No it doesn't. Relatives of mine receive UTV and they live in the Republic. In Southern Ireland to be exact, and they also receive BBC NI. Of course it's clear that the channels are only meant for NI. Seeing as RTE and BBC both show EastEnders, and TV3 and UTV both show Coronation Street.
BBC Northern Ireland yes, their target audience is strictly NI, even though they are available (via cable, MMDS, satellite, and terrestrial overspill) in the Republic.
UTV is a different kettle of fish. They are a commercial company, listed on the Dublin and London Stock Exchanges, and their target audience is anyone that can pick them up. To ignore the fact that they have audiences in the Republic from whom they can, and do, derive revenue would be commercially unsound and the shareholders would be asking questions of any board that did that. Yes their local programmes are made specifically for Northern Ireland. That is their public service remit as a Channel 3 licencee. But they target everything else at both the Republic and the North.
That is also the reason for the name UTV - no longer Ulster Television, except for legal purposes (Even that will probably change following The Wireless Group acquisiton). It is a name that can be used anywhere. That is why the ITV1 [Region Name] format does not, and will not suit UTV. In fact the only format that would suit UTV would be to simply call the station ITV1.
I think that the rapid development of multi-channel tv has signalled the end of ITV1 as a truly regionalised service, and ITV plc ought to use the 50th anniversary in September as the ideal opportunity to give the concept a dignified burial.
ITV plc is a multi-media company operating far more than just it's remit as owner of most of the Channel 3 licences. Ideally it should be able to operate ITV1 on the same basis as BBC ONE - a clear national identity with some region-specific programming. ITV2/3/4/News has no regional remit and will evolve on that basis - as does BBC THREE/FOUR/CBBC/Cbeebies/PARLIAMENT.
Personnally, I quite like the ITV brand as it is, they have not "constantly change it" as one previous postee stated - they have retained the same logo since October 2002, albeit with varying styles of on-screen presentation - the last of which I quite like (without Z-list celebs doing scripted "off-screen" moments etc)
I'm sure ITV plc will simply make another change to this style in September (as Sky used to do on an annual basis in the mid-90s) but retain the blocked logo since it is now becoming recognised as a symbol of the merged Carlton/Granada.
But it's now time to get rid of the regional names that are not truly descriptive, although the only ones I can think of are "Granada" and "Meridian" since all others bear some relation to the area they represent (although I can't see "Granada" name entirely disappearing since it is the broadcast arm of the company).
Radical lines of thought above I know, but let's face the fact that ITV plc have to do SOMETHING to ITV1 as a channel to retain it's place as on of the major channels in the UK.
[quote="StuartPlymouth"
Personally, I quite like the ITV brand as it is,..............But it's now time to get rid of the regional names that are not truly descriptive, although the only ones I can think of are "Granada" and "Meridian" since all others bear some relation to the area they represent (although I can't see "Granada" name entirely disappearing since it is the broadcast arm of the company).
.[/quote]
Stuart has a very good point.
A lot of what we hear about regions is high on sentiment rather than substance. ITV is a tremendously strong brand, now that there's differentiation between service, i.e. ITV-1, 2, 3 News etc.. The contorted tautology of ITV-1 Wales, or even as suggested ITV-1 Northern Ireland, would just confuse.
Surly the problem for ITV is that the regional brands can not simply be discarded? - Two reasons for this
(a) Regional news and programming is not a commercially driven activity, it is for the voters to determine, through Parliament and the regulator what levels of obligation any licence is asked to accept as a condition of holding a broadcast licence. -- They can always take their brand elsewhere if they don't like it!
(b) Having said that though, the regional brands quaint though they may be actually have very strong attachments within their own areas. No marketing person would want to discard the goodwill associated with "Granada", "Anglia" or "Meridian". "HTV", "Westcountry" and "CarLtON" had much poorer regional brand value, and have to some extent already been slain.
Given that (a) will always apply, ITV has to do as good a job as it can with regional news, and what’s left of other programming. This isn't sentiment, its pure commercial hard reality, the is a significant audience (market) for regional and local news and interest programming. ITV has to live up to this or be slaughtered by BBC-1, particularly between 1800 and 1900 weekdays.
The thing about (b) is that even having established ITV and its various services as consumer points of loyalty, you still need to bat on about Anglia this and Anglia that, even after you've sacked all the staff and sold the studios.
Perhaps rather than trying to subsume regions as sub-brands within a channel based identity, ITV may be better placed to allow the two lexicons to just happily co-exist, and not even cross-brand them. You could even bring back the triangles (although sadly not the wobbly clock) to introduce news and local programmes
I also now think its time to get rid of the regional names. Rebrand all regions ITV and regional place name, like the BBC.
I liked this look, but ITVi/ITV3 logos spoils it. When ITV1 had their 3D logo, and I liked the glass squares, and ITV news just relaunched, everthing matched, but since last October, pres has just gone downhill rapildy. The new ITV1 logo is awful. There are too many versions of ITV logos.
I also now think its time to get rid of the regional names. Rebrand all regions ITV and regional place name, like the BBC.
But why? Apart from the fact that the regions have almost gone anyway, what's the point in them using the ITV name which means less than the old regional names in the North.
