Calling the channel "Fiver" doesn't instantly tell me that it's part of Five's family of channels. I would say that it's quite important to strengthen your brand identity when you only have 3 channels.
The situation with Dave is entirely different. It's their only channel which is free on all platforms, so it looks different to the other UKTV offerings. But, it's a window to their pay-tv services through cross-promotion, so that would've justified it's existence as a 'loss-leader' in the event that it didn't become as popular as it has.
The situation with Dave is entirely different. It's their only channel which is free on all platforms, so it looks different to the other UKTV offerings.
Dave is NOT free on all platforms - I've just checked. On satellite it is part of a Sky subscription package.
It isn't Free-to-View aka FTV (i.e. decoded by a Sky receiver with a FTV card that receives C4/Five/Sky Three etc.) so isn't part of the "Freesat from Sky" platform.
Obviously it isn't FTA either so won't be on "freesat" (from ITV/BBC) unless they stop encrypting it and making it part of a Sky subbed package.
The situation with Dave is entirely different. It's their only channel which is free on all platforms, so it looks different to the other UKTV offerings.
Dave is NOT free on all platforms - I've just checked. On satellite it is part of a Sky subscription package.
Apologies, I should've checked! However, even with only the DTT offering as free, Dave can be used to draw people into the TUTV pay-service which is a revenue source for UKTV.
So Fiver will launch at the end of April... but I wonder what the other channels will look like once they have been relaunched because if you compare the official logos below the new brand looks completely different...
As recently as 2007, I heard somebody refer to ITV1 as "Central". Taking into account the 4-ish year period (I think?) that it was called "Carlton" before finally becoming "ITV1", it's not been called "Central" for nearly
a decade
. People who are that slow at keeping up with name-change of anything (not necessarily a TV station, we could be talking about, say, a chain of shops or whatever else) really p*ss me off. Firing squad for the lot of 'em. [/rant]
Much as I'd like to respond with a sarcastic remark like those above me, I think it'd be better if you explain what you mean. I'm very interested in branding, and people who are unobservant (in general, not necessarily to do with branding) can be irritating sometimes. But surely you can't genuinely be annoyed by someone continuing to use the name Central. If anything that demonstrates fantastic brand loyalty and recognition.
In addition to this, you have to take into account that people have a degree of stubbornness and just because they are told "it's ITV1 now", doesn't mean they're going to comply and call it that. If they have some sense of ownership of a brand, they're not going to let it go because they've been told to. Really, your opinions betray a very poor understanding of branding and what it's all about.
I know how odd this'll seem to y'all, but...
Using things like "Central", "HTV" etc
here on TVF
actually
doesn't bother me
! That's because obviously anyone on here
does
know that such things "no longer apply", but are justifiably used on TVF for the sake of simplicity of reference. (i.e. it's easier for us to say something like "DSO will happen in 2010 for
Central
" rather than "DSO will happen in 2010 for the
Midlands television region
(or whatever)" - which would be unnecessarily long-winded of us).
It's average Joes in the street etc saying things like "Did you see that programme on Central last night?" that bothers me. I can't even explain why it bothers me, it just does.
If I was, say, a new arrival in the UK, or was under a certain age or whatever, I would probably genuinely have not a clue what TV station they mean by "Central".
And you can guarantee that they are also incapable of thinking of an appropriate alternative way of explaining what they mean to the genuinely bemused newcomer (e.g. "I mean the channel between BBC2 and Channel 4" or something), but instead think that just repeating it a bit lounder (e.g. "you know - CENTRAL") will somehow help, despite the fact that they've already established that that's meaningless to the newcomer.
As a colleage recently said to me, following a similar rant, "you really have a lot of issues with the world, don't you?"
Ah well, fair enough. I just don't understand how you can't look fondly on a nice remnant from the past like that.
I have a very anti-nostalgia outlook, right since childhood. I'm very "Change something. Only look forward" etc. I'm the sort of person who could've been responsible for deciding the rebrand Central and Westcountry as "Carlton". That's a very me thing to do. Maybe I should work in marketing?
As I said before, I'm like that about more than just TV. If someone still called HSBC "Midland Bank", or still called Morrisons "Safeway", it'd niggle me too.
Perhaps "Central" is a particularly sore point for me, as I disliked the "cake" logo throughout my childhood. Boring though the Carlton-ised "CENTRAL" version was, I was at least glad to see the back of the overrated "cake".
That opinion must put me in SUCH a minority amongst TV-pres fans. (Cue a witch-hunt?)
Don't worry, I'm not gonna say that I didn't think there was anything wrong with "C3NE" - I may have unusual opinions, but I'm not insane!
However, even with only the 
