TT
ttt
I don't think the plan is all that difficult to work out.
ITV transitions to the centralised playout, with a couple of announcers with NI accents doing the continuity for UTV. Then slowly over the course of a few months, the rota becomes more pooled until the whole country has NI announcers for a day or two per week.
Meanwhile Julian and Gillian (say) are kept on as presenters of other things and disappear a couple of years later, so it doesn't come across as too much of a shock to local viewers. This happened at other ITV regions in the past.
It's not as if viewers in England would be too phased about hearing a NI voice a couple of days per week on ITV.
ITV transitions to the centralised playout, with a couple of announcers with NI accents doing the continuity for UTV. Then slowly over the course of a few months, the rota becomes more pooled until the whole country has NI announcers for a day or two per week.
Meanwhile Julian and Gillian (say) are kept on as presenters of other things and disappear a couple of years later, so it doesn't come across as too much of a shock to local viewers. This happened at other ITV regions in the past.
It's not as if viewers in England would be too phased about hearing a NI voice a couple of days per week on ITV.
PE
peterrocket
Founding member
Seemingly more roles set to go at UTV...
UTV statement on Belfast redundancies. In effect 25% cut in headcount. pic.twitter.com/PWtGIbtxom
— JPCampbellBiz (@JP_Biz) October 6, 2016
MR
mr_vivian
Of course they aren't going to keep the announcers. ITV will sack off any regional distinctiveness (and programming commitments) as fast as they can get away with.
Yes. Sadly, they are going to want to save as much as they can in order to afford to make programming.
It shouldn't really come as a surprise to any of the staff but it doesn't take away from the sadness of them losing their jobs.
PE
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/utv-could-lose-30-of-staff-as-itv-cuts-costs-35107613.html
peterrocket
Founding member
Quote:
The Belfast Telegraph understands that almost half of its sales team — six out of 11 people — are at risk of redundancy, along with two out of three library staff. Another 16 at-risk posts are in the technical field of ‘play-out’.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/utv-could-lose-30-of-staff-as-itv-cuts-costs-35107613.html
TT
ttt
Of course they aren't going to keep the announcers. ITV will sack off any regional distinctiveness (and programming commitments) as fast as they can get away with.
Yes. Sadly, they are going to want to save as much as they can in order to afford to make programming.
It shouldn't really come as a surprise to any of the staff but it doesn't take away from the sadness of them losing their jobs.
It is without doubt a sad process, and it is only likely to get worse over time.
And I wouldn't share your view that the savings are in order to be able to afford to run more programming from Belfast. This will be next in line for the chop, once ITV gets it past the regulator.
We know this, because ITV and its predecessor companies have done this before with each of the other companies that were taken over.
But hey, NI viewers get a shiny new logo so all is well, eh?
IS
Such redundancies will always happen when one company is taken over by another larger one in the same business. There's plenty of duplication of roles, not just in the business of producing and broadcasting but all the back end functions that will just get added to ITVs existing ones - payroll, accounts, HR etc
TT
ttt
Such redundancies will always happen when one company is taken over by another larger one in the same business. There's plenty of duplication of roles, not just in the business of producing and broadcasting but all the back end functions that will just get added to ITVs existing ones - payroll, accounts, HR etc
Perhaps now though, those who thought it was a good thing that ITV takes control in NI will reflect on what is happening now (and as you say was always inevitable).
This is only the start. UTV will be down to Wales level of local output as soon as ITV can wangle it. They'll move to smaller premises I'm sure which will doubtless result in more redundancies, and their newsroom is considerably better manned than the typical ITV region so those will be for the chop as well.
It wouldn't surprise me if they were down to 60-70 staff by the end of next year.
RI
Perhaps now though, those who thought it was a good thing that ITV takes control in NI will reflect on what is happening now (and as you say was always inevitable).
This is only the start. UTV will be down to Wales level of local output as soon as ITV can wangle it. They'll move to smaller premises I'm sure which will doubtless result in more redundancies, and their newsroom is considerably better manned than the typical ITV region so those will be for the chop as well.
It wouldn't surprise me if they were down to 60-70 staff by the end of next year.
I wonder whether the current situation where UTV Television is owned by ITV and what was UTV Radio taken over by Murdoch would have happened if UTV Ireland hadn't launched. Or were things going that way anyway?
Such redundancies will always happen when one company is taken over by another larger one in the same business. There's plenty of duplication of roles, not just in the business of producing and broadcasting but all the back end functions that will just get added to ITVs existing ones - payroll, accounts, HR etc
Perhaps now though, those who thought it was a good thing that ITV takes control in NI will reflect on what is happening now (and as you say was always inevitable).
This is only the start. UTV will be down to Wales level of local output as soon as ITV can wangle it. They'll move to smaller premises I'm sure which will doubtless result in more redundancies, and their newsroom is considerably better manned than the typical ITV region so those will be for the chop as well.
It wouldn't surprise me if they were down to 60-70 staff by the end of next year.
I wonder whether the current situation where UTV Television is owned by ITV and what was UTV Radio taken over by Murdoch would have happened if UTV Ireland hadn't launched. Or were things going that way anyway?