UTV sell TV business to ITV

I thought the same but they're still in the usual studio tonight for UTV Live.

This looks fake, but would be great if it was true!

Massively unlikely I know, but..

Maybe they've already built a totally new UTV Live/News (or whatever it'll soon be called?) set in what has hitherto been the green chromakey studio, thus allowing a straight changeover with no temporary de-camping required?

Yes, well known spoof site!



That might not be that unlikely. Still would have thought we'd have had some forewarning by now. There is this exchange on Twitter, however.

thanks Stephen...coming very soon. Cheers. M

— Michael Wilson (@MWTweets) September 22, 2016

Yes that was me! Was hoping for a bit more info but he wasn't very forthcoming!

I wonder if we'll see any change in news / weather presenter line up, or indeed the editorial proposition of their news output.

I doubt there'll be any changes editorially. UTV has many years of experience in covering NI impartially (or at least trying to) so I reckon ITV will want to leave that well alone.

Yes, I would like to think impartiality will be maintained... However I was just wondering if the balance of types of story covered might alter. I'm not sure how UTV Live compares in that regard with the English ITV regional news programmes.

As I've documented (read that as whinged) on here from time to time down the years, I feel the tone of UTV Live has changed to align with what are now its sister regional news programmes - the turning point was the mass redundancies in late 2008/early 2009 where the old guard was mainly swept out, along with the axing of daily UTV Life to blend into the main programme.

In essence, we traded in the likes of Ivan Little for a bunch of Sharon O'Neill clones.

However, I believe there's still as busy a news agenda within Northern Ireland for the programme not to have to take content from other ITV News programmes, be so reliant on showbiz/tabloid-veering stuff - and hopefully, reports disguised as trailers for ITV programmes.

I don't think we'll see any significant change to the UTV Live team:

Paul Clark comfortably fits in with the Bob Warman/Fred Dinenage mould of long-serving male anchor

Marc Mallett, with his links to ITV News, is most likely to keep "double-jobbing"

Sarah Clarke, again fitting into the younger-female-teamed-up-with-older-male dynamic, is probably safe

Rose Neill, I personally hope is staying on, but there's not much precedent of an older female presenter on ITV regional news?

I don't foresee any changes in the reporting line-up: they seem to fit the formula of other local programmes

Weather: Sadly, I think Frank Mitchell will be kept on as the main presenter; Weather Watchers might get the chop, but the Weather Watching camera could get a reprieve if the bosses feel it matches the pre-forecast "banter" you see elsewhere.

Speaking of the weather forecasts, will those which use just a voiceover switch to being presented? This could be a stealthy opportunity for us to still see the likes of Gilly and Jules...

Again along with the weekend bulletins, next Monday's UTV Live at 6pm is listed as UTV News on Sky's listings.

Just having a look on Twitter, it seems the username for the UTV Live account has now been changed to @UTVNews. Not sure how long this has been the case for but having searched for @UTVLive there are tweets from just over a week ago mentioning the old username.

I don't think anyone within an ITV region has lost their job because they don't fit in with an alleged image. The loss of older presenters on shorter bulletins was more because they axed presenters in favour of reporters who occasionally do a bit of presenting. The lack of as many short bulletins mean you basically have the main hosts and practically everyone else is a reporter. That skill set is more likely to be held by a younger member of staff.

I don't think there has ever been a change in the main hosts of a programme that wasn't because of some other external factor that effected that region only rather than a national decision.