UTV rebrand

The 'UTV News' brand seems to be slowly creeping in. In which case, I suspect this will replace the 'UTV Live' brand. If that does happen, the programme title is likely to be simply 'UTV News' or 'UTV News at 6' (perhaps a similar programme title convention to the national news programmes). I don't foresee the use of 'ITV News' in the programme title for the local news programme. It may say 'UTV News: part of ITV News' on the programme end caption though. This does effectively mean that UTV's news branding gets special treatment and is out of step with the other regions (as it is currently). But I'm beginning to think this is a likely scenario.

As I've said on previous occasions, I do quite like the UTV branding as it currently stands. And having the London voiceover record UTV-branded trails is actually a good thing in my mind; I think viewers will be (perhaps subconsciously) impressed by hearing what is often a star from the show using the UTV name. That approach carries more weight than a local voiceover IMO.

It's difficult to say if the UTV brand will stay in the longer term for trails and continuity links. It's hard not to be cynical and conclude that it will eventually be replaced by the ITV brand. Another curious anomaly was pointed out to me today - the lottery promos refer to ITV and STV. No mention of UTV. And UTV also carried those ITV Racing break bumpers at the weekend. But, conversely, we can look to the more recent addition of UTV break bumpers and UTV-branded trails during 'Good Morning Britain' transmissions, replacing the ITV-branded content that was present previously.

ITV branding is pretty difficult to ignore in Northern Ireland - even on UTV itself. And a lot of verbal references to 'ITV' within programmes again these days (something that was stopped well over a decade ago, in a settlement with STV and UTV, where a proper clean feed of ITV network was also agreed). The question is, do the powers that be believe that the use of the UTV name is diluting the ITV brand in NI? Or is it actually working out quite well - or, at the very least, doing no harm?

They also seem to throw in a ball on occasions by playing out an itv branded item or trail/graphic etc you get the picture just feels like we’re heading in a direction where utv will be thrown out completely

I meant Curve ball typo

It's very easy to be cynical and say that the playout of ITV-branded items, such as idents, is part of master plan (and I've been as guilty as anyone else). There was a short period when there seemed to be a flurry of such incidents. However, it happens so rarely now that it feels more like cock-up than strategy. The playout for UTV has generally been quite slick and the current branding has improved the overall look and feel of the channel considerably, in my view. There is still a slightly annoying issue where we clip the first frame of a network sting or ident (particularly the national weather sting, which is different in UTV land).

I do agree utv is looking more professional these days and seems to be getting a lot of investment with new digs studio fit outs etc indeed I would go as far to say itv seem to be taking pride in utv these days somthing I never thought would happen at all really seem to be taking care of there asset good to see all in all would be interesting to see some screenshots of the new fit out though only saw a couple a while ago now

I'm inclined to assume that the title will ultimately become ITV News Northern Ireland, but probably not for at least a couple more years yet. Calling it UTV News rather than UTV Live between now and then takes it a small step closer to that.

Why? That hasn’t happened anywhere else.

That’s the sort of comment that was quite popular about a decade or so ago.

How may times did we read that Meridian would become ITV News South and the like?

It’s obviously going to stay as currently, like all the other legacy regions have.

It happened in Wales and the West, but only because there wasn't a geographic name and 'ITV News H' would have been stupid. Unlike the 3 or 4 other non-geographically named news programmes which worked

Whatever they decide to do with the name things are so much slicker on the channel now than in the olden days ie no more Julian crashing the programmes as he puts it ie the programme started over the top of Julian’s on screen presentation. Everything seems to go a LOT smoother since the buy out.

Do you seriously think a decision taken 15 years ago by a completely different management is an indicator of what would happen today?

No, was just pointing out that it has happened.

There is still the same logic 15 years on - 'H' stood for nothing relevant, 'U' does