IS
The 'Ulster TV' name is being dropped by the company. Doesn't say what it will be called though 'UTV' will be kept on air
http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,,1783716,00.html
http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,,1783716,00.html
Quote:
The Ulster Television brand is set be consigned to history after almost 50 years.
The decision - which is expected to be rubberstamped today by shareholders at the broadcaster's annual general meeting - has been made because the name was thought to no longer reflect the full range and reach of the media company's businesses.
The company has been known as UTV in all its broadcasts but has retained the fuller version of its brand in all its corporate communications.
Executives believe it is no longer appropriate to highlight TV or Ulster in its corporate branding since it was now a significant player in radio both in the UK and Ireland.
It bought The Wireless Group last year and owns a handful of radio stations in Ireland. Had it been successful in the bid for TV3, UTV would have operated a two-channel, all-Ireland service with complementary schedules.
Ulster TV launched in 1959 - four years after ITV launched in London - to the 188,000 viewers who could receive the service. But the station has always been known as UTV even when its logo carried the full title.
To remove the region from its title will doubtless be anathema in some quarters in a province where the word Ulster'carries so much political meaning.
But executives there say it is, in fact, the word TV that is more limiting when the company is close to taking more revenue from its radio brands than its local television operations. It will consider bidding for more radio licences both in Ireland and the UK and after losing out in the battle to buy TV3.
The decision - which is expected to be rubberstamped today by shareholders at the broadcaster's annual general meeting - has been made because the name was thought to no longer reflect the full range and reach of the media company's businesses.
The company has been known as UTV in all its broadcasts but has retained the fuller version of its brand in all its corporate communications.
Executives believe it is no longer appropriate to highlight TV or Ulster in its corporate branding since it was now a significant player in radio both in the UK and Ireland.
It bought The Wireless Group last year and owns a handful of radio stations in Ireland. Had it been successful in the bid for TV3, UTV would have operated a two-channel, all-Ireland service with complementary schedules.
Ulster TV launched in 1959 - four years after ITV launched in London - to the 188,000 viewers who could receive the service. But the station has always been known as UTV even when its logo carried the full title.
To remove the region from its title will doubtless be anathema in some quarters in a province where the word Ulster'carries so much political meaning.
But executives there say it is, in fact, the word TV that is more limiting when the company is close to taking more revenue from its radio brands than its local television operations. It will consider bidding for more radio licences both in Ireland and the UK and after losing out in the battle to buy TV3.