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End of the road for UTV?

Split from UTV - From City Quays 2 onwards (November 2020)

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AM
Alfie Mulcahy

re. Southern: they had a separate 'Scene South East' broadcast on Fridays only (the final edition from December 1981, which I find rather moving, has widely been distributed and I think it's on YouTube) and, latterly, 'Scene Midweek' on Wednesdays. They might have done more if Bluebell Hill, which was needed to fill a UHF gap in Kent between Crystal Palace and Dover which hadn't applied under VHF, hadn't initially been given to Thames and LWT when it opened in 1974, and indeed they surely would have done had they stayed on because the franchise would have been largened to move closer to London whoever had won it.


Well I never knew that. I assumed they weren't equipped to supply an opt-out to the south-east
CO
Cold Open
Talking about branding I was walking past UTV today and I saw the satilite truck in the car park and it now has no UTV branding on it at all makes me wonder are they gearing up for a rebrand soon maybe.


Ooh, interesting.

Given the improbability of the vehicle livery transfers having fallen off / dissolved in the rain / been stolen, I think that your supposition is a valid one.

I will be flabbergasted if any remaining uses of the UTV brand name survive beyond the end of this year at the very latest.

I'm sure that everything from the channel name on EPGs to the signage on their building will just be quietly changed one day, with little or no advanced notice and/or fanfare.

It is a shame that the UTV name is going out with a whimper, and experiencing a protracted "life support machine" period nowadays.

At least the way that most other legacy regional station names were phased out via the hearts dual-branding era was rather more dignified.
DE
denton
Talking about branding I was walking past UTV today and I saw the satilite truck in the car park and it now has no UTV branding on it at all makes me wonder are they gearing up for a rebrand soon maybe.


Does it usually have UTV branding? I thought Wyzcom provided the OB / SNG facilities for UTV.
UM
UlsterMan123
Didn't have any branding for anything UTV/ITV or Wyzcom communications it was just a van with a satellite dish in the folded position on it that was it really although when they 1st made the move to the new digs I had a nosey around them at the time and the utv vehicles all had the updated utv branding and as I said passed through yesterday and no branded vehicles
UM
UlsterMan123
And anyway, I really don't see why they are flogging this utv horse to death they are using itv branding on screen 247 even on the introductions to the regional stuff now it is itv on screen and a quick nod that it is utv live or view from storm front no storm mint no I mean stormont got there in the end. They should really just pull the plug now as utv is as good as dead.
WH
WrekinHavoc
Quote:

Couple of other things to say:
re. Southern: they had a separate 'Scene South East' broadcast on Fridays only (the final edition from December 1981, which I find rather moving, has widely been distributed and I think it's on YouTube) and, latterly, 'Scene Midweek' on Wednesdays. They might have done more if Bluebell Hill, which was needed to fill a UHF gap in Kent between Crystal Palace and Dover which hadn't applied under VHF, hadn't initially been given to Thames and LWT when it opened in 1974, and indeed they surely would have done had they stayed on because the franchise would have been largened to move closer to London whoever had won it.


The Scheduling department at Southern used to send quite specific channel information to the press at one stage covering both VHF and UHF services.
The Daily Mirror TV guide carried the following for Southern on Friday 21st January 1972 and included an asterisk to denote black and white:

5:50 News
6:00 Day by Day (Channels 6, 11, 27, 42); Scene South-East (Channels 10, 64, 66)*
6:40 Out of Town
7:00 Sky’s the Limit
CO
commseng
Didn't have any branding for anything UTV/ITV or Wyzcom communications it was just a van with a satellite dish in the folded position on it that was it really although when they 1st made the move to the new digs I had a nosey around them at the time and the utv vehicles all had the updated utv branding and as I said passed through yesterday and no branded vehicles

Was it a UTV truck, or from another company parked in their car park?
Also sometimes it is useful to have a news truck with no branding on them at all, the BBC have several like that.
HC
Hatton Cross

Was it a UTV truck, or from another company parked in their car park?
Also sometimes it is useful to have a news truck with no branding on them at all , the BBC have several like that.


Very useful in that part of the world, I suggest.
Given the different points of view in the country, having overtly branding vehicles where the - rightly or mostly, wrongly - perception of one broadcaster taking a side of sectarian population, still to this day in some situations is not a good idea.
CO
commseng
Not just in Northern Ireland.
The BBC use them elsewhere in the UK.
Remember that the BBC Radio Manchester radio car was torched in the 2011 riots in Salford.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-manchester-17226421
There are times when the media need to be a little careful about being identifiable.
Last edited by commseng on 9 February 2021 11:50am
MA
Markymark
They come from the era when regional news was a lot twee-er, they were really magazine programmes with some news. Programmes like Day by Day or Westward Diary even had a seperate news section within them.



Day by Day in any case had to have the 'hard' news separated out, because it carried separate South and South East bulletins


I didn't think it did. Day by Day was on Southern. Which didn't have a South East opt out because it was covered by Thames.

IIRC It was only when TVS took over that a South East variant was introduced because the region grew dramatically in size.


No, Southern were equipped in the VHF era with a transmitter at Dover, that covered a big chunk of Kent, and East Sussex. When UHF came along, Dover carried that too, but it had a shorter range, so Heathfield was also used to mostly serve East Sussex. Southern had tiny studio in Dover, this fed into Southampton (and notably not directly into the Dover and Heathfield transmitters) where separate ad breaks were inserted, and then the signal fed back to the South East from there.

As mentioned the Bluebell Hill transmitter came on stream in 1974 to serve NW Kent. The IBA opted to give it to the London region, rather than Southern.
When the 1982 Franchise round came, the S and SE region had Bluebell Hill (and Tunbridge Wells) added.

TVS started off using the old Southern Dover studio, and still retained the legacy dual Tx chains etc from Southampton, until Vinters Park came on line in 83 ish.
MA
Markymark


The Scheduling department at Southern used to send quite specific channel information to the press at one stage covering both VHF and UHF services.

5:50 News
6:00 Day by Day (Channels 6, 11, 27, 42); Scene South-East (Channels 10, 64, 66)*
6:40 Out of Town
7:00 Sky’s the Limit


Blimey, I've never seen UHF Channel numbers listed in newspapers before!

6 Newhaven VHF
10 Dover VHF
11 Chillerton Down VHF
27 Rowridge UHF
42 Hannington UHF
64 Heathfield UHF
66 Dover UHF

Predates Midhurst, and doesn't mention any UHF realys (notably the two major ones at Brighton and Salisbury)
LL
London Lite Founding member
Interesting that Newhaven used to be part of the South opt on Southern Television rather than South East. I'm assuming Newhaven in those days covered Brighton until Whitehawk Hill UHF came into operation?

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