Continuity announcement

A continuity announcement or station break is a message from the broadcaster which is placed between two different programmes. It commonly announces what shows are upcoming on the channel. It can consist of full video, a title card, or merely a voiceover. In modern times, continuity announcements have been made at the same time as end credits. Sometimes, these credits are visually "shrunk" on the screen to allow a visual segment to be laid over the top of the credits. Continuity announcements for Doctor Who are almost always included on the DVD releases of serials of the 1963 version of Doctor Who. Many fans have fond memories of particular continuity announcers, such as the American Howard da Silva. There have also been rare occasions where actors on the programme acted as their own continuity announcers. Both Tom Baker and David Tennant were known to have announced an upcoming episode. This happened most recently before the debut broadcast of The End of Time, Part 2, on BBC One.

One of the most recognizable kinds of continuity announcement is the channel ident — a very brief video clip which displays the channel logo, and is usually required by law to occur at various regular intervals. However, the exact form of the ident is up to the individual broadcaster. This leads to great variety. Doctor Who-themed idents have been used on Doctor Who-themed evenings on BBC Two, for example. The most prominent examples, however, were probably the Tenth Doctor Christmas idents which aired during 2009 on both BBC One and BBC America.