Idents, bumpers and stings are industry terms used in broadcast design for channel and show package branding. There is often confusion between those words because they refer to very similar pieces of animated content. In the UK's TV post production scene, stings and idents are usually short videos that provide an eye-catching introduction to what is being watched. The main differences between stings and idents are the duration and the way they are used.
Stings
Stings are quick logo reveals played at the end of a program, video or commercial to remind the audience what they are watching and differentiate the adverts. Logo stings usually last 5-10 seconds.
Idents
An ident—also known as station ID—is a short-form for an identifier. Idents can be anything between 10 to 30 seconds long and are considered short ads used to brand a network or channel. Idents usually culminates with the channel’s name or logo.
Bumpers
A bumper refers to a piece of video content, usually two to 15 seconds in length, that plays between a pause in a program and its commercial break, and vice versa. Contrary to idents, which are usually channel or business specific, bumpers are generally show- or programme-specific.
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