UTV rebrand

It's harsh, but unfortunately that's how it can be. I've heard some horror stories, where some channel management use their power to blacklist people because they find out someone freelanced at their direct channel rival.

Continuity can be very political - when they don't like you, well...

That probably explains why no other ITV company was seriously interested in taking over UTV in the past decades. With hindsight, I have wondered whether UTV was too isolationist and should have formed a better relationship with STV, or other small companies like Border, Grampian, and Westward / TSW, in the past.

A few months ago I enquired about whether STV and UTV regularly networked programmes. The reply was very rarely. TonyCurrie stated that “IIRC the original plan (in 1959) was for UTV in its first year to produce just a few hours a week of local programmes. However, given the way that the ITV network operated in those days, that meant they would acquire and broadcast a fair amount of acquired film programmes (they didn't have VT at this point of course). So they would pick as much appropriate material as they could from what was available on the network and then fill the gaps with things like 'The Four Just Men'. They were an affiliate of ABC Television who looked after arrangements with the network on their behalf.”

http://tvforum.uk/tvhome/stv-utv-networked-programmes-41808/

Consider the situation if a decision had been made in 1959 that Northern Ireland will not have its own ITV company but instead the ITV service will be provided by the London weekday and weekend ITV companies with separate local news and a few opt outs for local interest programmes.

Instead of UTV we could have had idents for: Rediffusion Ulster, Thames and Lagan TV, Londonderry Weekend Television, and Carlton NI.

Any ideas how different things would have been on screen in Northern Ireland over the decades?

Anyone know what proportion of the announcements are live and what's prerecorded
Noticed they seemed to have forgotten to schedule them today during the day

I do believe all are now recorded. As for daytime I gather these stopped one day after the relaunch- so only last Monday were they heard.

The smaller stations were always going to be hostages to fortune no matter what they did. Tyne Tees, a company which straddled the line between mid-size and small regional, always had a very healthy attitude to working with other regional companies, and was often disliked by larger companies as a result. Their fate? Squashed by their neighbours at the earliest opportunity. The isolationist approach could be seen as very shrewd in that context.

[quote="Riaz" pid="1030695"]

UTV did agree to takeover STV about 10 years ago but it fell through due to pension issues I think. I think there were several reasons why it took so long. UTV is small, not in England, and any takeover would need to be aware of the extra political concerns regarding NI news coverage.

Remember the set up before 1993 was deliberately engineered so that the Big 5 made most of the programmes for the network and the Ten, including UTV, were only able to make a minority.

That system was in place for so long that post-1993 ITV never really shook it off and the independent quota implemented post 1993 meant that independents were at an advantage as against the old Ten when it came to supplying the network. TVS, the member of the Ten that was most vocal about wanting the system changed ended up losing its franchise.

And now we have the odd situation where STV is still producing programmes but generally selling them on to broadcasters such as the BBC, while just taking the ITV schedule in almost totality.

Not really odd nowadays - wouldn't be surprised if ITV produce more shows for the BBC than it does for itself too, and the BBC is looking to produce for other channels too.

The new Northern Irish announcer just introduced regional show The Harbour "on ITV Cymru Wales".

Are there any Welsh announcers on ITV?

The new Northern Irish announcer is a breath of fresh air, lifting the words off the page, even on the most humdrum announcements like the menu they do at 5:59pm