I can't speak for the Scots... but I know here in Ireland UTV is an incredibly strong brand - indeed the channel was being called UTV anyway (in the South at anyrate) long before it actually started calling itself that. Irish newspapers head their TV listings with "UTV" rather than "ITV1". I'm not sure whether any of that would apply in Scotland, though from posters here and elsewhere it seems there is a sizable amount of people who still refer to "STV"...
As I mentioned in another post though, Grampian's covering up the ITV name is a very recent thing, it used the 1989 ITV logo from its first to its final day, which is about six years longer than anyone else....
People i know all tend to call Scottish TV STV .Twenty two years after the inroduction of the thistle the name change to Scottish.
Grampian was alway more british than Scottish and certainly no stranger to ITV branding .Yes Grampian did use the ITV 89 corp ident until the SMG takeover,but a reminder here Grampian used invision continuity announcers for all their links until 1998 and they had strong Grampian branding on their promos and announcers set. The ITV 89 corp ident was only ever used to link to ITN and usually first thing in the morning at 9.25.
SMG had a nice set of idents when they first changed to single presentation (the old men, chef, dancing, horses on the beach) in fact they were far above anything itv1 have produced for a long time......lets face it - what is so exciting about itv1's presentation??
I agree about that. They were fantastic idents, but they played the same ones over and over again (chef, waitress). There were a few that hardly ever got played for some reason.
Yeah STV/Grampian only really started to go downhill when they partially adopted the ITV look. Kind of ironic then that people now see the solution to the current rather poor setup as merging with ITV completely.
They'd have been far better advised to have merely beefed up the existing setup and perhaps made some changes to trails to match them more closely to ITV's. Still not too late; I refuse to believe that it's that prohibitively expensive for a company like SMG to come up with a strong image of their own again.
Grampian was alway more british than Scottish and certainly no stranger to ITV branding .Yes Grampian did use the ITV 89 corp ident until the SMG takeover,but a reminder here Grampian used invision continuity announcers for all their links until 1998 and they had strong Grampian branding on their promos and announcers set. The ITV 89 corp ident was only ever used to link to ITN and usually first thing in the morning at 9.25.
One of the strengths of IVC, when done correctly, is that it can be done well on a shoestring -- why do you think smaller stations kept it for so long?
You can get away with one or two carefully-created idents, based on ITV generics is just fine, and the rest of it is happily catered for with static images and IVC. It creates a far stronger identity than any half-hearted ident package -- without IVC you need to spend a LOT of money to keep things looking fresh.
UTV almost gets away with spending nothing at all. If they had IVC through the day and weekday evenings I think they may even have pulled it off.
Grampian was alway more british than Scottish and certainly no stranger to ITV branding .Yes Grampian did use the ITV 89 corp ident until the SMG takeover,but a reminder here Grampian used invision continuity announcers for all their links until 1998 and they had strong Grampian branding on their promos and announcers set. The ITV 89 corp ident was only ever used to link to ITN and usually first thing in the morning at 9.25.
Well said......Grampian had some super Continuity sets and a great team of announcers.....who needed idents....we had the 89 itv one for about 10 years but it onle seemed like 3 or 4 because Grampian had several set changes and staff changes which kept things new and fresh!!
Bring back IVC and we would not be so concerned about idents!!
SMG should be ensuring that STV (as I and many others insist on calling it) and Grampian should reflect their Scottishness as much as possible. It is legitimate to debate whether or not their resources should be pumped into programmes which do this, or partially diverted into presentation which also reinforces the Scottish identity, My personal opinion is that they should do the latter - with idents which reflect Scotland and the Scottish character (ie. scenery, football teams, heritage, modern Scotland etc.) and with programmes which do the same (dramas, sport etc).
SMG have a unique opportunity in that Scotland is starting to realise that it can be a strong, independent (both within the Union and perhaps without) nation and SMG should reflect that. It is different from Wales, with its devolved government, and diferent legal and educational systems. Yes, Scots like Corrie and Emerdale as much as some English people do, but that's no reason to submerge their tv station into an English controlled conglomerate.
