[Humphrey Hacker]

Clean Feed have published this interesting article about UTV:
cleanfeed.thetvroom.com 

Does UTV have a future as an ITV 1 sub-brand? - Clean Feed
What do viewers in Northern Ireland call the third channel? ITV? ITV 1? UTV? The…
  Source: cleanfeed.thetvroom.com

[Rijowhi]

Clean Feed have published this interesting article about UTV:
cleanfeed.thetvroom.com 

Thanks for posting. Although the obvious solution is ITV1 Northern Ireland, I imagine it wouldn’t go down well over there. Therefore I feel (as the article states) that they should keep UTV as the local News brand but make sure that ITV1 is the brand for the actual channel both on screen and on the EPG.

As for my thoughts on the actual ITV rebrand, I don’t like the term ITV1 and not sure on the concept for the idents. I do like the break bumper on ITV1 though.

[Keith]

On a loosely related note I spotted that back in June OFCOM submitted a report for the relicensing of 'Channel 3' licences for Jan 2025.
www.ofcom.org.uk 

Relicensing of the Channel 3 and Channel 5 licences - Ofcom
Information on the renewal of the Channel 3 and Channel 5 licences, in time for …
  Source: www.ofcom.org.uk

The article states there's 16 channel 3 licences, which links to the list of full licence names.
www.ofcom.org.uk 

Channel 3 (ITV, STV and UTV) - Ofcom
Ofcom is responsible for licensing all UK commercial television services. This s…
  Source: www.ofcom.org.uk

Interestingly the licences still include separate licences for 'London weekday' and 'London weekend'.

Arguably the channel 3 licences need some reform. The simplest options would be merging London weekday and weekend, as no other region has that split. Additionally axing the Breakfast licence and allowing the other regions to broadcast 24hr would make sense, though ITV might not like the reduced advert revenue. A more radical option would be to simply have licences for each nation (plus Channel Islands and Isle of Man), with requirements for regional news in England and local news in the other nations.

[Jon]

Not much point reforming them if the end result for the viewer will largely be the same.

[Rijowhi]

Not much point reforming them if the end result for the viewer will largely be the same.

Yes you are right though it must be said if there are less licences for ITV to renew, it could possibly mean slightly less cost to the Broadcaster.

ITV Broadcasting (with some obligations for Regional/National News and programming).
STV (as per ITV).

Scrap the rest?

[Stuart]

I don't think anyone ever expected anything other than a recommendation to renew the C3/C5 licences. It's just simply not financially viable for them to be auctioned off again and potentially fragment C3 or to look for a different owner of C5.

The media environment has changed far too much over the last 3 decades for it even to be a relevant process to consider, so I'm surprised that they still bother.  It's best for Ofcom to just stick to regulating and taking any enforcement action against what they broadcast if it breaches any rules.

[Former Member 406]

A more radical option would be to simply have licences for each nation (plus Channel Islands and Isle of Man), with requirements for regional news in England and local news in the other nations.

Any such move would either mean having to disband the Border region (e.g. an "ITV News Tyne Tees & Cumbria", and the South of Scotland being merged with the Central Belt possibly with a short "South" sub-opt alongside the current East/West ones) or the new licences awkwardly conforming to the current status quo (i.e. a "Central & Northern Scotland" licence, and an "England, S.Scotland, IoM, and C.I." licence).

[Rijowhi]

A more radical option would be to simply have licences for each nation (plus Channel Islands and Isle of Man), with requirements for regional news in England and local news in the other nations.

Any such move would either mean having to disband the Border region (e.g. an "ITV News Tyne Tees & Cumbria", and the South of Scotland being merged with the Central Belt possibly with a short "South" sub-opt alongside the current East/West ones) or the new licences awkwardly confirming to the current status quo (i.e. a "Central & Northern Scotland" licence, and an "England, S.Scotland, IoM, and C.I." licence).

…Or just have the Licence state ITV Broadcasting Limited with the areas the Licence serves. I noticed the Region Licences are already wrapped up within ITV Broadcasting Ltd anyway. They could just make the process easier (and slightly cheaper) just stating the full Licence is under ITV Broadcasting Limited serving England.

[mrarg1393]

ITV really need some new promos… showing the same ones every single advert break over the last hour on ITV1.

[Andrew]

ITV really need some new promos… showing the same ones every single advert break over the last hour on ITV1.

Has that girl spoken to Sophie yet?