[thomalex]

So I'm fairly mixed on the rebrand, echoing many others here. Many aspects of the presentation are very slick, love how the numbers animate for example, but the idents feel lightweight somehow and there certainly aren't enough of them.

A problem with the approach they've gone for is that while it's very easy to pigeon hole the 'digital' channels it's much harder to do this with ITV 1 which has a diverse range of content. As the big tent channel this is partly why in 2013 they rolled back to just calling it ITV with the numbered channels (and Be) having a specifically targeted audience. So how do you separate ITV 1 from the other channels when using the same location? Turns out it's quite hard and you end up with idents that look like they should be on other channels such as the train dancing one which when you watch it feels like you're on ITV 2. Channels in turn then lose their distinct identity.

The other issue here is a major channel given a a larger audience and wide range of content demands more idents, but to be true to this concept you then need to also create versions of them for every other channel. Given their audiences ITV 3 and 4 don't need loads of idents really. I think it's quite clear that at some point idents will have to be made that don't appear on every channel.

I do think there is a bold statement here however. And that is that for ITV linear channels are now a clear second in importance to ITV X which is getting the investment. Just look at the range of idents they made for the 2013 rebrand and compare it to what's just launched theident.gallery  . It's night and day.

ITV X is now the big tent which everything flows from. And I do wonder what that means for ITV 1 in the long run. Given how it's been treated in this rebrand it seems ITV view its future as just another channel rather than the flagship it's been until now.