As most UK TV historians know, Powergen sponsored ITV's national weather forecasts for 18 years between 13th February 1989 until New Year's Eve 2007 (it had then renamed to Eon). It was the very first British TV programme to be sponsored and one of the longest-running sponsorship deals overall (3rd to be exact, the longest was car giant Ford sponsoring Sky Sports's coverage of the football Premier League for 24 years from 1992 until 2016 where Nissan took over). Powergen's sponsor idents were well-known for the Weathergens mascots that aired between 1996-2001 with names such as Brellina, Shivera, Frice, Gilda name but a few.
Between 1st May 1993 up until 9th November 1996, the company's idents revolved around revealing a part of the Powergen logo surrounded by a different weather condition, to reflect the mood of that day's outlook, complete with the 5-note "Get Ready For ITV" jingle from 1989 at the end.
Nearly all of their idents from all the eras through the years are available online which appear at the start/end of ITV National Weather forecasts (or within past advert breaks) which various old UK TV presentation vloggers have uploaded throughout time; but there is one ident from the above 1993-1996 era that is missing:- a lawnmower behind the Powergen logo on a light green background, representing the Spring & Summer months. That particular ident can't be found in full anywhere online except for a brief glimpse on a retrospective video which had been uploaded recently. Even YouTuber Wesley Cracknell had made up a message video about this certain missing ident.
Their eras throughout time:-
- 13th February 1989-30th April 1993 - a generic ITV National Weather ident that was a globe spinning around and the Powergen logo flies onto it towards the end.
- 1st May 1993-9th November 1996 - revealing parts of the Powergen logo, reflecting the mood of that day's forecast.
- 10th November 1996-26th October 2001 - the Weathergens, 12 different mascots representing every type of weather. Various minor edits have been updated within their time.
- 27th October 2001-8th November 2003 - "Emotions". Idents such as a gloomy girl texting on her mobile phone with grey storm clouds above her. 2 batches were created.
- 9th November 2003-18th May 2007 - Comedian Simon Day played a fictional character named "Bob" where him & his mates do various activities and shoehorn weather-related puns into them.
- 19th May-31st December 2007 - Powergen had renamed to Eon. Their idents contained stock footage of children or adults playing outside in various weather conditions. They were replaced by insurance companies Sheila's Wheels & Esure on New Year's Day 2008.