UTV Presentation Thread

Video Clip

(Original post with images quoted for the benefit of those who didn't look at the page before!)

Some new pre-recorded 6 o'clock idents to introduce UTV Live, voiced over by Gillian Porter. They all mention UTV Live's recent status as the most watched news in Northern Ireland and a little promotion for the website u.tv:

http://www.utvtoday.co.uk/videos/6pm_ident_a.flv

http://www.utvtoday.co.uk/videos/6pm_ident_b.flv

http://www.utvtoday.co.uk/videos/6pm_ident_c.flv

All of them are awful. When introducing the news, I would rather be told who is presenting the bulletin, not hear self-congratulatory, complacent, almost arrogant spin written by a press officer and enforced by the Head of Promotion about UTV's audience figures and their website - which, strangely, after UTV Live ends, seems to stop updating until the following morning.

What's so wrong in saying "This is UTV. Now, tonight's UTV Live with Paul Clark and Lynda Bryans. It's six o'clock"? Is it too "old school continuity" for the Promotions team at UTV?

And why the hell aren't UTV's duty announcers doing live links at 6pm when they ought to be on duty at that time? I thought the late duty shift on a weekday began at 4pm - that's what I was told by a UTV source a few years ago. Then again, the only announcers I remember hearing on duty live before 7pm on a weekday in recent years have been Gillian and Julian.

The old one used to say, "Good evening, you're watching UTV. The time is 6 o'clock". Was much better when UTV Live was introduced live at 5:30pm and the announcer told us the names of the 4 people presenting.



Ever since UTV Life returned, there has been no live announcer until 7pm. The idents run announcerless until 5pm and then UTV Life is introduced by whoever does the coming up trail. UTV Live is then introduced by the pre-recorded ident and then the ITV News titles are faded straight into at 6:30pm.

Following on from their special Emmerdale cast promo, UTV now have a Loose Women promo airing in which they say at the end 'It's All About U'! Fair play to them for going to the effort!

http://www.utvtoday.co.uk/videos/loosewomen_allaboutu.flv

New breakbumper being used today for St Patrick's Day:

http://www.utvtoday.co.uk/images/bb_stpatricksday1.jpg

http://www.utvtoday.co.uk/images/bb_stpatricksday2.jpg

http://www.utvtoday.co.uk/images/bb_stpatricksday3.jpg

http://www.utvtoday.co.uk/images/bb_stpatricksday4.jpg

Not much of an effort this year, either from UTV or BBCNI. Something like this, which was used during UTV Life on Friday would have been much nicer:

http://www.utvtoday.co.uk/images/stpatricksday1.jpg

http://www.utvtoday.co.uk/images/stpatricksday2.jpg

Looks like mould growing on the U rather than Shamrock.

I wonder if whoever is on continuity duty this evening appears in-vision with blue shamrock... then again, it's Monday therefore Gillian therefore probably not.

Also, more for the news thread, but is there the full-blown hour of UTV Life/Live or are UTV doing the usual near-bugger-all on a Bank Holiday.

Am I the only person who think's UTV's presentation (judging by what I've seen in this thread - I don't have access to UTV) is stuck in the 1990s? It looks so dated.

The thing about UTV's presentation is it usually ends up an inconsistent mess.

They never seem to get the logo right all the time (sometimes it's in 2D, sometimes it's the "scratched" bevelled version from 2002; sometimes it's dark blue, sometimes it's light blue; and there any many versions where the text is slightly different); the use of fonts on trailers, ECPs etc. are never the same (either Lucida Sans, Helvetica or Arial); they rely too much on a limited bundle of trailers and the Watch to Win promotions to fill up junction time; and the potential for IVC is wasted with Julian's links a required taste and the other announcers not bothering with IVC at all.

And while I am pleased to see UTV taking on some new announcers at last, only one of them has potential (Marc) and the other two are next to useless, relying on stock phrases or as close to BDS/TV Times listings as possible and the use of a monotonous, lifeless and sometime harsh tone of voice. To me, it seems the new breed of announcers were taken on as newsreaders first, with the duty of providing continuity announcements as an afterthought.

UTV still feels stuck in a time-warp - you could view it as a genuine effort to keep the spirit of an older era of ITV alive, or a terrible example of complacency where they don't want to change how they operate.

Well after waiting for weeks i eventually saw that new blond hunk .Thumbs up i could just listen to that sexy accent of his all night.He even gave us a wink at the end of the bulletin YES i said wink .So those in the know spill the beans i wanna know all about him .I fancy a bit of that

The UTV Annual Programme Statement 2008 & Review 2007 is now online here. If you can't be bothered reading it, here are the highlights!

L8 & Live , originally shown in 2006, will return for a new series this year

A second series of Hidden Heritage will air (already started)

UTV Rewind will also return for a new series

UTV cameras have spent the summer of 2007 following the work of the Portrush lifeboat. A six part series, Portrush Sea Rescue , will be their flagship production for 2008

In The Fabulous Food Adventure , UTV will be visiting local food producers, seeing their work and then inviting a celebrity panel to discuss the food. Big name chefs will serve up a meal with the ingredients delivered exclusively from the land and water of our region

UTV will be producing, in association with Dougal Media, a "live" venue based programme to offer new bands, singers and comedians their first opportunity for a place in the spotlight

A new programme also starts next week called The Troubles I've Seen , with the description: Belfast born journalist Denis Tuohy presents the first in a series of three programmes featuring, amongst others, Kate Adie, Martin Bell, Sir Trevor McDonald and Dermot Murnaghan reflecting on how they reported from Northern Ireland during the Troubles.

Some of those programmes look promising; and the return of Rewind is also good news. I just hope UTV take more initiative especially in terms of opting-out from the network in peak time.

It seems that Michael Wilson's impact as the new Director of TV at UTV is starting to manifest itself.