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UTV rebrand

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

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JK
JKDerry
DE88 posted:
Thank you for your opinion, it is noted, however, like you we all gave our thoughts, otherwise what is the point of this website forum for? I gave my views, and disagree, fine, I don't mind, but there is no need for insults.


Would it be rude of me to ask exactly what you're disagreeing with? My "fingers before brain" remark, or whether or not UTV have already paid the price for the failure of UTV Ireland (or, indeed, both)?

As regards the former, fair enough, I should have kept that to myself, and I apologise. As regards the latter, I *do* believe UTV have already paid the price, since they *have* already been taken over by ITV plc and *have* already lost at least a great deal of their independence, and their radio stations *have* been taken over by Murdoch - but if you believe that they haven't finished paying the price yet, I absolutely respect that.

Smile Smile Smile

Thank you for your apology, yes it was your first comment that annoyed me a bit. Thank you for the apology, usually you get people on here who say what they like, and think they won't be called out. Everyone has a view, but we should all have a bit of decency.
LL
London Lite Founding member
LS
Lou Scannon
Shocked The abrupt way that the theme music was "faded" (pah!) out as the titles mixed to the studio was shoddy. So too was the how audible/loud the "paper shuffling" sounds made with her script were.

Are UTV news bulletins normally that "rough around the edges"? If so, I hope that the building move improves things.
DB
dbl
Shocked The abrupt way that the theme music was "faded" (pah!) out as the titles mixed to the studio was shoddy. So too was the how audible/loud the "paper shuffling" sounds made with her script were.

Are UTV news bulletins normally that "rough around the edges"? If so, I hope that the building move improves things.

Glad it wasn't just me!
Lou Scannon and MMcG198 gave kudos
RI
Richard
Well the inevitable has happened. UTV News will be getting a set very similar to the English and Welsh regions on ITV News. They are moving into a fraction of the size of Havelock House, and this really is it. On the UTV Facebook page, the little glimpse showed the "soft" area of the studio used for UTV Life etc, and then the small news desk area, and that is it.

UTV are paying the price for the disaster that was UTV Ireland. If they had have kept their nose out of the Irish television market, all of this might never have happened, as UTV were always fiercely independent, like STV in Scotland, now STV are the only true independent franchise from the older ITV era left.



They might be paying the price in terms of the takeover by ITV, but I think the move from Havelock House would have happened at some point anyway, and just happened sooner as a result of the ITV takeover.

STV have also downsized, and if UTV had remained independent, they would have probably ended up relocating to a location similar to what they're about to move in to (possibly a bit larger to accommodate the radio stations).


Well given that U105 and Wireless Group’s Belfast offices have moved to the same new building as UTV, it might’ve happened that way even if UTV hasn’t sold the TV company to ITV.
MM
MMcG198
Shocked The abrupt way that the theme music was "faded" (pah!) out as the titles mixed to the studio was shoddy. So too was the how audible/loud the "paper shuffling" sounds made with her script were.

Are UTV news bulletins normally that "rough around the edges"? If so, I hope that the building move improves things.


Virtually every UTV news presenter (especially short bulletins) do that ridiculous paper shuffling thing. A lot of them also have a similar, unnatural, style of verbal delivery, where syllables are dragged out.

As for the music from the opening titles fading out in sync with the vision mix - that's always been a feature of news bulletins (potentially a limitation of the desk).
LL
London Lite Founding member
Well the inevitable has happened. UTV News will be getting a set very similar to the English and Welsh regions on ITV News. They are moving into a fraction of the size of Havelock House, and this really is it. On the UTV Facebook page, the little glimpse showed the "soft" area of the studio used for UTV Life etc, and then the small news desk area, and that is it.

UTV are paying the price for the disaster that was UTV Ireland. If they had have kept their nose out of the Irish television market, all of this might never have happened, as UTV were always fiercely independent, like STV in Scotland, now STV are the only true independent franchise from the older ITV era left.



They might be paying the price in terms of the takeover by ITV, but I think the move from Havelock House would have happened at some point anyway, and just happened sooner as a result of the ITV takeover.

STV have also downsized, and if UTV had remained independent, they would have probably ended up relocating to a location similar to what they're about to move in to (possibly a bit larger to accommodate the radio stations).


Well given that U105 and Wireless Group’s Belfast offices have moved to the same new building as UTV, it might’ve happened that way even if UTV hasn’t sold the TV company to ITV.


Wireless/U105 are on Level 7 with UTV on 8. So once again neighbours.
RI
Richard
Noticed that UTV have an ident at 8:25 with a “Good Morning from UTV” v/o from Julian. It immediately followed an ITV-branded trailer for the World Cup coverage.

Presumably in central and northern Scotland it is just an ITV branded ident at this time, rather than STV?
MR
mr_vivian
It's the end of an era in Havelock House. I've been inside it many times and it's huge.... it was too big for such a small station really.

I think this move will be a good thing for UTV and I actually think itv have been very good to UTV by keeping some of the local shows on air and opting out of the network.

It's really going to be as good as it gets now though. I would doubt there will be any more growth in UTV unless ofcom force itv to provide more opt outs.
bkman1990 and London Lite gave kudos
MM
MMcG198
Noticed that UTV have an ident at 8:25 with a “Good Morning from UTV” v/o from Julian. It immediately followed an ITV-branded trailer for the World Cup coverage.

Presumably in central and northern Scotland it is just an ITV branded ident at this time, rather than STV?


UTV branding (idents and trails) was introduced to the 6am - 9.25am slot quite a while ago now. The ITV-branded trail that you saw would've been an error.

STV has to make do with all the ITV branding as they don't own the 6am - 9.25am slot. If you managed to catch 'Good Evening Britain' during the week, you'll have noticed the dual ITV/STV branding.
MM
MMcG198
It's the end of an era in Havelock House. I've been inside it many times and it's huge.... it was too big for such a small station really.

I think this move will be a good thing for UTV and I actually think itv have been very good to UTV by keeping some of the local shows on air and opting out of the network.

It's really going to be as good as it gets now though. I would doubt there will be any more growth in UTV unless ofcom force itv to provide more opt outs.


I wouldn't say Havelock House is "huge". However, it certainly has a lot more space than the UTV of today needs.

Being consigned to one floor of an office block says a lot about local TV in this country. UTV's days of producing entertainment shows such as 'Kelly' - or covering major sports events - are long gone. It's basically a regional news office now.

I'll be interested to see how 'UTV Live' looks on air. It's a very small studio space.
ST
Stuart
Being consigned to one floor of an office block says a lot about local TV in this country. UTV's days of producing entertainment shows such as 'Kelly' - or covering major sports events - are long gone. It's basically a regional news office now.

You don't need a permanent studio complex to be able to produce regional TV programmes these days - you just need the infrastructure to create them and then broadcast them to your target audience afterwards.


That can indeed just be "an office" in the region. The version of my own regional ITV News programme doesn't even come from within the region - unless you call the "West Country Franchise" a proper region when it was created in 2014.
Last edited by Stuart on 1 July 2018 2:09pm

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