UTV sell TV business to ITV

Not a single in-vision link all evening. Must be a first! Will be interesting to see whether or not Julian is kept OoV when he's on duty later in the week.

As well as the demise of UTV Live Tonight, this week has also seen the removal of the short updates at 8pm and 9pm. The lunchtime bulletin - which had a small degree of flexibility with its duration - looks like it may now be restricted to exactly 4 minutes (for news and weather) - which, I'm told, is the case in the English regions and Wales.

Next you'll be saying they broadcast everything in colour.

Actually, they do - but in a rather **** upscaled SD way.

UTV broadcasting in colour? Don't be silly.

I've noticed ITV have hired an NI male announcer for network, wouldn't be surprised if ties in with UTV.

Interestingly the 10.30pm bulletin - now no longer UTV Live Tonight, of course - is still coming from the main studio and not the CSO studio, and with lots of different camera angles.

Even before UTV Live Tonight existed the late bulletin always came from the CSO studio.

Still being presented by Paul Clark, too. So it seems that the studio and production is still being fully staffed for the late bulletin. Perhaps this will only be the case until the introduction of the new look.

New UTV logo currently being displayed in DOG form, top right of screen.

Correct, I've just switched to UTV on the back of this post. Quite surprised to see it as GMB on UTV usually shows the ITV DOG like everywhere else.

EDIT: break bumper still ITV's.

Further Edit: DOG has been removed.

Isn't the CSO studio normally used for the late bulletin the continuity studio? Could there be a technical issue preventing in vision continuity and forcing the late news into the main studio?

Has the ITV DOG returned? Let's see what happens at 9:25.

It would actually make sense to have the new UTV DOG 24/7 given that in NI, as most of the rest of the UK, the breakfast and regional franchises are owned by the same company.

Whether we have a rebrand today or not, it is clear we are getting the logo unveiled before the summer.

On at least the last two occasions that ITV plc regional news programmes revamped (i.e. both the start and the end of the "yellow" look), they each did so on random midweek days. Therefore the possibility of a midweek revamp for UTV (pres and/or news) isn't totally unthinkable, I suppose.

The ITV DOG has not reappeared as yet, and this is how the UTV DOG looked:
http://www.thisisfive.co.uk/utv/utv-dog-20161005.jpg