ITV1

Or take CARL and ADA put them together and what do you get?....

(and i'm not shouting - honest!)


Yes, it's Car Lada - how many jokes could you have about that channel?!

Having had a quick glance at both the Scottish and Grampian websites and the tv listings (try and find any differences except local news), the whole daytime and evening schedule appears appears to be core ITV(1) fare -- and natch'nuf the afternoon is CITV (or should that be CSMG?).

Grampian in its independent days was proud (to use an horrible Americanism) to be part of the ITV network. But since its takeover by Scottish, there seems to be this paranoid desire (as at UTV) to destroy any vestige of the ITV name that might appear north of either border. Yet that's what the schedules are -- ITV from top to bottom.

I cannot understand what SMG and UTV really hope to gain from denying the existence of ITV -- which, after all, is really what they are -- when they could be using it to build upon. (Unless, of course, they feel that ITV is so trash and low-brow that it's better to use their own brands to try and make it look better).

(Edited by Andrew Wood at 2:13 am on July 14, 2001)

Because UTV has worked pretty hard for the past eight years (since it relaunched on 4/6/93) to build its own brand, to the extent that practically every local news/factual programme has the UTV name on it. It wouldn't do to have another name vying with it to be the chief brand of the channel.

Look at the difference between UTV and ITV in London:

UTV - everything branded UTV and only UTV. 'UTV Live' 'UTV Life' 'UTV Insight' etc.

London: Idents say Carlton at weekdays, LWT at weekends
Breakbumpers and trailers promote ITV
News is LNN / London Tonight

I mean, if you want to see a channel with an identity crisis, ITV in London is where to go.

A very fair answer, rdd.

Though, out of interest, how is the overnight programming branded on UTV? Is it still the main network feed?

There should have been a clause in the contract saying that they had to promote themselves as an ITV company!

The ITV Companies need to make there minds up, it's a bit silly to rename ITV ITV1 if it is just a very small logo on the idents and promos - in the midlands there is no point in calling the channel Carlton because the name only makes an appearence on the idents before the programmes: the local news is Central News, the breakbumpers say ITV so do the promos - instead of a half hearted attempt (pun) of a channel identity, all the ITV companies need to get together and agree that the future is to be branded under one name like the BBC (and they are probably the most well known TV brand in the world) i.e ITV1, and perhaps being regional in the idents like the BBC do (film scenes around the region or something), this would mean however the end of the likes of HTV which just sounds stupid HTV ITV1 - too many TV's - you may aswell call it ITV Wales and the same to the rest, but if the old regional names described their region it would make sense to keep them: ITV Central, ITV Scottish, ITV Westcountry, ITV North West (WHY did they call it Granada anyway - isn't it a place in Spain??!) Who agrees then?

Yes, its branded 'ITV'. (But having the network feed branded 'ITV' is only a recent inovation, it was 'Night Time' until the hearts were introduced) The entire station is run on automation (with sometimes dire consequences, as you probably know from the recent breakdown discussions on mhp-chat. ) Though presumably UTV thinks that because their staff are asleep, so must everyone else, obviously not noticing the ITV logo.

SMG have no branding overnight, and are probably an even better example than UTV of a company trying to keep its brand intact.

(Edited by rdd at 4:14 pm on July 15, 2001)