That Scottish TV announcement into Millionaire is a bit unfortunate in retrospect...
Have to say, from the evidence of what's on display there (Crossroads, High Road, Night and Day, The People Show), I don't think anyone could look back at 2001 and claim it's some sort of golden age of television. There's a danger of looking back with rose-tinted specs and assuming it was always better in the old days. Some of the guff shown on ITV in the old days, when there was no commercial competition, was horrendous and wouldn't survive nowadays.
To be honest ITV1's presentation during the start of the celebrity era is probably the best there's been in quite a while. The station had so much to prove, and so many people to win over after getting rid of the regional identities, that it had to be. But it was slick, it was down-to-earth, and the people who made them clearly had some degree of fun. It says a lot that this is the one set of idents taken by all the independent stations (albeit with alterations to retain their own names).
The current set are incredibly dull. And the hearts were stunningly pointless. TV from the heart was a terrible slogan, and a bit of marketing that ITV assumed people would take into their subconscious, whereas they were probably sitting at home going "What are all these hearts about?" (if they even noticed them). It made as much sense as STV's current "Altogether Scotland" slogan, which no ordinary viewer understands but they continually use.
ITV1 was probably on its guard at the start of the switchover, as it knew it would be under the microscope. After no-one batted an eyelid and most viewers didn't care about the loss of the regions, that's when the cuts started to be made, and the damage was done.
I always presumed the " altogether Scotland " was referring to the " merging " of Scottish and Grampian into STV
Yes but I think p_c_u_k's point was that this isn't a positive thing with viewers. Scottish viewers won't care, or even realise there has been a change (STV is what the station has always been called anyway). Grampian viewers will either be in the same boat as Scottish viewers, or will actually be resentful of the change.
Whichever way you look at it, the slogan is pretty poor.
Yes but I think p_c_u_k's point was that this isn't a positive thing with viewers. Scottish viewers won't care, or even realise there has been a change (STV is what the station has always been called anyway). Grampian viewers will either be in the same boat as Scottish viewers, or will actually be resentful of the change.
Whichever way you look at it, the slogan is pretty poor.
I take that on board, and you're right because I am resentful of the loss of Grampian. And ever since the " thistle " days, the channel was never referred to as STV, but Scottish. The " reintroduction " of the actual words STV was only when they stopped using Grampian in the north of Scotland.
I do however quite like the slogan. As for the idents, I find them intensely boring.
Personally, I'd prefer they go the whole hog now and just call it ITV Scotland or ITV North Scotland / Central Scotland.
