Julian's announcement don't seem to have the energy and enthusiasm they did previously as live.
Both Gillian and Julian have always been more suited to live and in vision work, in my opinion.
TT
ttt
The problem with Northern Ireland, as against Wales, is that the former is much smaller than the latter (and poorer, so worth less to ITV per viewer), but has a much more challenging local environment to work in.
By the time ITV have spent half the cash they spend on Wales, there will be very little left to spend on anything that continues to look anything like a local service.
ITV have amply shown their attitude to small, peripheral parts of the network. If the regulator (and the Scottish Government) had not muscled in to reverse the situation, we would still be in the position where a third of the land-mass of Scotland was served by half an hour of North East English-dominated political programming per month. This is still the case for viewers in the South West, who effectively get one half of one half hour of non-news programming per month as a "regional service" -- an area similar in size to Northern Ireland, receiving a service amounting to THREE MINUTES of non-news per week.
NI will not be served that badly but it won't be top of ITV's priorities to say the very least. Anyone who thinks otherwise is kidding themselves.
The problem is that both Gillian and more to the point Julian might be ok in vision presenters they both actually have very poor voices and aren't suited to voice only announcements. They both sound monotone - no interest. The quality of their announcements are also poor as has been mentioned earlier - boring bland just run of the mill scripts. They really would be better taking national continuity albeit branded UTV - possibly recorded like ITV Wales when going into local programming. At present it just sounds not right.
In their 1990s heyday of course, UTV were always able to point to their large viewership in the Republic when it came to advertising sales. They (and to a less extent Channel 4) effectively became the "go to" for advertisers wanting to reach an all Ireland audience in one go.
But that era is well and truly over now and there are other ways for advertisers to do so (RTE being available terrestrially in NI now, Channel 4 now having an ROI advertising region, the Sky Media set etc)
As I say, history will now record the long term impact of the UTV Ireland experiment as the end of the ITV network as a player in the ROI broadcasting market.
:-(
A former member
I think ITV were stupid to sell off UTV Ireland, it would have been better off just running it from London.
I think ITV were stupid to sell off UTV Ireland, it would have been better off just running it from London.
The problems mount up when you list them:
* A relatively small population, smaller than Scotland (4.5 million) which is already served by a dominant public service broadcaster and an established commercial alternative.
* The requirement to invest in news programming.
* But probably most importantly, the complication of not owning all the rights for all their shows in the country, thus causing scheduling complications and, I suspect crucial for ITV, diluting their brand. They wouldn't want to continue with UTV, which I imagine will soon be a dead brand.
Who said the ITV network couldn't be interesting anymore anyway?!
I look forward to reading about this tragic tale a few years from now in a book, or failing that, a Transdiffusion article.
:-(
A former member
There might have renamed it ITV ireland? also if there had kept the station it would have had BGT and X factor along with the voice, There nothing stopping it bidding for sports for for the whole of the British isles.
The problem with Northern Ireland, as against Wales, is that the former is much smaller than the latter (and poorer, so worth less to ITV per viewer), but has a much more challenging local environment to work in.
In terms of population, Northern Ireland is a bit smaller than Wales, but there's not a massive difference, and the NI population is increasing more rapidly than the Welsh population. This is from the latest ONS population estimates:
- the population of Wales increased by 7,100 (up 0.23%) to 3,099,100 and accounts for 5% of the UK’s population
- the population of Northern Ireland increased by 11,100 (up 0.60%) to 1,851,600 and accounts for 3% of the UK’s population
The problem with Northern Ireland, as against Wales, is that the former is much smaller than the latter (and poorer, so worth less to ITV per viewer), but has a much more challenging local environment to work in.
In terms of population, Northern Ireland is a bit smaller than Wales, but there's not a massive difference, and the NI population is increasing more rapidly than the Welsh population. This is from the latest ONS population estimates:
- the population of Wales increased by 7,100 (up 0.23%) to 3,099,100 and accounts for 5% of the UK’s population
- the population of Northern Ireland increased by 11,100 (up 0.60%) to 1,851,600 and accounts for 3% of the UK’s population
I wonder, do those figures take in to account students, which account for a sizeable chunk of Wales - 20% of Cardiff alone.
I think in terms of being politically important, ITV in Wales and NI are pretty much equal. There isn't much appetite in Wales for independence and none at all in NI. Scotland is a separate kettle of salmon because there is clearly more interest in becoming independent of the UK and there's been much talk of a Scottish Six and a Scottish media.
The problem with Northern Ireland, as against Wales, is that the former is much smaller than the latter (and poorer, so worth less to ITV per viewer), but has a much more challenging local environment to work in.
In terms of population, Northern Ireland is a bit smaller than Wales, but there's not a massive difference, and the NI population is increasing more rapidly than the Welsh population. This is from the latest ONS population estimates:
- the population of Wales increased by 7,100 (up 0.23%) to 3,099,100 and accounts for 5% of the UK’s population
- the population of Northern Ireland increased by 11,100 (up 0.60%) to 1,851,600 and accounts for 3% of the UK’s population
I wonder, do those figures take in to account students, which account for a sizeable chunk of Wales - 20% of Cardiff alone.
I think in terms of being politically important, ITV in Wales and NI are pretty much equal. There isn't much appetite in Wales for independence and none at all in NI. Scotland is a separate kettle of salmon because there is clearly more interest in becoming independent of the UK and there's been much talk of a Scottish Six and a Scottish media.
There has been some talk of independence for Wales, but there has been more talk of a united Ireland (mostly by certain political parties), especially since the EU referendum result.