[WillPS]

(They spared HTV when they acquired that a year or two later, and instead gave it a weird hybrid of star and hearts).

Only because the single ITV1 identity was by that point a 'when, not if', so it'd have been a futile exercise. In some ways it was a surprise they bothered changing the idents at all.

I'm sure if Carlton were certain that was the way it'd go within 3 years in 99 they wouldn't have bothered, but of course the landscape was very different then. I've seen some speculation that Carlton hoped to become the 'major partner' in the combined ITV and rename the whole lot to Carlton, but if that's the case those aspirations were certainly gone by 2001 when ONdigital was rebranded.