Glasgow is bidding for the Commonwealth Games. I hope they get it. Manchester hosted them last, four years ago. The old Granada would have devoted hours of coverage, not of the actual games, but the surrounding circus. ITV Granada did not, because they could not. The South Bank wouldn't let them. Liverpool won the Champions League last year. Granada would have turned their idents red, put on special programmes etc. ITV Granada didn't, because they couldn't. Anyone who cares about Scotland and it's people should be hoping that STV and Grampian don't go the same way.
I'll repost this again when I see the ITV1 presentation tomorrow, but from what i've seen I think SMG should take it. As previously mentioned, perhaps change the logos to suit and have similar style idents with Scotland in it. This means they can have British and Scottish pres.
I don't agree with you .SMG should keep Scottish and Grampian branding.The bottom line here is people in Scotland can identify with Scottish and Grampian more than ITV.
I remember when STV relauched with thistle and changed the onair name to Scottish that was 21 yrs ago and still people call the station STV.
Relauching as ITV 1 Scotland would be mad and a waste of money i don't think it will ever happen the Scottish and Grampian brands are much stronger here than ITV it's fact.
If i were SMG i would bring back a more modern and dynamic on air look involving the Thistle and St Andrews flag.I like the people idents of 2000 but eventually they just looked so dated.
How many viewers in Manchester call their local station ITV 1 Granada none i bet.They still say Granada.Same in Yorkshire and Tyne Tees land .
How many Viewers In Wales say oh whats on ITV 1 Wales .They probably still call the station HTV and so they should.
Long may Scottish Grampian and UTV keep thier own identities.The rest of the ITV network is a mess.
I don't agree with you .SMG should keep Scottish and Grampian branding.The bottom line here is people in Scotland can identify with Scottish and Grampian more than ITV.
I remember when STV relauched with thistle and changed the onair name to Scottish that was 21 yrs ago and still people call the station STV.
Relauching as ITV 1 Scotland would be mad and a waste of money i don't think it will ever happen the Scottish and Grampian brands are much stronger here than ITV it's fact.
If i were SMG i would bring back a more modern and dynamic on air look involving the Thistle and St Andrews flag.I like the people idents of 2000 but eventually they just looked so dated.
How many viewers in Manchester call their local station ITV 1 Granada none i bet.They still say Granada.Same in Yorkshire and Tyne Tees land .
How many Viewers In Wales say oh whats on ITV 1 Wales .They probably still call the station HTV and so they should.
Long may Scottish Grampian and UTV keep thier own identities.The rest of the ITV network is a mess.
The old idents used to say STV production "from Scotland" - they need to re-introduce that sort of thing.
A Saltire fluttering in the wind with the station name beneath it - well why not? Good idea say I.
And on the subject of what people call ITV I know people in the South West who still refer to "Westward"!
God, anything but a thistle. "How many cliches can you fit onto an ident?" Well, just take a look at past STV idents... Lion, tartan, thistles... spare us! If ITV1 had an ident revolving around the cross of St George everybody would think it was ludicrous.
I don't agree with you .SMG should keep Scottish and Grampian branding.The bottom line here is people in Scotland can identify with Scottish and Grampian more than ITV.
I remember when STV relauched with thistle and changed the onair name to Scottish that was 21 yrs ago and still people call the station STV.
Relauching as ITV 1 Scotland would be mad and a waste of money i don't think it will ever happen the Scottish and Grampian brands are much stronger here than ITV it's fact.
If i were SMG i would bring back a more modern and dynamic on air look involving the Thistle and St Andrews flag.I like the people idents of 2000 but eventually they just looked so dated.
How many viewers in Manchester call their local station ITV 1 Granada none i bet.They still say Granada.Same in Yorkshire and Tyne Tees land .
How many Viewers In Wales say oh whats on ITV 1 Wales .They probably still call the station HTV and so they should.
Long may Scottish Grampian and UTV keep thier own identities.The rest of the ITV network is a mess.
The old idents used to say STV production "from Scotland" - they need to re-introduce that sort of thing.
A Saltire fluttering in the wind with the station name beneath it - well why not? Good idea say I.
And on the subject of what people call ITV I know people in the South West who still refer to "Westward"!