels have on-screen logos. They are always full-colour, never transparent, and they are almost never removed during commercial breaks (though the channels of the South Indian Sun TV Network did so until 2015).

The great majority of Indian TV channels place their logos in the top right corner of the screen, though there are exceptions. The corner used may be broadcaster-dependent. Among the big national broadcasters:

* Channels from the Sony