I think the delay in changing UTV to ITV shows a level of respect from ITV for Northern Ireland. They could easily have barged in, changed it overnight and to hell with anyone complaining. It's a free country and if they want to buy it and change it, they're entitled to do so. Some politicians would complain, but everyone would get on with their lives.
I suspect there are a few things at play here:
1. The ITV of today is not the ITV that existed post-merger, which was bullish, didn't understand why it had so many heritage obligations and tried to kill off the likes of Border. While OFCOM hasn't exactly tried to replicate the IBA, it has clipped ITV's wings a little in the more extreme circumstances (the imposition of a Border Scotland news show in the absence of Scotland Tonight being one example).
2. It doesn't really cause too much of a hassle to maintain separate presentation for one spare channel. Whereas, in early post-merger days, ITV1 tried to maintain separate continuity and idents for a multitude of different channels for regional programming (which was a bit of a mess at times, frankly).
3. ITV is aware of the individual circumstances of Northern Ireland. Ulster would be problematic. Northern Ireland, to an extent for some, would be problematic. UTV is exceptionally handy as it doesn't really say anything. I imagine a takeover of STV would result in an ITV brand being introduced much more quickly.
4. They may well have contractual obligations to the current continuity announcers and staff. If so, why not use them rather than just throw them on gardening leave or whatever?
5. This interim period lets anyone who isn't keen on the ITV takeover see the slicker ITV look under UTV banners. Once it's been ascertained that people aren't going to kick off about the changeover, they sort out the name and (possibly) move to the new building, they'll just do it.
I think that the UTV Live late news was "almost" in HD.
I know that the CSO backdrop is normally in HD, but the camera on the newsreader is fuzzy SD. But tonight (admittedly it's the first time in ages that I've watched it) it looked like the newsreader was in HD too! Frank's weather was certainly still SD, and the graphics all appeared to still be SD too.
Caught an update last night on UTV and thought the same myself. The backdrop and TV behind the newsreader was certainly very sharp compared to what we normally get and the overall picture quality of the broadcast looked very good, but the graphics and any video footage shown from reports was their usual awful SD., don't even mention the end board with the UTV Live logo and "Part of ITV News" underneath... shockingly low resolution/quality. I wonder if UTV Live will get the new ITV News graphics when they move?
...makes reference to UTV moving to new City Quays HQ in February..."after more than 59 years at Havelock House". Does this mean they go live in February, rather than June, as previously stated I wonder? Or is it just the kitting out process that starts in February? Interesting.
:-(
A former member
Quote:
be3, TV3 and 3e will all be rebranded as Virgin, most likely next year.
It seems weird for Liberty Global to use a brand that they merely
license
rather than one they actually
own
? Especially in the long run. In fact, applying the Virgin brand to a venture it's not currently in (television broadcasting and running a cable company are different things, after all) is probably something they'd have to run by Virgin first. (Although, perhaps they have.)
I know we used to have Virgin 1 here in the UK, but that was back when Virgin was actually a shareholder in Virgin Media.
Heck, even Sky understands that you cannot operate with the Sky brand everywhere (see Pick TV and Challenge; see also TV8 in Italy), and they think Virgin would work as the main commercial Irish channel?
It just sounds odd..
Heck, even Sky understands that you cannot operate with the Sky brand everywhere (see Pick TV and Challenge; see also TV8 in Italy), and they think Virgin would work as the main commercial Irish channel?
It just sounds odd..
I know we used to have Virgin 1 here in the UK, but that was back when Virgin was actually a shareholder in Virgin Media.
Yeah, and Virgin 1 was just one of the many many thematic channels
Again, not the main terrestrial commercial and national operation, with a rather long standing presence
So much for the rebranding of TV3. What a waste of money. There's been a lot of money wasted on UTV Ireland and now even more money is being spent. It's madness.
