That has interim brand written all over it (although I'm surpised they've gone with the giant U used on UTV Ireland rather than the more square branding used on UTV)
UTV’s brand heritage is exceptionally strong in Northern Ireland which is reflected by its market leading position. This is something we wanted to build upon when the channel joined ITV, keeping the strong connection with the UTV audience, but clearly positioning it as part of ITV, the UK’s largest and most successful commercial broadcaster.
No mention of Ireland there... perhaps we'll get ITV Ireland at the same time as UTV relaunches.
Interesting that the new idents to be filmed in NI will be adapted and shown across the network, so presumably they'll be very in keeping with the current ITV style (as would be expected).
A calm and collected strategy, serving as the prologue to an eventual switch to ITV at some point in the future. My guess would be when presentation is next refreshed with a new theme, which could be a while given the extended life cycles of idents and associated furniture these days.
LS
Lou Scannon
Quote:
We will be out and about filming some new idents across Northern Ireland which will be shown across the ITV Network
This suggests that idents filmed in NI will be of the same ilk as the existing ITV network ones, and all will be intermingled as essentially one set, with the only difference being the logo superimposed thereupon. Presumably, then, this new UTV logo will behave in the same "colour picker" way as the ITV one.
Indeed. Although in at least the short-term they are clearly honouring their previous statement of not fully renaming UTV, I have never believed for a single nanosecond that they won't want to fully rename it (presumably as "ITV Northern Ireland"?) in the not-too-distant future.
This new logo feels like a "stepping stone", a la the "hearts"/"dual-branding" era that we had elsewhere in the UK.
I bet that UTV Live will have essentially that same title sequence template as all other ITV plc regions, but with the layout of the endcap placing the programme name completely centrally just like the national news titles (given what the programme name is).
I've always assumed that ITV plc will want to move the remaining TV operation out of Havelock House as soon as they possibly can (presumably to some far-flung business park etc, a la Meridian?). If that should prove to be so, then it raises questions about how any such relocation might or might not coincide with the news and/or channel revamp.
After all, it seems wasteful to have a set change at the Havelock House studio which may then be used only for mere months (or whatever), to then build yet another new set at a new studio location. If there is such an interim period, then perhaps the "prescribed" style of generic set that most other ITV plc regions already use will never be built at Havelock House, but some sort of compromise adapted from the existing UTV Live set?
Last edited by Lou Scannon on 24 March 2016 2:00pm
I preferred my mock from last year where the I from the ITV was extended to look like a U and all 3 letters were connected, like the main networks logo is.
Still, this I am quite quite sure is step one in getting viewers used to seeing a logo that looks like the ITV one, so they can eventually just adopt the ITV logo and name and most people won't notice.
That has interim brand written all over it (although I'm surpised they've gone with the giant U used on UTV Ireland rather than the more square branding used on UTV)
On that one, my guess is that they've done it so the same logo can be used on UTV Ireland (you can see where the "Ireland" would fit in) - in fact its not a million miles away from UTV Ireland's current logo.
