UKTV Rebrand and new channel

So they'll rename them all and drop the prefix - then a couple of years later decide that people aren't identifying the individual channels enough with the parent "UKTV" brand so spends tens of thousands again on another rebrand to solve the issue.

That's my suspicion also

[/cynic]

I'd say you've just hit upon the problem there.

I'm not even remotely convinced dropping the 'UKTV' from all the brands is going to work out - just that it will backfire and quite possibly lead to a reversion in the future.

When you consider that:
- The channels are largely 'scattered' about the EPG rather and not side-by-side
- And (if they're using Dave as a model) the branding from one channel to the next will be totally different

...then the result is, any last thread of consistency or cohesion is going to be lost, and the average viewer won't have a clue where the UKTV content is to be found post-rebrand.

Funny how the Beeb rebrands its news output with such a strong focus on the fact that it is from the BBC, visually bringing everything together so all designs compliment each other - then UKTV go and do completely the opposite, presumably because they want to try and 'do a Dave' with all of their channels.

But, the name 'Dave' suits a channel which aims to be witty, reflected in the comedy output and - alongside programmes like Top Gear - leans toward the male demographic. However, when it comes to thinking up names for UKTV Gardens or Documentary, looking for a 'clever' name would be completely beside the point there - after all, wit isn't a part of those channels' character, so it need not be reflected in the name -- but it's also my belief that Dave has gained more interest because of its unique name, likely leaving the remaining channels at a disadvantage. What exactly are you supposed to call them?

The current lineup after Dave have self-explanatory names - while UKTV Docs could probably get away with just being called 'Documentary' for example, the problem still remains that there are other straightforward, one-word named channels out there on Digital.

So it follows that if the UKTV channels go this way, they're going to blend in alongside that unrelated output - and once that happens, they will just fade out, having nothing consistent to cling on to in order to distinguish the channels collectively.

Excellent, so R+J's audience will get even smaller than it was going to be anyway.

UKTV Changes
this is a Report from Mediaguardian about the changes to UKTV.

Thanks for that, but the original poster already added a link to that article.

thanks for that! must get my eyes testing!

That must've been an amazing pitch by the consultants who came up with this lastest plan for UKTV:

"The best way forward for UKTV is to completely remove any mention of the name on screen and destroy the brand you've spent a couple of years building up so well after the last consultant's report."

It looks as though TV Executives will believe anything they are told. Money for old rope, perhaps!

It seems to work ok for their sister channels - Living, Bravo, Challenge, Trouble. They're doing very well, have cross promotion and no 'cohesion'

There was nothing wrong with 'UK Gold', 'UK History' and so on - they were short enough and memorable.

Rebranding the channels to 'UKTV' was a mistake; UKTV is a mouthful on its own, and 'UKTVG2' and 'UKTV Bright Ideas' were dreadful channel names.

They have never had a common identity though. Living was originally part of the 'UK' stable of Flextech's channels. Bravo was bought from elsewhere as an established channel.

If you asked the average person in the street, they wouldn't know that the channels were in any way related to one another. Very few viewers would realise that UKTV is even the same company as the other VM channels for exactly the same reason.

That should be enough to make them realise that with hundreds of channels to choose from, your brand will be lost unless it's constantly visible.

I suppose Sky, BBC, C4, Five, ITV and Discovery could all be wrong by slapping their company name on every channel.

Discovery don't - Animal Planet carries no Discovery branding.

And even now, everyone refers to the channels as UK * (especially UK Gold). UKTV, as a brand, has never stuck.