It was relatively normal for many TV broadcasters up until the mid 1990s - for example I think the 1990s virtual studio look was the first time the BBC logo featured in the BBC News opening titles.
If ITV have said they plan to keep the UTV name I wonder if we might see a modern equivalent of the 1999 idents, whereby the ITV logo is also present on the new idents.
It was relatively normal for many TV broadcasters up until the mid 1990s - for example I think the 1990s virtual studio look was the first time the BBC logo featured in the BBC News opening titles.
Maybe it's worth looking back at what happened when ITV regions in England merged.
I really don't think all these comparisons to previous times are helpful because of just how dramatically ITV has changed. The generic ITV idents were by their very nature a compromise between several different parent companies. These days there is a single ITV in control and they can do things how they see fit, and have a clear brand strategy - not one muddled by trying to produce a single identity for a group of companies with multiple owners.
.... and just as I was talking about UTV's excellent News output - ITV have decided to axe UTV Live tonight in favour of a new hour long politics show.
The reason for it being axed appears to be the expense of "news gathering"
The timings mentioned in that article would maybe suggest a new look in October then? If UTV Live tonight returns in August and is only running until the end of September they're not going to want to create a separate new look for it if it's only going to run for a matter of weeks. This would tie in with the new Stormont programme starting in October and also the new shorter bulletin starting in October as well. If the new Stormont programme is going to be ITV News branded it would make sense to launch everything in one go.
:-(
A former member
Its a game of maths here? if the news is staying yet UTV live is being merged into an hourly format, to me it seems that there will be no reduction output per week overall.
I generally agree with the point that the 1999 and even early ITV1 idents were products of compromise. We did after all have the short-lived regional block idents before the full merger took place and things settled down a bit. That's not the era we're in right now.
The only thing UTV needs to look out for is cultural sensitivities and the "opinion-formers" giving them a bit of hassle. Creating a one-hour politics show keeps the people who are most likely to complain - MPs who don't get to see themselves on TV - quiet, whereas everyone else gets on with watching the likes of Coronation Street as normal.
I've never seen that look before. When does it date from? It seems quite American...
70s, I think.
The file name says 1974, but TV Ark, where the image is from, only actually says 1970s. Unless they're missing something, it was replaced in 1976. The look could have launched as early as 1969, when BBC1 started broadcasting in colour and the mirror globe ident which had that same BBC logo on it debuted.
I generally agree with the point that the 1999 and even early ITV1 idents were products of compromise. We did after all have the short-lived regional block idents before the full merger took place and things settled down a bit. That's not the era we're in right now.
The only thing UTV needs to look out for is cultural sensitivities and the "opinion-formers" giving them a bit of hassle. Creating a one-hour politics show keeps the people who are most likely to complain - MPs who don't get to see themselves on TV - quiet, whereas everyone else gets on with watching the likes of Coronation Street as normal.
Meee-Owwww hahaha!
It's a shame they didn't get Julian to host it. Julian could ask them important things like Did you see Coronation Street last night? and there could be a section of the show where he has to sell laser eye surgery to a Politician in under 3 minutes.
That's a shame. I know some people think in-vision continuity is very outdated but it was something that made UTV a little bit more personal than the rest of ITV.
Further suggests that all these changes are happening at the start of October though...
