UTV rebrand

Why is it alright for Ulsterbus to have Ulster in its name but not a Television station?

Not yet, I came home tonight on a usual bus we have used for that last number of years.

Not yet, I came home tonight on a usual bus we have used for that last number of years.

To get back to UTV, it is amazing how words mean a lot here. RTE for example very rarely if ever use the term Northern Ireland in their news programmes, it is nearly always referred to as "the north".

As with regards to Ulsterbus, don't ask me. I just know that UTV was always sensitive to names. I heard former UTV presenter Gerry Kelly talk about it a few years a go. UTV is the best for all, as it enables the unionists to know that U means Ulster, however UTV for nationalists can mean "YOU" to them, as they had used this term in promos in the 90s and indeed using it for UTV Ireland. "UTV is Your TV". Words mean everything.

I get what your saying but to be honest the worst years of the troubles was the 70s and 80s and was called Ulster Television and the name UTV was used for news bulletins in the 70s and people like Julian Simmons said UTV before the end of Ulster Television therefore it was more handiness as much as anything why the name was changed. You make some valid points of UTV having a balance of Britishness & Irishness and names being important to people here but even the name UTV Live probably tested the water for 6 months before the name changed.



UTV is the best for all at present but in the future I do think we will see the change of name to ITV, a lot of what was UTV has gone already such as in vision announcers, end of some local programming and local management and playout leaving Belfast and people haven't really complained so I doubt the troubles will start up again if the name is changed as long as those in Northern Ireland are still able to watch X Factor, Coronation Street, Emmerdale etc.

Bringing in the pedantic side of things - Ulster is a bit of a misnomer anyway, isn't it? Only part of Ulster is in Northern Ireland.

I know that Granada is some way away from Manchester, but that was an ongoing heritage situation - the station was still called Granada at switchover. I can't see ITV reverting UTV back to Ulster, especially given the sensitivities. They've been extremely cautious so far.

If anything, UTV would eventually become ITV. I still reckon that's the gameplan, but we can only see.

The word "Ulster" apparently isn't an issue at the Beeb, where Radio Ulster retains its original branding. I know they use Radio Foyle for their opt out service partly to sidestep the Derry/Londonderry issue.

If they were phasing the brand out would make sense to rebrand the news as UTV Live at Six, then ultimately switch it to ITV News Live at Six.

Looking back in the pre-UTV days it seems they generally used the Ulster prefix on the news but did have a brief period where it was branded Six Tonight.

See also Holland. And America. And, let's face it, England.

The BBC is a very different thing, the BBC is the established national broadcaster, publicly funded, so they have no trouble using Ulster as a name, UTV being more independent do. UTV choose in 1993 to offcially rename it UTV, as it was near the end of the troubles, but also they had a large presence in the Irish republic, most cable TV systems there carried UTV and everyone preferred to call it UTV.

Not sure what the hang up on the U and Ulster is here. It's not a sensitive issue at all unless you make it an issue.

The MD of UTV at the time said the reason for the rename was so the brand could go beyond Ulster. That's
it.

It wasn't about Protestant or Catholic views on it at all it was for commercial reasons.

And I have the same problem with any of these being used instead of the correct term. Holland = Netherlands. America = the US. The UK is the UK - saying England as a replacement for the UK is not acceptable.

It may look a bit clunky on the titles but it's not impossible for ITV News UTV Live to remain there, and the presenters to simply refer to it as UTV Live. In the grand scheme of battles ITV has to face on a daily basis I'm sure they'd live with that one.