UTV launches new idents

Well, when I got home, it was time for the 5pm Junction and you will never guess which Ident UTV used? The Blue Breakbumper! It looks like that ident is getting worn out now. It had a few lines and picture jumps during it!!
As for the New ones, well the question is what’s the point??? UTV hardly use an ident. If they can be bothered to use one, it’s mostly the Blue Breakbumper. And what’s the point of making new idents which last 10 seconds?? Everything on UTV looks so out of place. The trailers are the only things that look good with the UTV logo on. Everything else is really bad!

Makes me wonder what the 'U' in UTV stands for now a days!!
I some how think its 'Useless' and not 'Ulster'!!

I wonder why UTV have a blue background on the breakbumper ident, why isn't it yellow or purple?

Its called Bone Idol!! They just copy the network one for convenience!


Just seen a new one before corrie. Not to bad. The music is not good. This one used the same one as the blue breakbumper music. Which other music pieces have been used on others? Not that really bad one which was on the Tarrent/Des/Fern old ITV idents.

I just wish UTV idents would not freeze at the end. The camera had a nice still shot, which could have carried on, but oh no. UTV have to stop the ident there and give us the good old trademark UTV freeze!!

I wonder, does anyone at UTV read these Forums?? I bet they all think we love them. How wrong could they be!

I haven't seen them yet, but perhaps an idea would be to have a flash when the movement is coming to an end, and fading out to a UTV logo centered, or moving forward, ala blue breakbumper ident, but on a black background.

I like that idea. Sounds quite good. If these were idents that ITV were using, that’s something that they would do, but seeing as its UTV, I think their approach is, as long as the word ITV is covered up, it does not matter what UTV’s look is like or whether it broadcasts to the same standards as the network.

Its a shame we're long gone from the time when UTV used to put lots of effort in, like the christmas 2000 ident with the sparkling mobile used.

A couple more then. They're better with a voice over them, drowning out the inappropriate music for one, and reminding you of the whole point of UK continuity for another.

http://members.lycos.co.uk/tindragon/UTV2003b.jpg
http://members.lycos.co.uk/tindragon/UTV2003c.jpg

That last one is just *a park* in Co Fermanagh, I mean really. Some urban ones might be nice though.

I'd imagine the breakbumper one will be used for before news/serious programming. Perhaps UTV will have a news ident like network/SMG -- that would do better. Outside of the evening, UTV is just a dog's dinner. This is perhaps why it's the only region making a profit, it spends very little -- these idents are a bit of a surprise.

The UTV trails are ok -- only the "UTV" moves across too slowly [like on Channel] and is very blurred -- dunno, looks funny. The UTV logo looks nicer in black and white, or silver. Twas better with the finger poking the water in the last set.

They apparantly use all 4 theme tunes that were used on the old ITV1 set. Looking at the screengrabs, they don't fit at all. The pianoey one from the breakbumper is the only one which vaguely sounds like it would go with them, but that's been done to death over the past year. What was wrong with the 2001 ident set (which was barely a year old before they took a modified version of the corporate look) I don't know.


That and the soft mushy images from local output I wonder, do they have this freeze frame to save space on the server? I.e. only store 10 seconds of video and then just leave the audio on over the freeze? I think I'm right in saying though that for the very short time they used edited network celebrity idents (the ones where the UTV logo appears way too early into the animation), these didn't freeze?

Really though, if they are going to put a video freeze on their idents, then they need to design them to reach a conclusion (like idents of the past) so that it doesn't look odd. Designing idents which follow modern practice of having a holding phase after the main animation but then not showing it makes them look terrible. They *could* get away with that video freeze if only more thought was put into the design. And since UTV designed these in house, and since the designers presumably know exactly what will happen when their designs go to air, I can't believe allowing for the video freeze isn't being done.


Indeed. A handful of IVC links in the evening and then only on some nights seems to blur people's view of how bad UTV actually is most of the time. I really don't understand how, in this day and age, they can possibly have such awful presentation. Even the fully automated channels run on a shoestring which fill out Sky Digital's EPG manage to do better than this. It's almost seems like they have cut the staffing levels without remembering to introduce the technology supposed to replace them. And when will they do something about that damn overcompressed server? Ever since I've been able to see UTV all of their local output has looked soft and mushy. Technical standards like that are anothing thing which isn't acceptable in 2003.

TVDragon:
"That last one is just *a park* in Co Fermanagh, I mean really. Some urban ones might be nice though."

Thanks for posting pics, Dragon.

There are a few "urban" idents in the series - the Lurgan Park (near where I live - surprised they found a nice place to shoot an ident there!), Armagh idents and one of the Enniskillen idents (the panorama around Lough Erne) were recorded in towns.

Having lived there over the summer, the Enniskillen ident you posted looks like it was shot in a field outside the town - there's only one park and it doesn't look like the ident was filmed there

I am really impressed by UTV's new idents (they work well both dry and with voiceover) - anything's an improvement from seeing the one same ident all year.

I could hazard a guess that these may form the basis of UTV's 2003 Christmas idents - let's hope it snows before Christmas so UTV can get some nice winter panorama shots

Chris:
"They apparantly use all 4 theme tunes that were used on the old ITV1 set. Looking at the screengrabs, they don't fit at all. The pianoey one from the breakbumper is the only one which vaguely sounds like it would go with them, but that's been done to death over the past year. What was wrong with the 2001 ident set (which was barely a year old before they took a modified version of the corporate look) I don't know."

I tell a lie, so far I've only heard two of the ITV ident jingles on the new UTV jingles - the "news" jingle is used on a few of the idents.

"I think I'm right in saying though that for the very short time they used edited network celebrity idents (the ones where the UTV logo appears way too early into the animation), these didn't freeze?"

They didn't.

I hope they bring back the old jingle.

Yeh, lets get them to bring back the "lollipop" jingle to go with them. That can only be described as a piece of musical genius.