End of the road for UTV?

There were plenty of things wrong with the announcements themselves. The one I always remember (from the time, not after seeing it on YouTube or anything) was when they went into Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned with "Football chat now, with Baddiel and Skinner" - despite the fact the whole point of Unplanned was that it was the show where they deliberately didn't talk about football. And that kind of thing happened all the time. As I say, when the network continuity arrived you finally got announcements where it felt like they were interested in what they were introducing.

To add a bit of context, the red neon GRANADA TV sign at the top of the building was removed in 2010, with the water tower on the same roof being removed a year or two before that. There were ITV branded signs located at the main entrance to the Studio Car Park, notably with the ITV Granada logo introduced in 2004 for many years prior to 2010. At some point they were swapped with the 2006 ITV logo, but I don’t believe that happened in 2006.

Why do you hold UTV to such high standards? As I've said before they have hardly been the gold standard of continuity for many years, even before ITV ownership when they arguably had the freedom to do whatever they wanted. This really is a case of rose tinted specs at its finest.

And as far as "saving a quick buck" is concerned, that's a pretty lazy and dated analysis of a company making savings out of self preservation. Cuts are needed in order to adapt to the changing world we live in, as streaming services become more prevalent in day to day life. There is a likelihood we may not even have a linear ITV channel in 10 years, which should put this quibbling over local announcers into perspective.

UTV and their somewhat unique way of doing continuity in and out of vision in the past may not have been 'gold standard' (in your opinion), however the garbage quality of announcements with appalling due care and attention from the network before View from Stormont/Rare Breed has hardly been 'gold standard' either. Julian and Gillians pre-recorded announcements for the past 3 and a half years were never this bad as what the network announcers are thrusting upon us before regional UTV programmes at the moment.
Major improvements (on pre-recorded announcements) are urgently needed...can you at least agree with me on that?


If cuts were so urgenty needed why not cut the London announcing team in half...and make Julian & Gillian more productive by having them announce on the entire ITV network. The announcing work load duties split between the now smaller London team & the already small Belfast team. Less cost/duplication and savings could still have been made with scrapping the Belfast pre-recording sessions, scrapping the UTV Idents and versions of promos. Just have London & Belfast share the workload. This new way of doing continuity could have worked, if ITV wanted it to....but no instead they took the easy option (and arguably what they always intended on doing since 2016) and ditch the UTV Idents/Annnouncements/Team all together. Never waste a good opportunity to do what they always intended.


It's not quibbling...it's more a case of not letting ITV get away with sloppy pre-recorded regional announcements, after axing 2 highly capable UTV announcers (and arguably more capable than certain weaker members of the London team....yes I'm saying members as its not just the 1 who needs improvement).

Bar This is Granada, there hasn't been a huge outcry from actual UTV viewers that the programmes are being introduced from a CA in Chiswick and using the ITV brand.

Like viewers in the STV region, they're more bothered if they can see their favourite ITV network shows than if there's a local voice introducing the shows. The regional elements are being kept as a obligation as part of the Channel 3 NI licence, such as regional news, political shows and the likes of UTV Life.

If anyone is really bothered that a show isn't being introduced by a CA from NI, BBC One and BBC Two Northern Ireland still has Belfast based continuity.

I get the feeling that This is Granada would be less upset if the announcements from Chiswick weren't exhibiting schoolboy errors.

Baffles me how someone so UTV obsessed takes the username of the company that effectively bought them out.

UTV were far from "gold standard" when it came to continuity - even in the early days of TV Forum their in-vision efforts especially seemed dated, and you seem to be very much the lone voice in appreciating the old fashioned style of traditional UTV continuity.

As for your insistence they should be kept on by ITV shifting half of network continuity to Belfast and axing a couple of people from London - do you even read what you post? That is as likely and practical as deciding all scenes in the Rovers on Coronation Street should be filmed in a Belfast pub.

It also baffles me why so many who are not from the UTV region took so much delight in the removal of 'dated' Julian and Gillian. I genuinely believe there is so much love for them from the N.I. viewer.

Continuity from both London/Belfast could have worked. The BBC have London and Salford based announcers on the Network feed, so ITV could have taken a simular approach with a split London/Belfast announcing team. It would have been the best of both worlds....UTV and ITV voices on the entire network while still having the savings they wanted by getting rid of the UTV pre-recording sessions/Idents/promos.
They (ITV Management) just didn't think outside the box when looking to streamline the continuity team....they took the easy and most predictable option instead. Thats what it all comes down to.

Northern Ireland has more pressing issues than Julian no longer saying "Now on the UTV, Coronation Street"

Yes, certainly. There's lots going on in Storm Front you know?

Wait, BBC Network has Salford-based continuity announcers now?

It's had them for just about a year.