Could the signs at UTV's headquarters, on Ormeau Road, be slightly changed, to have the current UTV logo, and underneath, in small lettering "part of the ITV family"?
I wouldn't be surprised by this. At one point (and my local branch still has this) Asda had "Part of the Wal-Mart family" under the logo in the car parks.
Realistically, maintaining 2 extra players will be a cost and maintaining the UTV brand will be a cost so I reckon ITV's plan will be to phase out UTV over a period of time and then they'll plan to sell the UTV name to another business eventually.
ITV still own all the regional TV station names and trademarks that the merged company constitutes (Granada, Tyne Tees, Anglia etc) and I can't see them wanting someone else using those brands. Same with UTV.
There is one company who would possibly like to use the UTV brand in the UK - India-based "UTV Software Communications" (owned by super-rich Disney). They have a worldwide movie channel, UTV Movies, which goes by the name of UMP Movies in the UK.
Our local Asda had that for a while but it quickly disappeared.
I can't imagine ITV putting up anything temporarily on Havelock House, it would be a waste of money as I'm sure in time they would eventually replace the UTV signage with ITV ones anyway, so they could just wait. To the average passer by who may notice the logo (and having passed the building many times, it isn't that noticeable really, I doubt they'd see or even care about the UTV/ITV logo above the door, let alone a small addition mentioning the ITV family.
I can't imagine ITV wanting to keep Havelock House anyway. It's a huge building for its current purpose. God only knows what lies within as they don't even handle their own sales.
Perhaps I didn't read them thoroughly enough, but I didn't see Havelock House mentioned in either the UTV or ITV press statements. The building and / or the land may not be part of the sale... it might be owned by UTV Media rather than UTV Television.
No matter who owns it, I think it will probably be sold sooner rather than later . It's too big and aged to run either a simple TV news opt on its own, or a local radio station on its own. It just about made sense with both together, but as separate entities...?
:-(
A former member
Does that mean ITV might have to pay for new HD studios?
Well they'll have to pay for something, whether it's the studios outright, leasing space in them or new premises. I suspect new premises may be the more attractive option.
They'll be a similar question with UTV's premises in Dublin, though I think UTV Ireland had premises purpose built for it so that is probably more likely to be retained.