a wiseman's posts, page 6

Coronation Street

Yes, just when we were beginning to think that the complaints from people here and other other forums/lists had achieved the desired effect of flushing them away, the turds that are IPPs on Coronation Street have resurfaced in the toilet bowl of ITV for all to see again!

If you know of anyone else - friends, partners, colleagues - who are annoyed by these floaters please encourage them to whinge by writing to: ITV Duty Office, Gas Street, Birmingham. B1 2JT

or phoning: 0844 88 14150 (Mo-Fr 8am-11pm, Sa-Su 10am-10pm)
or faxing: 0844 88 14198
or emailing: dutyoffice@itv.com
or filling in the online complaint form

Moyles in anorak mode

I heard Mr Moyles humming the theme to the LWT river ident on his show the other week as he re-created a Saturday night on ITV. He had to explain to his confused team what the LWT ident was!

Coronation Street

ITV first started with its OSNs (On-screen Nexts) in March 2002. Viewers immediately complained and ITV's response was to remove the banners from all drama.

The ITC welcomed this decision as its audience research had shown that that some viewers were "irritated by any increase in 'clutter' around programmes. Whilst recognising that OSNs were a low-key device, the ITC was concerned about this new development in programme time."

ITV did slap the banners back on Corrie a few times since, to test the water. But mostly the pop-ups were confined to entertainment programming at the weekend.

But tonight's splurge is just taking the effing pee. They're obviously trying it on in the name of audience research. That is, they're hoping no-one will complain.

The ITC has of course been replaced by Ofcom, who don't seem to give a toss about the viewer and make it very difficult to complain.

But if you care, do what I did, make sure that ITV realise this is not on, and e-mail dutyoffice@itv.com

If you use the language of an "average" viewer (i.e don't refer to internet forums, on-screen nexts etc.) then our voices might be heard!

The BBC World Cup Broadband trap!

If a TV is mains operated, you are required to licence it at every address it is used, whereas if it is battery operated, you are covered by your own licence. I assume then that watching TV on a mobile is covered by your home licence. Watching on a laptop at work therefore needs a licence at work until you pull the plug and switch to battery operation, at which point it becomes legal again. What a farce!

Coronation Street

The ITV producer guidelines (which are probably available at itv.com somewhere) say that all shows must use one of a limited choice of closing credit styles. Producers who wish to deviate from these styles or who wish to use moving pictures must get special permission to do so. Emmerdale's bosses obviously secured permission. Corrie's people perhaps thought that since it was ITV's flagship show it should lead by example and use the awful blue stripy background.

I have to say I dislike the blue stripy background to Corrie, because it looks so different from the programme itself - as if it has been added by someone else with no sense of style! The only backgrounds that work (IMHO) are moving pictures (such as those used for Emmerdale) or a solid black background (which looks cool when they do the credit squeeze - but probably not so cool on STV). Corrie should use a nice shot of the cobbles or something like that, IMHO.

Coronation Street

Is it me or have there been a lot of references to other TV programmes recently? (Wasn't there another one tonight, besides Blue Peter?) I wondered if someone had a bet that he couldn't get the title of a BBC show into every episode of Corrie?

Coronation Street

Not so "obviously", the show is made by Granada Television but branded as ITV Productions in the UK (and ROI it appears). But when Granada programmes appear on other channels (e.g. Countdown on C4), the Granada G logo is used instead, and I understand Granada's ITV programmes also use the G logo when shown abroad. I wonder what the Aussies are seeing at the end of Corrie?

Coronation Street

Do TV3 have the same version as ITV1, i.e. does the version on TV3 have the horrid ITV corporate closing credits and the "ITV Productions" animation and the Cadbury's sponsorship? And are the double episodes handled in the same way? Just curious. (When ITV first started the end credit promotions and the credits were fixed to a panel on the right-hand side, apparently the export version of the Street continued to have the usual closing credit sequence.)

the stv thread

Immediately before the STV ident introducing The Jeremy Kyle show this morning, there was a This Summer on ITV1 trail. Is this normal?

Cosmetic changes for Channel Television

Cool. Nice bunch of logos there for us presentation anoraks. I particularly like the MD's assertion that the change was important "because it's what our staff and our viewers told us we had to do". Mixed messages indeed

Coronation Street

Two things happened in the Monday night double episode of Corrie - techniques were used that aren't normally allowed on British soaps. I haven't been this excited (!) since they used incidental music when EastEnders went to the seaside and Tiffany's lover Simon turned out to be in love with her brother. (Hey didn't they steal that plotline for Corrie?)

Anyway, on Monday, Cilla looked into Dev's CCTV camera, and the producers decided to cut to the output of that camera. So we saw a mocked-up black and white image with Cilla gawping straight at us, with the time and date on it. I'm not sure why they did this. Perhaps a new producer was showing off?

Then in the second bending of the rules, Steve's squeeze Ronnie had a flashback. I've never seen them do that in Corrie before.

What next - voiceovers from dead characters? Ghosts? Bullet-time on the cobbles?

Cosmetic changes for Channel Television

I was looking at the opening to Channel Reports and I see they've messed around with their regional version of the ITV1 idents again. Instead of adding "Channel" underneath the yellow ITV box (as happens in Wales), it now reads "Channel Television". (Last week's bulletins have the old branding, this week's have the new branding for comparison.)

http://www.channelonline.tv/news/channelreport/

You might also notice that the Channel TV website now has a lot of ITV corporate logos on it and that the old channel TV web address has returned, with a very corporate ITV style to it:

http://www.channeltv.co.uk