Another small change in the branding of UTV content

A couple of weeks ago I reflected on whether the last parts of UTV’s distinct visual identity may disappear by stealth. 

UTV’s main news programmes and weather do not carry explicit ITV branding although in every other respect they look identical to the news and weather in other regions.

Then, sure enough, another change by stealth happened. 

New images have been created for ITV regional news programmes online – for instance on the regional pages on itv.com/news.

The change itself is no big deal. It was simply time to freshen up the images. Perhaps presenters have changed in some areas or, dare I say it, some may now look a little older. 

But in UTV land the innocuous change is a little more noteworthy.

The new graphic image explicitly refers to “ITV News UTV”. No attempt is made to disguise something that anyone likely to care about already knows.

It is worth noting too that the online imagery for the UTV podcast already included ITV News branding.

And if you watch UTV Live or a UTV news package online, you’ll see an ITV News animation first and notice that an ITV News dog remains on screen.

It is reasonable to say there is no longer any active effort to hide ITV branding on UTV content. The lack of ITV branding in certain instances is simply a legacy. 

The current UTV Live and weather graphics were introduced in late 2016 at the same time as presentation got a major revamp. 

The aim was to make UTV part of the ITV family without destroying the station’s local identity. Of course, full network presentation subsequently came into use – initially as an emergency measure – at the start of the pandemic.

I find it hard to fathom out why ITV hasn’t made the last outstanding tweaks to UTV Live and the local weather.

There is no longer any attempt across the output to hide what is glaringly obvious – UTV is part of ITV.

There is no reason why the UTV name should not remain in use under the ITV masterbrand – it is no more “inappropriate” than the remaining references to Granada or Meridian in their regions.

Does changing the templates for a few graphics and the astons really take that much effort?

Or is there simply no point because the next significant refresh or revamp to the news and weather is not that far away?

By the way, it is interesting to note that UTV still exists as a company in its own right under ITV ownership. Annual accounts are still filed.

The other regional licences are held by ITV Broadcasting itself and the old companies have been dissolved or have become dormant. 

However none of that has any implications for the branding. 

Acknowledgements