ITV1/2/3 Rebranding

Agreed. ITV is rightly proud of its diverse production base, with over 50% of programmes being made outside of London. But with the new production captions how is the viewer to appreciate this diversity?

I understand that the newly merged ITV plc needs a strong, unified brand. But the BBC not only manages to include its corporate logo on everything it makes, at the same time it informs the viewer where programmes are made. BBC Birmingham for example will often appear at the end of the credit roll. Even the independents such as Mentorn and Endemol are acknowledging that their output comes from all corners of the country, with Mentorn Midlands and Endemol West captions appearing on screen.

I'm one of the minority of viewers who stay watching to the end of a programme, and I like to be reminded that Coronation Street is from Granadaland and Emmerdale is from Yorkshire.

On 14/12/05 ITV plc announced a new Director of ITV Productions, John Whiston, so I guess he's the man to blame. I've written to him c/o ITV's Head Office (which was a bit stupid of me, since he's based up North somewhere!), putting the case for giving a clue to the viewer where a programme was made.

I had really thought that if ITVplc did ever drop all remaining remnants of the old company names from endcaps, it would be in favour of, say, geographical suffixes, rather than no suffixes whatsoever.

e.g. Either [itv / North West] [itv / Yorks & Lincs] style logos, or [itv / Manchester] [itv / Leeds] style logos.

Just general "ITV" and/or "ITV1" is quite a disappointment.

Sadly in removing the production centre's name, it also fails to credit the creative people that have made the programmes.

People tell me that in the days of pre-programme idents, they would often choose to watch a programme that was made by their local, or preferred ITV contractor, based on the reputation of the company's other output.

Removing any credit does not encourage pride in production.

Not wanting to go off topic, it has been recently rumoured that ITV Production could be sold off. The idea being that ITV plc would become a publisher broadcaster, such as Channel Four, able to buy programmes from the most competitive bidder.

Whilst I understand that this idea was considered some time ago, and disregarded, the investor's response was to remind ITV that it used to have 15 regional companies all competiting to make, and indead proud, of the programmes they provided. I really wonder if ITV got it wrong when they centralised production to London, Leeds and Manchester, and dropped regional identity.

ITV needed to stand out in a multi-channel world, but by introducing a single brand, they removed the unique relationship with the viewer that the regional companies provided. I believe that this was a fundamental error in ITV's strategy, and may well yet need to be revisited.

I think "ITV Productions" is more pointless, "production for ITV1" by who?

The copyright still credits the original company doesnt it?

On Corrie for example it still says "Granada Television"

Sorry if this has been mentioned...

Noticed tonight a trailer for both ITV1 and 2 advertising some programme or another, not sure what. Looked pretty nice - semi-transparent blue on the right of the screen. In fact, same style as the other I saw for the football on both ITV1 and 4. Looked pretty neat. I liked.

I think you're referring to the new series of Footballers' Wives.

Regarding that promo, I thought it looked ugly.

I see, you're in a good mood tonight pad.

Not sure if this has been mentioned already, but Red Bee now has a section on the ITV rebranding on their website here. It includes some video clips with clean audio.

Looks like the pilot for the Nightly News in the ITV news video with mark without a tie. Why didn't the Nightly news relaunch with all these new features and name!

Plus the atrium "under construction" with ITV news yet to be added in the 3rd window, The clock face is also lower down.

off topic i know - but having a flick through the site - is it just me or do uk history just use the same ident over and over? where as the site shows several variations

This seems to be true for companies that used to be owned by Granda. But I have seen a (c) ITV credit too (in one case on the production caption). I'm wondering if these are for programmes produced by the former Carlton companies?