MM
I wouldn't say the UTV branding is going anywhere anytime soon Ronan.
In the grand scheme of things, producing UTV-branded versions of the ITV idents is no big deal. Producing UTV-branded versions of all network trails (including local voiceover) is a nuisance and an overhead - from a cost perspective, I'd say relatively inexpensive though. However, there's no doubt about it, UTV now looks very 'ITV' - and switching to full ITV branding after a while, will probably go pretty much unnoticed. Not sure how much of a cost saving there'd be from a playout perspective when UTV eventually switches to full ITV branding? But, the end goal here is full ITV branding - there's no doubt about that in my mind.
If I were a betting man, I'd say the UTV brand might disappear completely around the same time as the building move. And between now and then, I believe we'll see a gradual erosion of the UTV branding, with the ITV logo creeping in more and more.
UTV does have some of the best ratings percentage shares within the ITV network. In spite of the relatively small population, I'm sure ITV will still want to tread carefully and not do too much to upset that (ratings=£s after all). I'd be very surprised though if any of the changes introduced today will have any notable impact on ratings. From a presentation perspective, UTV's graphics, idents, IVC etc were amongst the poorest on UK TV - and yet the viewers still came to the channel. UTV was proof that It's all about the programmes (ITV programmes in UTV's case) - and not the branding.
Or, if you get sucked in by all that overly sentimental nonsense in Stephen Nolan's Belfast Telegraph article, you'll believe that ratings will fall through the floor now.
That's ominous as far as how long lived this branding might be is concerned.
I wouldn't say the UTV branding is going anywhere anytime soon Ronan.
In the grand scheme of things, producing UTV-branded versions of the ITV idents is no big deal. Producing UTV-branded versions of all network trails (including local voiceover) is a nuisance and an overhead - from a cost perspective, I'd say relatively inexpensive though. However, there's no doubt about it, UTV now looks very 'ITV' - and switching to full ITV branding after a while, will probably go pretty much unnoticed. Not sure how much of a cost saving there'd be from a playout perspective when UTV eventually switches to full ITV branding? But, the end goal here is full ITV branding - there's no doubt about that in my mind.
If I were a betting man, I'd say the UTV brand might disappear completely around the same time as the building move. And between now and then, I believe we'll see a gradual erosion of the UTV branding, with the ITV logo creeping in more and more.
UTV does have some of the best ratings percentage shares within the ITV network. In spite of the relatively small population, I'm sure ITV will still want to tread carefully and not do too much to upset that (ratings=£s after all). I'd be very surprised though if any of the changes introduced today will have any notable impact on ratings. From a presentation perspective, UTV's graphics, idents, IVC etc were amongst the poorest on UK TV - and yet the viewers still came to the channel. UTV was proof that It's all about the programmes (ITV programmes in UTV's case) - and not the branding.
Or, if you get sucked in by all that overly sentimental nonsense in Stephen Nolan's Belfast Telegraph article, you'll believe that ratings will fall through the floor now.
