ITV Nightime

I recorded a bit of ITV Nightime last night, just of interest, here are comments from watching it....

Early Monday -

Just before the 3 hour Hindi Drama, There was a Asian version of Community Link, which was spoken in some sort of different language.
Then came a 'Eastern Cinema' ident and then into the film, There wasn't any continuity,

The film was very wide widescreen, approx 24:9

Early Tuesday -

I noticed the end of 'Young, Gifted and Broke', I don't know what this was about, It was signed though with a little man in the corner.
After this there was a 'lines' ITV1 generic ident and a male announcer introduced the ITV News.

ITV1 must have been running late as the tape cut off before Trisha began.

The next section of the tape involved the end of Trisha, then a 'ITV1 Temporary Fault' caption appeared, I think it was supposed to be a 'Next' caption.

After 2 adverts, there was another ITV1 lines ident, same announcer, followed by The Web Review.

After this, there was another ITV1 lines ident followed by Box Office America.

The News then followed again, introduced by the lines ITV1 ident, Straight from the ITN endcap, YTV opted out to show 'Jobfinder' - I notice the Jobfinder titles have changed since I last saw it during April. The information pages are still the same though.
After a quick chat about Job Interviews with John Hammond (not the weatherman!), Jobfinder finished and we heard the last second of ITV Nightscreen's music.

ITV Early Morning News was next, introduced by the ITV1 ident, after this was 'Its now time to handover to GMTV, Good Morning...'

I notice for a split-second, the GMTV clock said '5:59', so obviously they are either switching early or GMTV's clock is slightly wrong.

There were sound problems during at least the first 5 minutes of GMTV. The opening titles were quiet, presenters (inc OB and News) even quieter and the 'bed' of music louder than both.

Any comments?

I notice that the 'lines' ITV1 ident is being used all the time, since the name change, also there is a lot of 16:9 changing to 4:3 being done in vision. After every widescreen ident, viewers saw the ident squash to 4:3 for the start of the programme. Normally this is done in black

Just be glad you're not an insomniac I'd say. I find Jobfinder always does the trick for me if I'm having difficulty sleeping. Zzzzz.

News 24 has the same effect on me.

The lines ident isn't being used all the time - at weekends, the blue/purple 'smokey heart' ident, already formed, is usually used. Occassionally you will also see the 'ITV' ident, without a '1' being used, presumably by mistake.

Now I live in UTV land, where the ITV corporate look isn't used during daytime. But can anyone who does live in a hearts region (just the Granada regions and Channel except LWT) tell me, are the lines idents used only on the blue rotating hearts backround, but also on the other endboards (blue/purple smokey heart, blue/gold rotating hearts, and blue/gold smokey heart)?

Something else I forgot to mention....

The ITV News was read by Owen Thomas.

The new Jobfinder titles look like they are based on the ITN News Channel, there are lots of identical arrows moving across the screen. (Viewers in YTV and TTTV area, I suggest you have a look?)

Until ITV became ITV1, I hadn't watched the generic Nightime service for ages. Then I watched it out of curiosity re: addition of '1' to name. This is the only time that Carlton regions hear the generic theme.

I hope that both GMG and Carlton (including HTV) adopt the official new generic ITV1 look in the autumn, rather than Carlton having their own take on the idea like with the present 'hearts' generic theme.

And I hope that LWT don't adopt it, decide they don't like it, and replace it with their own take within a few months, like they did this time round.

I suspect that Grampian, Scottish and UTV won't budge (stubborn sods). Their not letting the united ITV/ITV1 identity in defeats the whole purpose of the united identity existing.

Mind you, it is inevitable that ITV/ITV1 will become a single company within very few years. Through mergers and/or takeovers, Carlton, GMG and (crucially) SMG will become one - that third point will mean the ITV1 name and generic style will ultimately make it beyond southern Scotland.

The Carlton/GMG/SMG company will obviously be so powerful that snapping up Channel and UTV (whether they like it or not) will be a pushover!

Hopefully if UTV do ever sell they will to SMG, as they both are different refereshing and both have the best idents(possibly with the exception of carlton), they are fresher and although being a bit arsy about ITV 2 etc. but its better than the hearts. I also had a thought when looking round The TV Room, that if UTV won't go corporate, why don't the ITV group make themselves look like UTV, lets face it views of the region and then a few animations with regional names - nice.