ITV Idents (Post Christmas)

A much clearer example.

I like the animation, it's simple and a cross between ITV Encore and ITV 3 IMO. Add a diamond effect to that logo and you could have had a cracking 60th graphic.

There is/was a new announcer on ITV today and I think he accidently announced that it was time for the ITV London News across the whole network. Obviously nobody told him it should be a generic announcement into the regional news.

He sounds familiar or is that just because there is another North East sounding announcer on the network?

He's not new he's been working at ITV several months now mostly weekday daytime - plus he's dreadful. Sounds really poor - love the accent but his delivery is shocking. Don't confuse him with the lovely Andrew Hayden-Smith who works mainly on ITV2 and occasionally ITV in fact he was the daytime announcer on ITV today.

I really miss Mark Manchester, he was my face ITV announcer. He actually added a bit of personality to his announcements, unlike many nowadays on the channel which just seem to say 'now though its Emmerdale' etc, never linking to the particular episode or anything. A few years ago I used to know all the announcers on ITV (not personally of course) but now they only one I know well is Dominic Green, and he is the best one on the channel now.

ITV need to speak to Channel 4 about how to get good announcers. Most of their guys have good personality and put some effort into their scripts.

Totally agree most of the current bunch do announcing by numbers - there is an art as the likes of Mark Manchester, Catherine Whale and Gina Mellotte could show. No idea why they were dumped in favour of the current bland bunch.

Yes I agree. It is strange why they seemed to get rid of their best announcers (don't know if they were axed or left on own merit) but surely they must see some of the current ones are just not very good.
I don't know how much freedom the announcers actually get at ITV (well the main channel). When I used to speak to Mark a little when he worked for them, he made it seem as if it was quite restrictive at times, although he did manage to do an announcement for me but he even had to be careful then.

Its a shame ITV don't let them be a little more like the C4 announcers, having a bit of fun every now and then, but still knowing when be serious. Talking about the actual programmes about to start, or the episode that has just finished, or even mention when something has recently happened, say when a new ident first appears, why not mention it briefly? C4 are good at that. Even BBC are better than ITV seem to be right now.

Yes it's all announcing by numbers these days, I expect many just see it as a voiceover gig before moving to something else, rather than it actually being a career.

There is little engagement with the programmes, they seem to be just programme names listed on a page. The famous "ITV News and Weather" springs to mind.

Every Monday at 7 the announcement goes something like "Tonight we've got two visits to Coronation Street, at 7:30 and then again at 08:30. First though, it's Emmerdale". Very boring stuff, no need to make a big deal over the two episodes, there are two every week!

I don't know how much freedom they get with announcements and how much is written for them by marketing, but having said that if anything, there should be more lead from Marketing as so often they miss blatantly obvious things that they should be promoting, failing to mention unusual schedules, extra soap episodes on unusual days etc.

The previous bunch didn't have contracts renewed - only Dominic and Steph were offered new contracts. Gina was one of the best ITV announcers ever - really down to earth, yet informative without sounding robotic. She actually sounded like she was watching the shows with you a bit like the old school of Trish Bertram at LWT.

Thank TV Forum, thought it was just me! Tonight's announcer on ITV has been shocking. A disgrace, especially considering the channel is celebrating it's 60th Birthday. A shock to see the Up series return tonight...seems a bit BBC2 compared to common ITV these days!

Following Coronation Street on Wednesday, Liz McDonald was watching The Real Housewives of Cheshire (which airs on ITVBe) during the second half of the programme and when it ended, the announcer said "...were they *really* watching another channel?!" I thought it was nice attention to detail.

Don't be ridiculous.

The same ITV that shows the beautifully crafted and moving Long Lost Family and is showing documentary programming at 9pm every night this week?


By the way 56 Up is a repeat from 3 years ago.