PBS Satellite Service

1st Logo (July 21, 1995-September 1998)

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Visuals: Dark blue lights can be seen swirling and moving around over a blue aurora background. The PBS logo, seen in a similar way to the 3rd logo, sits over the lights. The logo is colored light blue with a slight tint of teal, it and the text are metallic and the logo reflects the aurora and the lights moving around.

Technique: CGI.

Audio:

• Chris Murney, the same announcer as in the 5th PBS logo, says "You are watching PBS, viewer-supported public television."
• Early on, a different male announcer says, "This is PBS, your source of quality programming on public television."

Availability: This was used between programs on PBS's satellite feed.

Legacy: This logo was a surprise discovery, largely because home recordings from the PBS satellite feed are very rare. A more recent discovery is that everything was done with dissolves in the early years of PBS Express on Schedule X.

2nd Logo (September 1998-June 30, 2000)

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Visuals: Against a computer-animated green sky background, the PBS circle zooms in in the center as a kaleidoscope of acrobats doing various tricks appear around it.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: A rearrangement of the 1998 PBS logo's theme. A male voiceover says either "This is PBS" or "Supported by viewers like you, this is PBS."

3rd Logo (September 1998-June 30, 2000)

Visuals: Against a computer-animated green sky background, a kaleidoscope consisting of several humans holding placards is zoomed in on, with the PBS circle in the center. The circle briefly fades out before fading back in, and the placards alternate between a random program's title card and a still from the same program throughout.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: One of several rearrangements of the 1998 PBS logo's theme. Both it and the voiceover depended on the program being promoted.

4th Logo (July 1, 2000-July 21, 2002)

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Visuals: Against a blue background is the PBS circle in a light blue color with the P-head being the same blue color as the background. The "P" Circle slowly eases back and fades out as four blue circles appear and spread around the screen revealing the PBS "P" Circle, now in the standard black and white colors, inside. Four more circles appear and the outer circles merge with the other circles before they begin spreading out. Below the "P" Circle, "Stay curious." fades in in white, with "PBS" to the right in black.

Technique: 2D computer animation.

Audio: A rearrangement of the 2000 PBS logo's theme.

5th Logo (July 22, 2002-November 6, 2022)

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Visuals: Two lens flares cascade across a black background, causing an explosion that reveals several zooming layers of the PBS P-Head logo, all now against a blue/pink/red gradient background with a bubblegum pink motif in the center. A black circle zooms in as the features of the P-Head slide into it, as the letter "P" and then "BS" slide in next to the circle in its corporate font. The background continues to shine.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: A rearrangement of the 2002 PBS logo's theme.

Final Note

Around the time the 2009 PBS logo was finally retired, the satellite service started to simply use the extended versions of the 2019 PBS logo as its ID.