UTV rebrand

How are you finding UTV's glorious high definition news, pad_ehh?

I've found ITV's look crap for the last four years it's been on the mainland. I'm not suddently going to think it's brilliant now they've done a (very) cheap paste-job for NI, complete with pre-recorded announcer who sounds like she's on the toilet...

I was probably being a bit optimistic to think they were going to go HD for the news, but at least they have confirmed that they will be moving premises in 2018 and it will be HD, so the news can go HD at that time. I do admit though, the SD cameras and graphics are very disappointing to see still in operation. It looks awful, especially on UTV HD which really highlights how crappy their set-up is.

Well then, surely you're doing exactly what everyone else is doing but in reverse?

You complain they're all enjoying the new look because they like the ITV look... whilst not enjoying the new look because you didn't like the ITV look.

I think you're misunderstanding what I'm saying. I'm not disliking the new look. I'm just disliking that the picture quality looks so bad as it is still SD so graphics are fuzzy etc. The "set-up" I referred to was their technical set-up with cameras/playout etc., not the physical set-up regarding sets.

I do not have a problem with the ITV look being deployed for UTV at all, in fact, I welcome it and wish it had happened a lot sooner.

I think Joe was responding to ttt

Well, let's set our expectations low and we won't be disappointed.

I agree completely! We both are UTV viewers so I'd be surprised if we didn't agree.

The Yellow, blue and red stuck around for too long. In fact, that colour scheme has been in use since 1993! I always wanted UTV to be more consistent with the ITV network and it's officially happening now. Also, I always thought it would have been cheaper for them if they were more consistent with the network.

UTV are getting the best HD studios in Europe apparently in 2018 according to ITV. So today is only just the beginning of change.

Now that ITV are in charge we will probably lose programmes such as Lesser Spotted Ulster/Journeys eventually as time goes by but gain in terms of better technology and more investment in the delivery of content.

I'm disappointed we're getting that View from Stormont programme - I think there's more interesting things happening in Northern Ireland than pointing a camera at the joke of a political system we have in this country... but that's just me.. I don't think I'll be watching it.

Eh? So what exactly is your beef? Would you rather have underinvestment for the sake of keeping an outdated presentation style.

Oops! The posts were form the same time so I wasn't sure. Leave me out of any bickering!

View From Stormont is a blatant "keep the politicians happy by giving them their own programme" decision. Scotland Tonight at least goes into different topics rather than politics, but given ITV has shown no interest in having a nightly local news show or magazine programme, and given that Representing Border (for Border Scotland) pretty much just does politics news on a budget, I'm not entirely surprised. Indeed, the politicians may well prefer a weekly show focused on them to an extended news bulletin every night.

From a PSB point of view as well, the political situation in Northern Ireland is obviously very, very different from the rest of the UK, so it's good to see some representation there.

I fear - though I hope I'm wrong - that UTV will have the same generic announcements for some programmes every day. That This Morning one sounds like it could be used on a loop for the rest of all our lives. Maybe it'll vary though.

On that - is there any reason why UTV couldn't just have recorded announcements during the day when they were in charge of playout? Seems a strange omission.

Not that different - we're governed by a bunch of moronic, ego-driven twits, just like the rest of the UK.



I fear you're correct. Gillian's particularly irritating delivery makes the repetition all the more difficult to bear. However, she's mentioned UTV's new look during quite a few junctions today, so I'd expect those recordings to be short-lived.



They did actually have pre-recorded announcements - but they were restricted to the ECPs (and the same announcements were used every day, for a VERY long time). All the idents were announcerless - unless a compliance notice was required, in which case they'd summon someone from the newsroom to provide a live announcement, as happened a few weeks ago.

The endboard transitioning in (at about 19 sec) is a bit messy - the 'tv' bit seems to just appear, rather than the circle wipe continuing.

(Other than that, looks perfectly fine)