Carlton and Granada merger -LATEST NEWS

So scottish tv, channel and utv may brand their programmes with no connections to itv1, so no quares would have to be used, they could get rid of the celebrities and get rid or change the ecp. Is this right? Or will they just not have the ecp if they dont want it?

It would be nice to see itv productions for itv1 instead of so many granada and carlton productions. Would this work like this?

And if they do create a single production arm, what will happen to things like the new saturday morning show. whose contract has been given to foundation tv, and carlton, would it become foundation and itv?

If this £55 Million they're saving goes to invest in programming then I do not object to this merger and from a Business POV it is a good idea. And face it this merger has been on the cards for a while now and we all expected it to happen and it probably will do. Frankly I don't believe there will be any change, for a start the regional names have already been ditched, which probably would have happened anyway, it was probably a good time to ditch the regional names so people can settle into the 'New' ITV and what the new Granada Carlton is going to be like. If programmes such as Coronation Street, Emmerdale, The Bill etc are still produced then the majority won't be bothered, we have no regional brands anymore meaning that people have got used to that fact and the programming is improving (Well this Autumn's line-up hasn't been too bad) and the same people are going to run the network. The only thing I object to with this merger is all the departments and possibly studios being closed because of the merger.

Though it'll be intresting to see what happens when the new ITV plc is formed and what they will do to ITV.

So the first question many people should be asking is "How long before I get my pink slip?"


Why is it that when these deals are done, totally brainless comments like the above are issued by the spokespeople concerned, without any reference to what the merger will really mean?

Can somebody please explain to me what going "from strength to strength under the deal" actually means? This is just a meaningless sop to reassure the lower socio-economic groups that their favorite daily soap addiction is not going to be adversely affected.


This is a coded way of saying even greater centralization and elimination of cultural and regional identities in continuity and programming, in other words, " We are all little Englanders now ".

They will still be part of ITV1 and the ITV Network Centre will still be in control of such things as they are now, that isn't changing




It depends if they rebrand everything under the name of the new company or retain a number of brands for productions - either in terms of where they were made geographically or depending on genre or customer.

For an example of this look at what Pearson did - they retained the brand names of the companies they took over and used Thames for drama, Grundy for game shows, Alamo for comedy etc. Granada/Carlton might use 'Meridian' for all programmes made in the south and 'Granada' for all those made in the north.

Who knows




Now it's Foundation and Carlton, post merge it will be Foundation and <insert new company name here>

It pretty much means they can do what they want presentationwise like they can now, and they don;t get the ECP forced on them. It also means you won't see network stuff anymore if it all goes tits up.

Few things.

I first heard the news at 12 today. I do think its good that they are coming together. It was interesting to hear Nick Owen on the Lunchtime News. One thing I found strange:
"Bla bla bla, Carlton who make such shows as Survivor and Granada who make Coronation St"
Oh yes, Carlton's biggest program ever is Survivor! That really is the first show that springs to mind when the word Carlton is mentioned. Old script being used. Nick has used that Phrase before, I remember. Another interesting thing about the lunchtime news, they showed a full current ITV1 Pam Ferris ident! I have to say it was strange watching that on Grampian TV Region on Sky. I bet the men in suits at SMG cringed when that came on, and shows how much different their regional idents are.

It was Interesting Seeing Charles Allen and Michael Green talk live on the ITV News Channel. They both looked as please as punch and as if they had just got married, well I supposed they are going to be married, in a company kind of way, not personal of course.

It was nice to see some old idents on different news channels today. BBC News somewhere today showed an ITV Hearts Ident with the old, flat logo. Bless those Spinning Hearts! Granada Reports had an interesting story too, showing opening titles from the ITV regional news programs while the voice over goes on " Granada owns, Yorkshire TV, Tyne Tees, In the south Anglia and London Weekend etc etc"



Oh yes, Scottish and Grampian can still say "On this Channel" till their hearts content and UTV can still get away with poor idents and overall broadcasting. I still think SMG will keep the current idents/Squares etc. Just carry on as normal, and never mention ITV1, just like they do now.

Its good to hear that SMG/UTV/Channel will get a clean feed. Do Channel need a Clean feed? They seem happy to be called ITV1 all day long and follow the same programs as ITV Meridian. I think the clean feed will just tidy up UTV/SMG and make them look better.

Although whether or not they choose to do anything different is another matter - the last set revamp for Scotland Today was designed to bring it more into line with the ITV look.

They are NOT part of ITV1 - they are a part of the ITV Network (or Channel 3 as the government still sees them). ITV1 is still an entirely superficial top layer brand created by Granada and Carlton - it doesn't have any official status and the non ITV1'd stations are certainly not a part of it.

So if they did group all of the production arms under "ITV plc" instead of keeping the current names, would we start seeing "an ITV production for BBC" on programmes like University Challenge? That would be strange. Although it would be ashame for the Granada name to disappear completely, so I think that scenario would be unlikely.

Will any new ITV channels come in the future with Carlton and Granada merging? Was there something said about an ‘ITV Gold’ if and only if they merge or is that a load of baloney?

Do we want any more ITV channels or is there just NO need at this present time?

well the same people renamed their much prized news output from the very well respected, established and recognised "itn" to the rather obscure "itv news"... not forgetting of course the news at 10 > nightly news debacle. if they're prepared to mess with programme names, then i'd be very surprised if they think twice about changing production brands.

Of course they are -- they are thinking about all those fat directors bonuses they can now award themselves and the even greater golden parachutes they are going to be paid when Granalton is bought by Hallmark.

And naturally not a tear shed or even a thought of remorse for all the people who are going to be losing their jobs in the name of rationalization.