Being in the Central region, I'm obviously not a huge watcher of UTV; but how long has Julian been doing voice overs for commercials on UTV? J C Halliday for one.
A period of dual-branding has begun: ITV-branded trails for network programmes (UTV logo still there for locally-produced programming) and UTV-branded idents.
So, we've had ITV-branded trails for network programmes for most of the day (bar a couple of exceptions during early evening). But back to UTV-branded trails full-time again during the 8pm junction. 11 hours of ITV-branded trails can't have been a cock-up, surely? Potentially phasing it in and starting with daytime. It'll be interesting to see what happens over the next few days.
As I've said many times previously (including this morning, in a post that I've now accidentally overwritten whilst preparing this one), I have no doubt that the ultimate end game will be full-time ITV branding in Northern Ireland. I suspect the appearance of ITV branding today was intentional. If so, interesting timing, amidst all the political turmoil, when politicians and journos will be distracted - which might help reduce any bad PR.
Last edited by MMcG198 on 21 January 2017 8:15pm - 2 times in total
Being in the Central region, I'm obviously not a huge watcher of UTV; but how long has Julian been doing voice overs for commercials on UTV? J C Halliday for one.
Not a first. And he's even 'starred' in one for eye laser treatment (it was truly cringeworthy and seemed to have been hastily pulled). Pamela Ballantine and Sonia Butterworth also voice quite a few ads.
Being in the Central region, I'm obviously not a huge watcher of UTV; but how long has Julian been doing voice overs for commercials on UTV? J C Halliday for one.
Not a first. And he's even 'starred' in one for eye laser treatment (it was truly cringeworthy and seemed to have been hastily pulled). Pamela Ballantine and Sonia Butterworth also voice quite a few ads.
Maybe it was a cock-up. Wrong versions loaded on the system. It's not as if anyone is keeping an eye on UTV, are they?
A professional playout outfit would keep the ITV and UTV playout systems logically separated. This sort of thing should not be possible.
But UTV is part of ITV plc now isn't it - just as ITV Wales is? Why would ITV plc want to waste money on a separate playout operation for UTV, when every other ITV plc region is run from common areas?
Running separate operations isn't a sign of professionalism - not making mistakes is. (Though reading this thread it's not clear at all that the ITV branding wasn't entirely intentional. UTV is really 'just another' ITV plc region now...)
Well, if this was actually an error (and I don't think it was) - and it went uncorrected for about 11 hours - well, that's pretty sloppy.
I have no idea what technical solution they've deployed to enable different programme sponsorship stings, break bumpers and specially-branded trails for UTV but if this was an error, it's interesting that they only managed to screw-up the trails for network programmes and every other UTV-specific element was intact.
It wouldn't be beyond the realms of possibility that ITV might want to introduce full ITV branding during daytime hours and leave peak-time UTV-branded, for a while longer.
Maybe it was a cock-up. Wrong versions loaded on the system. It's not as if anyone is keeping an eye on UTV, are they?
A professional playout outfit would keep the ITV and UTV playout systems logically separated. This sort of thing should not be possible.
But UTV is part of ITV plc now isn't it - just as ITV Wales is? Why would ITV plc want to waste money on a separate playout operation for UTV, when every other ITV plc region is run from common areas?
Running separate operations isn't a sign of professionalism - not making mistakes is. (Though reading this thread it's not clear at all that the ITV branding wasn't entirely intentional. UTV is really 'just another' ITV plc region now...)
You'll note I used the word logical... the idea that they would use itv-branded promos 'by accident' is ridiculous. Either something was very broken today or this was deliberate. I'm tending towards the latter given recent use of the ITV promos on UTV generally.