Scottish / Grampian Rebrand

The issue of UTV is what interests me most. ITV1 Ulster definately won't happen, Ulster Television didn't rebrand to UTV on a whim - it was done specifically to eliminate 'Ulster' from their onscreen identity to avoid alienating their (considerable) viewers in ROI near the NI border.

ITV1 Northern Ireland, whilst geographically correct in terms of official coverage area, could also be said to have the same problem (I know there is BBC Northern Ireland, but then they don't have advertising revenue to worry about).

With the possibility of ITV on Sky on ROI looking possible at some time in the not too distant future, I think they might end up just calling it 'ITV1 Ireland', although of course with it still being a Northern Ireland service.

UTV is a particularly awkward kettle of fish for them to deal with, which I think is why they Carlton/Granada don't seem to interested in bringing it into the fold. As long as it's independent, the politically sensitive issue of what to call it isn't their problem (you can bet that the simple solution of making an exception and keeping it as 'UTV' won't have crossed the minds of the 'everything must say ITV1!!!!!' branding obsessives in London). I don't think UTV will loose it's independence from the big two any time soon.

Not quite that simple. One very important factor to keep in mind whilst considering the UTV situation...

Bear in mind the TV 3 franchise in the Republic...and Granada's hefty 45% share in that company. To all intents and purposes...that station is already 'ITV 1 Ireland'...and has become a thorn in the bum for UTV who made a massive drive for additional viewers (and increased ad revenue) in the South in recent years.

UTV sees themselves as an all-Ireland business these days. Major part of the reasoning behind the move from 'Ulster Television' to 'UTV' of course.

Bit of a finger in the eye for them when Granada took on such a large share in the independent TV franchise in the South and many top ITV programmes began appearing all through the TV 3 schedule - with all key programmes kicking off on TV 3 a minute or two before they do on UTV.

However, from an all Ireland point of view - a Granada/Carlton takeover of UTV - interesting. Granada/Carlton have never expressed an (serious)
interest in UTV to my knowledge...and whether or not they would want to take on the various UTV addons such as the internet business and radio concerns...?

Much more likely...the other major stakeholder in TV Three - CanWest - is up to its eyes in debt...and Granada are more than happy to rid them of some of their burden. This would double Granada's share in TV Three leaving them in overall control...

and it was quite obvious it was a repeat, the question 'In which city can the twin towers of the world trade centre be found' was a bit of a giveaway

Whoops!

but what about Central & Westcountry being renamed Carlton?

Couldn't the owners of STV, Grampian and Border brand themselves as whatever they like i.e. Central Scotland Television instead of Scottish TV?

I sadly think that ITV1 Scotland is enivitable, once the commuications bill is passed later this year I can easily see SMG being carved up by venture capitalists and other media firms, although hopefully I will be wrong

Have to admit that comparing ITV idents to the new SMG idents - SMG wins by a mile!

I noticed that SMG didn't overkill the network idents and had a good balance between the broadcast of the local and network ones.

Some of the network idents look cheap & nasty compared to SMG idents which suprisingly look quite classy.

However SMG have got it right throughout, compared to GMG & Carlton. The STV / Grampian Logo is the same throughout on idents, previews and have used the generic idents as an endcap.

Compare that to GMG regions which don't show a logo but text on local idents, show a dog ( logo ) for preview of local programming and have entirely different endcaps GMG - Purple & Carlton - Stars.

Haven't really saw the UTV look to compare SMG to, but I bet UTV are probably the same as SMG rather than mix and matching all different types of local idents.

UTV's cover job on the ITV1 look is pretty shoddy it has to be said. The logo appears at the wrong place in the idents. They use the national idents too much, their own local idents have clearly been made on a shoestring (only two shots in them) and they haven't tweaked the trailers to feature UTV coloured blocks in the way that SMG have.

Bits of UTV's old presentation set still creep through at times too.

It's not very good at all really.

I'm really not convinced that this will happen. SMG recently sold their publishing division (subject to government approval, though). If Carlton/Granada were to snap up the TV division too, there would hardly be any SMG left - really just Virgin Radio, some out-of-home media businesses, and possibly some income from rent in their headquarters in Renfield Street. And even Virgin is looking likely to be snapped up by by someone like Clear Channel once the communications bill comes in.

I'm not convinced that the shareholders would agree to this happening and their media empire dissolving into little pieces - not unless things really go wrong somewhere and profits go waaaay down.

Carlton/Granada could but SMG as it and flog all the assets it doesn't want and it would have no trouble finding buyers for Pearl & Dean & Virgin Radio I'm sure.

Well the STV look isn't too bad and I quite like the new look Scotland Today so it hasn't been that bad I suppose.