Firstly..good news! And thanks for including the article. Well done to Bruce Dunlop for being brutally honest about the IDs.
Secondly, I can't imagine a burst of a clip of Corrie with a quick VO by the announcer. They'll be more to it than that - a bit like the BBC One rebrand when one of the articles said '10-second' clips and it made some of wonder whether that was actually going to be the case.
IMO continuity is still rigid enough not to go down the USA route. Let's just hope for some decent live action/logo animation idents and not
too
obtrusive in-programme pointers.
Hope they roughly keep the end credits / ECP style - it just shows how a bit of thought can really work (...thinks back to the days of the smoky hearts design)
I still prefer the hearts ECP/end credits style, then the current batch.
“ITV’s new stuff will be focused on keeping an audience,” he said. “There will be a clip of what’s coming in the next programme and the one after.”
ITV is also planning to carry more cross-promotional information, including on-screen details about forthcoming programmes on its digital line-up, to flash up on screen before shows have ended, to combat the threat of PVRs cutting out the promotions.
OMG - I feel sick, really I do. However naff the current idents look they do at least maintain a traditional identification style for British terrestrial TV.
Coming hot on the heels of BBC1's OSNs, this is going to make ITV1 more unwatchable than it already is.
I would hope that common sense prevails in the end and that the new idents follow a traditional form, with no other info on screen apart from the ITV1 logo and Subtitles aston.
Quote:
It is the first time such crosspromotional activity during programming has been carried out on such a large scale.
“There’s a very realistic attitude on ITV1 within ITV,” Dunlop said. “They realise that a lot of people, for example, switch over to EastEnders once Coronation Street has finished.
“But if you can keep half a million viewers and get them interested in what’s on ITV1 or what’s coming up on the digital channels then it can have a significant effect on ratings.
“This should be good news for sponsors and advertisers.”
That says it all doesn't it? Stuff the viewers, as long as we keep our advertisers happy. We did not realise how lightly we got off two years ago...
I think this is a very good route to go down... I don't know if any Home & Away fans here have visited www.summerbay3000.net recently, but if you do, you'll notice that you can download full videos of he latest Aussie episodes.
Some of the continuity has been left in - and I loved the way that Seven did the ident into Home & Away... they showed some clips then flashed up a caption that went along the lines of "Now on 7".
They've got a very strong "brand-awareness" thing going on and I think it's time we wised up and got with the times.
It might just give TV presentation the much needed kick up the backside it so desperately needs.
Some of the continuity has been left in - and I loved the way that Seven did the ident into Home & Away... they showed some clips then flashed up a caption that went along the lines of "Now on 7".
They've got a very strong "brand-awareness" thing going on and I think it's time we wised up and got with the times.
It might just give TV presentation the much needed kick up the backside it so desperately needs.
The "kick up the backside" TV presentation needs would be to go back approx 5 years IHMO. Going with the times does not necessarily improve things, and developments over the last four years illustrate this clearly.
I think this is a very good route to go down... I don't know if any Home & Away fans here have visited www.summerbay3000.net recently, but if you do, you'll notice that you can download full videos of he latest Aussie episodes.
Some of the continuity has been left in - and I loved the way that Seven did the ident into Home & Away... they showed some clips then flashed up a caption that went along the lines of "Now on 7".
They've got a very strong "brand-awareness" thing going on and I think it's time we wised up and got with the times.
It might just give TV presentation the much needed kick up the backside it so desperately needs.
Channel 7 has unfortunately gone down the same route as the US, although to a lesser extent. Between 5 and 10.30pm its just 10 second ID's with a 'NOW' swooshing onto the screen with a clip of the program, then a 'NEXT' swooshes onto the screen with a clip of the following program.
All the shows in the Primetime block have ECP's with promos for what's on the show next time, or for what's on the next night. ID's are also squished into the ECP as well sometimes so you'll have the credits finish and the next program start straight away with no obvious break.
Nine's latest look has 'Now' and 'Next info during Primetime but it's still together with a proper ID. The obvious break between shows is there.
