ITV have bought the UTV brand (which is why UTV Media plc is rebranding to the Wireless Group plc), so it looks like the UTV brand will be staying, for now at least.
ITV also own the brands for Granada, Carlton, Anglia, Border etc; it doesn't use them. Allowing UTV to keep the brand for its UK radio operation would be undesirable for ITV, considering that it's been the brand name for ITV in Northern Ireland for decades, so it's natural that ITV would want that name too. Regardless, I can't see the UTV brand being on anything but borrowed time, as sad as that is.
ITV have bought the UTV brand (which is why UTV Media plc is rebranding to the Wireless Group plc), so it looks like the UTV brand will be staying, for now at least.
Suspect it's a question of when rather than if. The next rebrand would be the likely point but always possible they could roll out the current branding but rework the UTV logo into them.
Presumably, at some point in the not-too-distant future, Belfast (and Dublin) will also get the generic set that most other ITV plc regions already have and the news renamed as "ITV News Northern Ireland" (and "ITV News Ireland")?
Probably coinciding with a relocation, in Belfast's case? (I imagine that UTV/ITV NI will end up on some far-flung business park, a la Meridian).
In fact, maybe the remaining "Wireless Group" (as it now is) will relocate? Even
with
the Channel 3 TV operation, I could never imagine how UTV Media's operations could possibly be filling a building the size of Havelock House...
I could see Wireless Group looking at reincorporating in (and moving to) England and Wales eventually as their only operations in NI now is U105 in Belfast.
I'm not sure that you will see a change in branding overnight - I know it's what everyone is expecting to happen, given what happened to Channel, but Channel was small, serving a market of only a few thousand, and already using the ITV brand. We're talking two stations serving 6 million people between them neither of which have ever used the ITV brand to any great extent. Bear in mind that the Republic will still require separate continuity either way (even leaving political issues aside, the range of variations from the network schedule is still too great - UTV Ireland cannot broadcast almost all of ITV's sport coverage, and doesn't have the Thames/Syco shows). For that reason I'd also leave open the possibility that NI rebrands but UTV Ireland doesn't.
Bear in mind that the Republic will still require separate continuity either way (even leaving political issues aside, the range of variations from the network schedule is still too great.
Is UTV Ireland done in a "Channel/Meridian" sort of way (i.e. a "dirty feed" (or similar) of the UK channel 3, but dropping its own adverts, continuity, programme opt-outs (etc) in where necessary)?
Or is it the opposite way round to that (i.e. a standalone channel, that just happens to dip into simulcasting certain portions of the UK channel's programme schedule)?
In
either
case, I see no reason why it shouldn't/wouldn't/couldn't be renamed as "ITV Ireland" at some point. After all, ITV plc also run that "ITV Choice" channel in Asia.
It has access to the same "semi-clean" (without the CA) ITV network feed that UTV and STV have, and on occasion automation has failed and ITV network promos have aired by mistake.
In general, it follows the network schedule identically from 06:00-13:30, then roughly follow it with some timeshifting between 13:30-19:00. After 19:00 is the greatest amount of variations, and while some nights (last night for example) it will follow the network identically, other nights - particularly when sports or one of the Thames/Syco shows is the centrepiece - it will run a completely independent schedule. It doesn't broadcast any ITV News programmes except during GMB.