ITV1-only idents - a pack of lies

One thing that has been forgotten in all of this -- if of course it is indeed true (and it has to be said it does sound plausible) is what is going to happen with regards to Channel Television?

I know it was a while back but last time Leeds tried to direct another station to overlay it's feed it was an unmitigated disaster, and I have a feeling, at least for the first few months, it will be again -- Leeds doesn't have the experience Meridian has with working with a small TV station in this way.

I suppose it could all fit in with the likelyhood of Channel getting a dedicated fibre-optic feed from London. It would all fit in.

I guess the Leeds move doesn't really have any bearing on regionality (unless you're a Meridian or Anglia viewer ) but I can't help feeling that running 13 sub-regions from one centre is going to leave Leeds with little time for regional anything. It could actually be the very reason Granada is taking this move with the itv1 idents -- technical concerns rather than political.

And in some ways that is even worse -- the branding of all these stations is getting weaker and weaker and weaker, and this will make it even worse because of the reasons for driving this change forward.

Oh, and one other thing. If LWT does not take the generic itv1 idents proposed here, it's not because of any independence that LWT has.

You have to bear in mind that LWT is in London, and as such is given preferential treatment to the rest of the country.

Also Carlton broadcasts during the week on the same airwaves. It would look strange to say the least to have Carlton itv1 on weekdays and generic itv1 on weekends.

The reason the itv generic concept was dreamt up in the first place was because London had an itv branding problem with two stations with totally different branding schemes. The argument for a generic itv is much weaker in the regions than it is in London. Yet ironically it seems that London will get to keep its regional names whilst the regions lose theirs.

is it something like this?

http://www.tvhome.f2s.com/upload/tester.jpg

Damn right - that looks like it all right! You didn't happen to design it for itv did you by any chance? I think the yellow and blue blocks are slightly larger, just by a bit though, and the background is slightly different, although it's been about 5 weeks since I've seen it so I'm having trouble remembering it exactly. But well done!

Thanks for confirming that.

Well! A few people at the time of the ITV1 promo [ http://www.tvhome.co.uk/itv1.shtml for people in need of refreshing ] said that it could well become the new ident, and they seem to be right!

Cheers, Asa

I have updated my mock, taking into account the discrepenses.

If anyone has webspace i can send it to you in swf format

Problem is Asa, the download for the ITV1 Promo dosen't work! Whilst I'm here, I'm gonna be a minority here and say that I am looking forward to the day when we get generic ITV1 idents. You all know as well as I do that it isn't going to go back to the way it was with little or no trace of an ITV brand, and I'm non too keen on the situation we have at the moment, not least 'cause I hate the current idents. IMO, it may aswell go the whole hog and turn generic, although I must admit, that if Carlton don't join in it will look very very weird, espescially in London. The mock mdta did was very good, and I'd quite like to see that on-screen, much as I rather like the current ITV2 idents and enjoy seeing them too. Bring it on I say! (Yes, I know I'm strange ;o)

Was the placement of the itv1 logo deliberate mdta?

If it was, it is actually very very easy to place a local logo at the top of there.

Maybe, maybe not. We'll just have to wait and see.

Of course, if the Granada logo is there, this will mean that Granada TV viewers will not have too much trouble with it, whereas other viewers have the triple whammy of their stations being called itv1 except before local programmes when they're the local station, and all the while there's this strange Granada thing in the corner as well.

What were itv saying about confusion? Another ill-thought out mess if you ask me!

I'm going to be optimistic. I believe that the new idents will at least be consistent, ie the placing of the GR/N/D/ logo on both the national and regional idents. This, I believe, will surprisingly be what brings it together, as it will be like watching GR/N/D/ and not [itv]1], so as long as the placing of the Granada logo, subtitles and itv.com url are consistent on [itv]1] and regional idents, then it might work. Oh, I know what I mean.

Look at it this way, it'll be almost the same as BBC One is now. National programmes will just have a generic ident, regional programmes will have a regional one. At the moment, the Yorkshire regional ident simply wouldn't work if it was on before all programmes as [itv]1] simply isn't what it used to be. This is not particularly a bad thing I reckon, as it allows the best of each region to be implememted in the overall result. This, unfortanately has not happened (ie. Leeds), but we can hope for change.

Exactly!

As I said, Granada viewers might see this as a good thing, with consistent-ish branding.

But what if you're a Tyne Tees, or Meridian viewer? I don't want to watch Granada TV!!!

Would you like it if there was a Yorkshire logo on the bottom of your itv1 region?

Yeah, I suppose for Yorkshire viewers, this will go back to before 1968, when Granada used to be in Yorkshire too!

But of course, what if Granada were to acquire Carlton (or their Television operations, anyway...) something like this, perhaps...!

http://www.tvhome.f2s.com/upload/Carlton1.jpg