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On Tuesday 2 November 1982, a new dawn broke for British television with the arrival of Channel 4. Unlike BBC One, BBC Two and ITV, it broke the mould by commissioning its programmes from independent producers rather than making them itself, paving the way for the future of television as we know it today in a multichannel age. It also had a remit to broadcast an “alternative” to the existing channels.

Viewers were greeted by the sight of nine flying blocks in five colours forming themselves into a logo to make the figure 4, accompanied by David Dundas’s Fourscore theme tune, before Paul Coia, the out-of-vision announcer, said: “Good afternoon. It’s a pleasure to be able to say to you, welcome to Channel 4.”

The pioneer behind this concept of on-air branding, a groundbreaking computer-animated “ident”, was Pam Masters, the channel’s first head of presentation, who has died of cancer aged 82.

From pitches by three companies, she chose to develop the idea and designs put forward by Martin Lambie-Nairn. Together, in a pre-digital age, they travelled to Los Angeles to work with Bo Gehring Aviation to generate the computer-animated 35mm frames that would make up a set of seven-second animations, which won the rarely awarded Black Pencil – for industry-defining work – from the D&AD (Design & Art Direction) organisation.

In 1988, Masters was lured back to the BBC, where she had begun her career as a secretary, to become the corporation’s head of presentation. She went on condition that she could bring a brand-focused attitude to its channels and, in her signature high heels and shoulder pads, became one of the most powerful women in what was then very much a man’s world.

“As we move into the 1990s and enter a far more competitive broadcasting landscape, it is essential that the BBC’s branding and corporate identity are strong, well-recognised, and present a unified image,” she said.

Collaborating with Lambie-Nairn’s design agency in 1991, she was responsible for turning the static globe seen between programmes on BBC One into a mixed-media spinning version (a real-life model of a globe with other layers of animation).

At the same time, BBC Two’s logo – simply the word “TWO” in coloured capital letters on a white background – was declared by the channel’s then controller, Alan Yentob, to be “unmemorable”, with audience research describing it as “dull” and “old-fashioned”.

Masters oversaw Lambie-Nairn’s witty design work on new idents, which included viridian paint splashing across a black and white number 2. Later versions featured a fluffy toy dog-style numeral that inspired a viewer to write Ode to the Fluffy BBC2, as well as fireworks and a remote-controlled car. This creativity was rewarded with a D&AD Yellow Pencil for outstanding work, and a Bafta Television Craft award for graphic design.

In 1997, Masters and Lambie-Nairn revisited BBC One’s ident, replacing the spinning globe with a predominantly red hot-air balloon filmed flying over British landmarks ranging from the Scottish Highlands and a Northern Irish lough to the Needles on the Isle of Wight, Snowdonia and the Thames. The idea, part of a corporation-wide rebrand that included restyling “BBC1” as “BBC One”, was to convey the message that the BBC was a trusted friend reaching all parts of the UK.

This example of cultural storytelling was one that Masters, with Jane Frost, the BBC’s head of corporate and brand marketing, took further in 1997 with an on-screen promotion featuring Lou Reed and two dozen other singers, from Elton John and David Bowie to Tom Jones and the band Boyzone, performing the Reed song Perfect Day. She and Frost went through battles with management to get their idea for the four-minute video aimed at licence fee payers accepted.

It ended with the caption: “Whatever your musical taste, it is catered for by BBC Radio and Television. This is only possible thanks to the unique way the BBC is paid for by you. You make it what it is.” The impact of the promotion was such that, in November that year, the recording was released as a charity single in aid of Children in Need, reaching No 1 in the charts and selling more than a million copies.

Pamela was born in Newlyn, Cornwall, to Gwen (nee Pawlyn) and Ken Masters, who owned china shops. When she was four, the family moved to Sidmouth, Devon, where she attended West Bank school.

Following a year at a Swiss finishing school, she joined the BBC’s presentation department in 1962 as a secretary,soon becoming a continuity clerk. She rose through the ranks as a network director keeping programmes and announcers running to time, and an editor overseeing transmissions and links.

In 1981, in preparation for its launch, she joined Channel 4, where its founding chief executive Jeremy Isaacs said she ruled with an “icy efficiency”. Then came her long and successful stint at the BBC as head of presentation (later retitled head of broadcasting and presentation).

She became managing director of the newly created BBC Broadcast in 2002, taking programmes from producers and assembling them into a schedule for transmission, and creating promotions.

The business was sold to the Australian conglomerate Macquarie three years later and renamed Red Bee Media, with Masters as chief executive. When it took on work outside the BBC, she travelled to Beijing to create animations for Chinese television coverage of the 2008 Olympics. In the same year, Red Bee started providing technical and operational support to Channel 4.

She retired to Northumberland, close to the Scottish border, in 2015 and tended her garden with the same passion she had put into her television career.

In 2000, she received the Pinnacle award from Promax/BDA, a Los Angeles-based professional organisation for branding in the entertainment industry.

She married the television light entertainment producer and executive Alan Boyd in 1976. He survives her, as does her brother, Peter.

• Pamela Mary Masters, television executive, born 23 February 1944; died 1 March 2026