Wow.
I really didn't see that one coming. And well done to the OP for underselling the topic. I'd have been tempted to call it 'Grampian dead' to get attention
. Seriously though, it may be worth editing the title because the news is just so big - a lot of people will just skim past it, not recognising it is effectively the death of a station.
Ok - let's take it one piece at a time. Rebranding Scottish TV to STV just makes sense. Anyone who doesn't call the station ITV1 calls it STV - no-one calls it Scottish TV. It's far too clunky a name. So that's a good move.
Killing off the Grampian brand? Controversial - expect some extremely wound-up northern politicians once they actually realise it's happening. But looking at it from a rational, head-based perspective - it just makes sense. The name is inaccurate - it covers far more than the Grampian region. It's a clunky name that can't really be shortened (there's no history of the station being called GTV). It sounds really, really old-fashioned, and doesn't reflect the target audience the station is now aiming at.
However :
* Will anyone take to the new name? - surely, after all this time, no-one's going to call Grampian/ITV1 STV, no matter how much marketing is done)
* Will it cause more trouble than it's worth? (it could shine a light on the reduced regional programming, rather than Granada-style 'keep the name but reduce the resources)
The ongoing problem of having two stations with different names has been a bane at Cowcaddens - separate promos were abandoned, replaced by blue squares; watch to win initially had two logos screened in both regions, before the branding was removed; Scottish TV mugs are blatantly on show during Scotsport, shown in both regions - so I can see why it makes sense. But I do wonder, unless they are determined to hold on and force ITV PLC to buy them out, whether they should just have taken this opportunity to rebrand to ITV1 Scotland. My heart says that would be hell, my head says that, above all else, would really be common sense.
My one real concern about all this - and it's too late to do anything now - is that SMG continues to treat Scotland as one region. I suppose it means we're in a stronger position to battle the erosion of local programming seen in England, but it also means we don't have any real regional programming (aside from local news, which, half the time, borrows news from Grampian for Scotland Today and vice versa).
So - ident ideas anyone? I'd love to see them go with a saltire-based package, where the saltire was shown flying on various buildings (which could be kept generic enough if they felt that was an issue), then a new logo would appear below the flag. Some sort of scenes showing modern and old-fashioned Scotland would also be good - people racing through busy Sauchihall Street or Union Street, then a scenic view of Loch Lomond, or something like that.
However, most likely, they'll adopt the ITV1 style. After all, the shortening of the name lends itself easily to that.
Apologies for the length of the post, but this is massive news.