Was bound to happen sooner or later, I imagine it won’t be too much longer before it just changes name to ITV and local programmes and news fall under the ITV NI/ITV News NI name. ITV News UTV sounds awful so hopefully they don’t go down that road.
Remember when ITV appointed two 'Irish' voices to the continuity team? Dave Johnson has since moved to the BBC team for England and the female voice just vanished. We thought at the time it was due to a combined continuity service for ITV/UTV but it appears not - ITV want to keep their current voices including that popular 'yoof' voice who speaks far too vast, doesn't think about the script he is reading as even serious announcements are delivered in the usual garbled rushed way. 'Tonight at 8 firty' indeed.
I find it quite unpleasant when posters complain about the voices/accents/pronunciation of announcers and other talent on here. It feels rather personal, and while I understand that some may feel a certain 'standard' is required, and there may be merit in that, it really comes off quite nasty at times. There's little to be gained by having that back and forth again, and I wonder if perhaps it could be avoided this time around?
I find it quite unpleasant when posters complain about the voices/accents/pronunciation of announcers and other talent on here. It feels rather personal, and while I understand that some may feel a certain 'standard' is required, and there may be merit in that, it really comes off quite nasty at times. There's little to be gained by having that back and forth again, and I wonder if perhaps it could be avoided this time around?
You mean me Joe? Not sure how long you have been posting on here but for many, many years we have discussed announcers on here - good and bad and given personal opinions. Whether you agree with them is up to you. That's the point of debate and opinion.
This was always going to happen, as I said at the time, as soon as the changes were made at the start of Covid things were never going to go back.
Yes the writing was sadly on the wall many months ago. Well done though to both Julian and Gillian for keeping the regional flag flying for so long. Julian's style may not have been everyones cup of tea but he was enthusiastic and loved the UTV brand.
ITV said it found the changes brought about by coronavirus worked well, allowing for greater efficiencies and a reduction in duplication in a very complex area of its operations. And as a result ITV has decided to make this change a permanent arrangement.
With all the predictably of Greece voting for Cyprus at Eurovision, this is exactly what many of us (myself included) suspected would happen from the moment that Julian & Gillian were "temporarily" removed back in the spring.
