No sign of UTV-branded local trails

Twelve hours into ITV’s rebrand, there’s a mystery in UTV Land. No promos for local programmes were screened today up until 6pm so far as we can see.

So we still don’t know what’s happening to UTV as a channel brand.

The last vestiges of UTV channel branding were in local promotions – although the name is also used during the regional news, weather and some local programmes.

UTV promos used the endboard introduced in January 2019 at the same time as the ITV Creates campaign launched in other ITV plc regions.

This design was not updated when network trails were refreshed in July 2020.

So is there a new package for UTV trails? Will local trails include ITV 1 branding? Or will local trails avoid explicit branding?

The possibility of the old design being retained for now should not be completely excluded – ridiculous as it may sound.

Interestingly EPGs still refer to UTV although the entry in other regions has been updated now to ITV 1. However this could be oversight as the name did not actively need changed.

The lack of any local trails so far today is surprising as UTV has an edition of its local documentary series Up Close tonight and a stand-up comedy show Secrets of the Comedy Circuit on Thursday.

Update

The first UTV trail appeared during I’m a Celebrity.

If this trail for Secrets of the Comedy Circuit is typical, trails are now dual-branded.

The UTV logo appeared alongside the programme title and time – then the ITV 1 logo wiped on as it does on network trails.

The voiceover still said “…on UTV”.

But visually the new format works well, keeping the UTV name under the ITV 1 masterbrand.

Acknowledgements