Well thank god the breakbumper will be going!!!! Its so boring!
I wish channels would learn that the breakbumper is seen at least 4 times as much as the idents in any 1 day, so why only have 1 breakbumper and millions of idents.
I've got a fealing the ITV1 logo is going to change, and look a little like the ITV2/3 ,logos, in the fact that its 4 cubes with a little space in between them. The current ITV1 logo looks c*ap. It only worked when ITV2/ITV News etc have the same ones, as soon as theirs were different , ITV1's looked so out of place.
Poor SMG will have to change again. I bet their sick of changing, we all know they dont like to spend money! Looks like their Programme endboards will change, so therefore the current SMG Breakbumper and matching ident will have to go. No doubt their celeb idents will stay!
As for UTV, its just carry on a normal, looking a mess, with nothing matching or being in any form on decent quality, but hay ho, lets hope they go down the Radio only route leaving the TV channel to pick its socks up.
I can see UTV being the only station with an announcer before long (and still in-vision at that).
I'm looking forward to this new look with interest. I've never liked the oh-so-tediously-dull ident system most UK channels have. So mind-numbingly boring.
Either go the whole hog and have a US-style flowing channel, or go back to the friendly in-vision system that worked for so long. The clunky half-way house we have currently is unacceptable IMO -- and that goes for almost all channels. The way the music is faded down on idents has always grated with me -- so unprofessional.
I still prefer the hearts ECP/end credits style, then the current batch.
Really? Even though the credits were largely illegible and if a ECP wasn't shown, 3/4 of the screen would be wasted space? The old style might have looked quaint but certainly wasn't practical, especially for shows where ECPs never ran during the credits.
Agree with Asa about the current ECPs - they work really well and credits don't need updating everytime a new look is introduced. They also look fine when no ECP is run.
The only thing I'd say is the generic background should be dumped in favour of programmes using their own backgrounds (like Emmerdale / Heartbeat).
As for the new ITV1 idents - I for one quite like the current set, but I guess things change. However, it has provided a consistant look for ITV1 - and changing them now might be too early.
If they introduce some "generic" idents alongside these new "promo" idents, it should be fine. The Five idents using clips and programme menus look great, and don't forget C4 ditched their own celeb idents and now use basic Now/Next presentation.
Also, I hope ITV1 keep their main Christmas ident from last year - probably the best on all channels in recent years.
I'd have no problems if it were BBC1 doing this. I certainly think they would be better off playing their "Coming Up" trailer (similar to the ones used before the new trailer presentation was introduced), then going straight into the programme.
One thing though ITV - ditch the trailers mid-adverts.
If they manage to do these like the BBC Two evening menus, which bounce along at a good pace, I think they could be really good. In fact, I often wonder why BBC Two bother following their menus with an ident.
I agree with jason - either have the whole thing automated and do away with the 'live' announcer or go back to genuinely live in-vision continuity. IMO TV will have to go back to in-vision in the long (long long) run. Once the technology to download whichever program you want arrives for the masses, you'll either choose which programmes to watch (and possibly buy them direct from the production companies), or you'll get live streams, with live programmes. There's some research I was reading recently (can't remember where) which suggested that people increasingly treat TV as a background medium, which seems to me to be very similar to what happened to radio when TV came along - the two- / three-hour DJ driven show with music became the standard radio programme, whereas before that, as is still the case with Radio 4, radio was mainly a collection of half-hour or hour long programmes which you sat down to listen to. TV didn't foce radio to disappear, but it did force it into the background, and so to survive it had to become a live, personality-driven medium, which you could dip into and out of as you want.
Err..there was a time (1989 - 1993) when ITV's idents didn't have any announcements.
There would be your regional announcer sitting behind a desk, and THEN the ident would play.
A similar plan (minus the in-vision continuity of course) wouldn't be a bad idea. But seeing as I rarely watch TV these days, it makes no difference to me whether ITV just have coloured bars in place of idents!
