itv1 xmas idents

It's not that the ident is bad, it's the principle of the matter.

ITV have ruined regional branding single handedly and that is shameful. The little regional identity ITV stations once had and prided themselves on had been totally abolished and this isn't on.

You may not give a **** that your local TV station is slowly being taken over by London, and you may only care about a bloody ident, which - as you say - only goes out for about 5 seconds, but I do care about the fact that regional identity is slowly being ruined.

ITV1 is NOT a national network.

Whatever. I never said I'd refuse to watch the channel, merely that Granada had lost me as a viewer -- meaning that I won't bother to watch their lazy excuse for a TV station.

In any case I've already made the positive decision to watch UTV from several weeks ago onwards, turning to TTTV on the (dwindling) occasions that a Newcastle opt-out is being shown. The ident is a minor irritation. It may not be my local identity, but at least it has a local identity. I couldn't give a toss about the stupid ident anyway -- as c@t says it's just one more sign of ITV/Carlton and Granada systematically stripping away at regional identity on a station which is the only one which reflects the area in which I live.

In any case, I don't know why I'm sat here explaining myself to you, far more productive things to do. Bye.

(Edited by jason at 12:12 am on Dec. 22, 2001)

I agree totally. I think the ident is very very good probably one of the best ever. But ITV1? Do any other regions see this? (what about Anglia and Meridian are they doing this??). And for gods sake even tiny Channel has adapted its own very nice ident. Its just a Leeds thing again. Leeds based stations promote ITV1 more than any other ITV region/broadcast centre for whatever reason....I dont know the answer to that.

One things for certain, this ident will make the announcers job a hell of a lot easier over Christmas with generic program junctions, and I suspect this could be the shape of things to come for Granada North Stations anyway......very disapointed however I`ll say again I do think its a very good ident

Correct, ITV1 in it's current incarnation is not a national network, but that's what it appears that it want's to become. The way has been paved more or less for a single ITV at some stage in the future, thats what it want's to become and the government is more or less paving the way for it to happen. If this is what the ITV bigwigs at network centre want then I'm afraid so be it.

Life is all about change, god knows I've seen a lot of change during my relatively short working life. There is no room for sentimentality in business or the cut throat media industry. It certainly looks as if the regions may well be doomed, other than for regional news programming. Maybe we should accept that, nothing in this life is certain and stays the same for ever. The ITV stations are faced with an increasingly competitive industry, the BBC is a much more commercial focused, aggresive BBC, there are many more channels. Not to grasp change is to fall behind, ITV maybe see the need to reduce the role of the regions as vital to their ultimate business goals.

Change should be grasped, and should not be feared. Change may be for better or maybe for worse in your opinion, but one thing we can all be sure of is that it will happen.

And I totally agree with Jason, the word `lazy` is a very good one in these circumstances

I am SO glad that Carlton bought HTV off Granada!!!

Heh... does 'progress' include losing 600 million pounds between them, mainly because of a little venture with a monkey?

The sooner they shut down that little venture the better IMHO. Then they may not have to shirk the responsibilities they took on when they bought stations who had signed contracts committing them to regional programming.

Broadcasting on terrestrial TV is a privilege, not a right, and it's about time Granada realised that.

So can anyone clear up for me as i`ve been out this evening and have not seen sky. Do Anglia and Meridian see this generic ident also?

Correct, progress and change may either be very succesful or a miserable failure.  The main thing is to have the courage of your convictions and go with it, and suffer the consequences of your actions if everything goes pear shaped.  Not all change is for the better.  They may have signed contracts to regional programming in the last round of franchises, but the world has moved on, and it's the government that is relaxing the rules and eroding the regionalism that you so thrive upon.  


(Edited by square eyes at 12:40 am on Dec. 22, 2001)

We should get an RSL from the ITC which allows you to have a TV station for 4 years, called TV Home, of course.

And then we'll go all TVS and take over an American production company and call ourselves TV Home Television. http://web.ukonline.co.uk/tv.home/forum/emoticons/biggrin.gif

And we can design our own idents! None of your Lambie-Nairn trash!


(Edited by Whataday at 12:40 am on Dec. 22, 2001)

> and it's the government that is relaxing the rules and eroding the regionalism that you so thrive upon

there goes that attitude again...

I don't see Channel or UTV scaling back though, do you?

Oh, and look, they're making profits. Well I never!

Yes, they do. Not LWT though. I wonder why.....

Of course, Anglia/Meridian mention station names, whereas Northern stations do not in the main. Which is better but it does lead to exactly the kind of confusion that ITV claimed the itv1 branding would stop. 'Hmmm, I'm watching Anglia eh, but the screen says ITV1.'

Of course people don't really think that, but in the simple minds of ITV executives they do.

Carlton and Granada are leaving their backsides bared for a takeover by a US company, and they'll only have themselves to blame when it all falls down around their ears. Say what you like about Murdoch, but he at least knows how to run a business.