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UTV rebrand

New look to bring it in line with ITV (October 2016)

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PC
p_c_u_k
I may not have explained myself clearly enough.

What I meant was that ITV's concessions to Northern Ireland and Wales appear to go beyond what they have to do - retaining the name (for now) in NI, doing Santa Watch, but also doing more local programming in Wales than they have to (correct me if I'm wrong on this) and putting the Wales Euro game on ITV in Wales when it clashed with England, rather than just showing it on ITV2/4.

If the latter sounds like common sense, remember this is the channel that one upon a time showed a bulldog with an England flag on an ident badged ITV1 Wales...
ST
South Today
So tonight we bid farewell to UTV Ireland to television history.
VM
VMPhil


WH
Whataday Founding member
I may not have explained myself clearly enough.

What I meant was that ITV's concessions to Northern Ireland and Wales appear to go beyond what they have to do - retaining the name (for now) in NI, doing Santa Watch, but also doing more local programming in Wales than they have to (correct me if I'm wrong on this) and putting the Wales Euro game on ITV in Wales when it clashed with England, rather than just showing it on ITV2/4.

If the latter sounds like common sense, remember this is the channel that one upon a time showed a bulldog with an England flag on an ident badged ITV1 Wales...


It's true that the ITV of today is far more savvy than say, ten years ago and recognise the value in taking advantage of a degree of regionality.
CR
Critique
Why don't UTV have a local weather sponsor? I assumed it'd be the kind of thing that would change fairly swiftly after ITV ownership, but it continues without one (unless they edit it out of the 6:30 bulletin posted online). Either way, nice to not see one!
PF
PFML84
They used to have a sponsor for the weather. Perhaps their contract has ended and UTV are looking for a new one?
CH
chinamug
They used to have a sponsor for the weather. Perhaps their contract has ended and UTV are looking for a new one?


I think that's half the problem, Advertisers might be slow to sponsor the weather as when you think UTV weather, you think the Progressive Building Society (or at least the animations before and after the weather) They sponsored the weather on UTV for at least 10 years if not a lot longer. I don't know when they stopped but their mini cartoons and Brian Kennedy singing meant the weather was on the way (or finishing)
SO
SOL
I don't think that's a problem, really. You could say the same when Cadbury ended their sponsorship of Coronation St.
CH
chinamug
SOL posted:
I don't think that's a problem, really. You could say the same when Cadbury ended their sponsorship of Coronation St.


It's a fair point but, UTV weather/Progressive jingle/cartoon was going out 4 or 5 times a day for up to 20 years. There have been sponsors since (I think) but None would have the name impact. In the republic the weather forecast was sponsored by Telecom Eireann/Eircom for years and was called weatherline. Once the sponsorship came to an end it was called the weather, but it took years for people, papers and presenters to stop calling it weatherline.

At the end of the day companies can be slow to get involved with sponsoring media opportunities when they are associated with another company. However, I have no doubt that the opportunity and price will be right for someone and UTV weather fairly soon.
WH
Whataday Founding member
Taking over a well known sponsorship slot is hardly a disadvantage.

Getting an advertiser on board is not as easy as just finding someone appropriate - budgets are usually signed off annually for such a long campaign so it's a case of it being the right time.
CH
chinamug
Taking over a well known sponsorship slot is hardly a disadvantage.

Getting an advertiser on board is not as easy as just finding someone appropriate - budgets are usually signed off annually for such a long campaign so it's a case of it being the right time.


I'd agree with this, but It all depends on the client when it comes to Advantage/Disadvantage. A slot like that should be snapped up as soon as it appears, everyone would have notice of a gap appearing and it's very unlikely that ITV would ever decline a reasonable offer. However, at this time it doesn't appear to be attractive to Northern Irish Businesses. That's likely to change shortly and there's probably someone lined up to take it on.
BR
Brekkie
It isn't unusual at all for their to be a brief break when changing sponsor - indeed I suspect sometimes that is part of the deal.

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