UTV rebrand

Why have you decided that they're "holding back"?

They've made the general look of the station virtually indistinguishable from ITV in all but name, and elements of the new UTV logo itself are derived from the ITV logo.

It has already been stated that they anticipate moving to new premises in "early 2018". You can bet your granny that the (presumably inevitable) full renaming will coincide with the move, I'd have thought.

There's no way in hell that Havelock House will ever bear any e.g. "ITV Northern Ireland" signage now that its days are numbered. Conversely, I would anticipate that the new Belfast premises (presumably in some anonymous office building, on a business park in the far-flung outskirts of the city) will have e.g. "ITV Northern Ireland" signage from the outset.

Any studio(s) at the new base will doubtless be converted office space. The news will surely get the same style of generic set as most other ITV plc regions - with a 3-sided recorded view of Belfast to display on the five Ultra-HD "windows" - and be simultaneously renamed as "ITV News Northern Ireland" (or similar).

I just think that if we all know the utv brand is numbered why not just roll with it and switch over to the itv brand there if they were worried about people complaining about the recent look they needn't don't think anyone cared as long as the programmes stayed but as they are moving premises soon makes sense to wait I saposse

I'm not so sure it's days are as numbered as people think. UTV has one of the highest audience shares of any ITV region which they won't want to risk and the politics of it all are much greater than it was for ITV in Wales and probably greater than it would be should they ever buy out STV. If ITV really wanted to brand UTV as ITV they'd have simply done it from the start - as you've all pointed out there is little reason to wait.

True. Apart from wild speculation, there's nothing official to say that the UTV brand will be replaced at any point in the future.

I don't think they would delay a rebrand based on signage costs. ITV Wales knew they were leaving Culverhouse Cross at the time of the ITV rebrand but still got all new signage.

However, I agree with Brekkie - I think ITV is comfortable with the UTV brand and even sees its regional identity as an advantage. It is a distinctive area politically but more importantly to them it's also distinctive commercially (ie certain brands not available there, and also some only available there).

I suspect that if HTV had remained independent until now and only taken over by ITV recently, the HTV name would have been kept. In Wales, at least.

[quote="chinamug" pid="1042996"][quote="rdd" pid="1042994"]

SSE Airtricity sponsors the ITV National Weather when shown on UTV with otherwise identical advertising jumpers to SSE on ITV.

I agree with that. I seem to remember that not long before the HTV brand name was dropped, a survey revealed HTV as one of the most recognised brands in Wales.

That would be the case for any of the ITV companies shortly after their brand was removed though.

The UTV brand was distinctive enough for ITV to completely revamp it and make all the branding and presentation more closely resemble that of daddy ITV. Might their cunning plan be that if it looks so similar to 'ITV' now, people will care and notice even less when that UTV logo morphs into an ITV one at some point next year? I think so. People on here continue to overvalue the currency that is the UTV brand. ITV will use this transition period to understand if the elements they removed back in October have any impact on viewing shares. In spite of the small audiences here, I suspect they still care about the ratings. Every penny counts! And the answer of course will be that viewing figures will not be affected. For some unknown reason, more viewers here seem to watch ITV (sorry, UTV) than in any other ITV region. It is has absolutely bugger all to do with the UTV brand.

I suspect that the UTV brand will be no more when they 'go live' from their new Belfast HQ. However, between now and then, I fully expect UTV on-air branding to be dismantled bit by bit. For example, I suspect we'll see ITV-branded trails before the year is out.

I think the HTV brand was helped by the fact it was so similar to ITV (ie when ITV was on screen, many would just see HTV) and therefore ITV didn't really exist as a brand in Wales in the way ITV stood alongside Granada et al

If HTV hadn't been taken over by ITV Plc by now, I think it would have been absorbed by STV, and possibly UTV with it.

Reminds me of a scene from Gavin and Stacey circa-2008, where Uncle Bryn mentions a report he was watching on 'HTV Wales', which always makes me smile!