UTV sell TV business to ITV

I watched this back on catchup and I initially took it to be saying that it was an ITV networked programme rather than just UTV, but the way she went on to say "tonight on UTV" at the end was strange.

It was for the Aberfan documentary - was this perhaps trailed on each local news programme? I didn't really get the specific NI connection?

Linking this to our discussion about ITV's production in the regions, the Aberfan documentary was a Shiver Cymru production, the latest arm of Shiver, ITV's factual production company. Shiver has grown to have offices at The London Studios, MediaCityUK, ITV Yorkshire and now Cardiff Bay. Shiver Cymru worked alongside the team at ITV Cymru Wales to produce the special.

When was the last IVC link? Sunday? Who is providing the OOV continuity announcements now - still Julian and Gillian etc?

It was certainly trailed on ITV News West Country. There was of course no suggestion that it had anything to do with this region, or indeed anywhere other than Wales.

IVC last night still with Gillian.

There haven't been quite as many but there have definitely been the odd few from Gillian over the last couple of nights.

Tuesday night was Aidan Browne, all OOV as per usual. The few Gillian links I saw last night were all sound-only.

Has there been any confirmation on what is happening to these announcers come Monday?

It's not the kind of thing a company is likely to ever give confirmation on, is it?

That said, I suspect that if the changes are indeed happening Monday we'll get some sort of announcement about the rebrand either today or tommorow.

Anything that involves a perceived loss (such as IVC) will be kept very, very quiet until the deed is done.

This will most likely be handled in a similar way to other stations in the past; at Tyne Tees the announcers were not even allowed to disclose they were signing off on their last days, and were kept on for a time as presenters (shoving other hosts off programmes in the process).

Some of the ones lost in 2002 were allowed a sign off - most famously LWT's - but it was very publically known at that stage that all local continuity in England was going.

However in this case, the Bel Tel has flagged that intention seems to be, at least in the short term, that Julian and Gillian will stay as announcers, but won't appear in vision. I suspect the intention may be that they'll quietly retire over the coming years and when that happens continuity will move to London.

It's actually quite sad in a way. I grew up with IVC.. everyone in NI did. I remember having a chat with a former ITV1 announcer and Julian was a legend in the office over in London too as they got a feed from UTV.

Proud to say I've met Julian a few time too and he's DEAD ON so he is haha!

No doubt he'll release a tell all book or something.

They won't be forgotten in a hurry. It's been 20 years since we had on-screen announcers here and I still hear the odd reference to Annie St John in particular (who has been gone even longer) or the other presenters, in general conversation.

I do suspect though that the UTV annos will be redeployed somewhere -- they're recognised and trusted faces in their area -- if ITV don't keep them on they'll end up on the BBC...

I met him a few years ago in a nightclub in Dublin of all places, and a friend of mine knows him through work so Julian noticed him and came over and stayed with our group for a while and chatted to us all. When he moved on he did get a fair bit of attention from others in the club looking pictures etc. so he is fairly known and liked.



He had a mate/minder/boyfriend(?) with him who reminded me so much of the character that David Walliams played in Little Britain who was obsessed with his boss the Prime Minister. He didn't like other people coming over to Julian and sneered at them because they were hugging and getting photos and seemed very over-protective of him. It was noticed by everyone, even Julian who threw a sneer back in his direction!