* The new idents launch next month
* A Scandinavian model is one of the stars of the new idents, which appear to be heading back towards the blue square-esque people promos.
* New logo has been approved - but isn't public knowledge yet.
Intriguing. I'm sure they'll show staff who have been made redundant in the following month or so though.
Oh no. Not more people idents. Can't they be more creative than models? They'll probably get boring after a couple of weeks but I won't judge till I see them.
It'll be interesting to see what the new logo looks like. I've got a feeling it'll be completely different from ITV1.
Interesting to note 'www.stv.co.uk' is owned by Scottish Television Limited (WHOIS).
It looks like another misguided attempt at an upmarket brand, when the majority of ITV1 and STV's viewers will be watching Makeovers from Hell and crap like that. Perhaps they're aimed more at the advertisers than viewers, who probably don't notice them.
Presumably, as with the blue square people idents, they're not going for locations as broadcasting an Aberdeen ident would annoy the central belt, and vice versa. But it's a shame - what else symbolises localness than the saltire and images of the broadcast area, obviously with people to give a personal touch.
It's also unfortunate that they should splash the cash on new idents at a time when they're offering redundancy packages to staff on programmes - presumably they felt it was necessary to a) replace the celebrities who have left and b) deal with the Scottish/Grampian dual branding issue, but they could easily have just used the generic idents.
Will be interesting anyway. It would be nice if they gave Grampian a good send off, but in reality it'll probably be a Beat 106 here one day, gone the next.
Given the predominance of models I wonder if the 'creatives' working for STV have been in Budda's pub recently - it looks like they've been inspired by Fashion TV, which is often played in the background.
If the "Grampian TV" brand cannot be retained (an outrage), here's hoping it can at least be given a full-blown state funeral.
Change will at least be half tolerable if there is no replication of ITV1 look.
No picture of model available on the web version of the Sunday Mail article, but why does she need to wear those awful tights when bare legs are so much sexier?
Because then you can pretend it's upmarket, fashion-led and classy, as opposed to an excuse to broadcast a picture of a woman wearing very little to get people's attention.
It's kinda the same differential as there is between art and porn.
It's also unfortunate that they should splash the cash on new idents at a time when they're offering redundancy packages to staff on programmes - presumably they felt it was necessary to a) replace the celebrities who have left and b) deal with the Scottish/Grampian dual branding issue, but they could easily have just used the generic idents.
Will be interesting anyway. It would be nice if they gave Grampian a good send off, but in reality it'll probably be a Beat 106 here one day, gone the next.
The dual branding of Scottish and Grampian is not really much of an issue - Grampian is dead. Scottish killed it years ago. For 6 years they've both used an identical presentation set which just happens to go by a different name if you move far enough north. Since moving towards pseudo-ITV generic idents (which of course ITV plc have since replaced...and replaced again, too) that has only been accelerated, with the ending of individually branded trailers and the more or less total removal of variation in schedule except for regional news. Ditching the two brands and replacing it with one only acknowledges onscreen an event which actually happened years ago. The date in a few weeks time when the two brands unify will be what is remembered long term, but in itself the act is barely significant - replacing Scotland's two ITV stations with a single one with split news (before the pedants get in yes I realise that three stations broadcast in Scotland, but I'm not including the Scottish part of Border in this) is something which happened on an unmarked day well over 5 years ago and will doubtless rarely be documented in any future account of early 21st century ITV.
But is it right that this should happen? Of course it's not. Scottish and Grampian are supposed to be two distinct and separate stations, not a single station which happens to use two different names and provide different local news depending on which part of it's area you happen to be in. Yet OFCOM and the ITC who preceeded them have a history of doing nothing more than constantly accomodating the wishes of the businesses who hold franchises from them without at all regulating them (indeed, both the ITC and OFCOM have a history of modifying the terms of those franchise agreements to meet the wishes of the franchisees) and making them operate in the spirit of the franchises which they hold.
However, of course there's nothing that can stop SMG from doing what they are doing (and indeed, what they have allready done in all but branding) - they simply need to point to the antics of the then Carlton Communications in 1999 (when Carlton/Central/Westcountry were all rebranded as Carlton), to the further antics of the then Carlton Communications/Granada in 2002 (when 11 separate stations were all allowed to operate under a single identity which pretended that the 11 distinct services were in fact one - something which still goes on to this day), and then from 2003-present when the schedules of these 11 separately licenced stations, each bound to operate a regionally focused TV service in their respective transmission areas, seemingly by the day manage to reduce their commitment to their transmission areas and consolidate more and more as a single channel.
What SMG are doing - a rebrand to reflect onscreen what they have allready done in practice - cannot possibly be stopped because of w*nk-handed regulation (which has sadly only got worse since OFCOM came in) which seemingly has no concept of it's purpose (which is to allow commercial TV to operate at a viable profit and within reasonable costs, yet which should also ensure that the businesses within it's control to do not make any compromises on service in order to reduce costs/increase profits).
If anyone criticices SMG for their rebrand, they merely have to point at the antics of the now ITV plc, entirely supported by the government regulators of the time (Tessa Jowell even spoke at the formal event to mark Carlton and Granada's merger when if she was truly comitted to making sure the regulation worked in the viewer's rather than the broadcaster's interest then she should not have come with 100 miles of an event which so categoriically derides the spirit of the contracts entered into by the ITV companies) in order to justify what they are doing.
:-(
A former member
Antz posted:
Oh no. Not more people idents. Can't they be more creative than models? ).
I agree, nice to see there keep the buget cuts going,
I wound't surprizes me if ther keeeep half the old ones adn just rebrand them and just add some new ones
