[Rdd]

There was also the context of the ITV 1998 rebrand - as we now know, the original idents which were commissioned from English and Pockett and intended to debut in November 1998 were sent back to the drawing board, and in the midst of this Carlton commissioned their own separate rebrand from Lambie-Nairn, which is where the star idents came from, although it’s not often mentioned that Carlton Screen Advertising already featured a star in its ident, though it was never added to its logo (which ended up outliving Carlton Communications plc by a good number of years!). Lambie-Nairn had some sort of tagline that “if ITV is the heart, then Carlton is the star of the ITV Network”. I’m not sure where the decision to rebrand Central and Westcountry figured in that whole saga, though quite clearly Central was already moving in that direction, in that they used the same package as Carlton just with a different logo.

[Spencer]

They never referred to a Carlton 'network'. The name was Central/Westcountry, and it changed to Carlton, occasionally Carlton Central/Westcountry, but never 'Central part of Carlton' or similar. This wasn't like 'Channel 3 North East/Yorkshire'; the network was always ITV[1].

The regional news name didn't match but then that wasn't an unusual situation on ITV.

With the benefit of hindsight it's easy to write it off as pointless but it was clearly a maneuver to something, we'll never know truly what or how successful it was but it's a reasonable guess that it was about lining themselves up to be the senior partner in any merger.

I suspect the change was primarily to do with streamlining and simplifying their advertising pitch to agencies, particularly as most of them are based in London and would be familiar with the Carlton brand. It's easier to sell one brand than three different ones.

[Stooky Bill]

Yes, to the average viewer the fact that the channel was one of three called Carlton was irrelevant, the vast majority were only able to see one

The theory behind it as mentioned in the reports about it posted above is a 'bigger is better' strategy. The same was one of the reasons behind the merger of everything under the ITV name a few years later.

[Milkshake]

There was also the context of the ITV 1998 rebrand - as we now know, the original idents which were commissioned from English and Pockett and intended to debut in November 1998 were sent back to the drawing board, and in the midst of this Carlton commissioned their own separate rebrand from Lambie-Nairn, which is where the star idents came from, although it’s not often mentioned that Carlton Screen Advertising already featured a star in its ident, though it was never added to its logo (which ended up outliving Carlton Communications plc by a good number of years!). Lambie-Nairn had some sort of tagline that “if ITV is the heart, then Carlton is the star of the ITV Network”. I’m not sure where the decision to rebrand Central and Westcountry figured in that whole saga, though quite clearly Central was already moving in that direction, in that they used the same package as Carlton just with a different logo.

Also Yorkshire ended up making 80 new idents in 1999, which seems rather odd with is all going on.

[JAS84]

Yeah, they assumed the hearts were cancelled, and made a new ident set which seems to have inspired the final version of the hearts (the YTV spinning chevrons background is very similar to the hearts one).

Not the last time that kind of thing happened either. I think Calendar, Granada Reports, and Anglia News, all had new titles which were scrapped within a year because of the first generic ITV local news titles?

[lookoutwales]

Not the last time that kind of thing happened either. I think Calendar, Granada Reports, and Anglia News, all had new titles which were scrapped within a year because of the first generic ITV local news titles?

Same with Central News West - although this was the Dan Barton era - and (I think) Central News East.

[Mike]

Central News West went through about 6 different styles between 1998 and 2003; as earlier stated they swapped studios with CITV in 2000 which necessitated a different 'look' (1 presenter, tiny desk and studio with a really bad CSO and fake lighting grid to hide the fact they were in a cupboard).

The Carlton star, from what I've read and seen online, came in on CNW when they moved in early 2000 but on CNE it was introduced at the same time as the idents (though CNS was slightly later in around March 2000).

I still don't believe that this clip was held on tape for 'when' Carlton decided to ditch the regional identities though.

The Central versions of the 1996 Carlton idents, AIUI from a long lost video with a VT clock I had, produced in May 1997 (and as we now know, unlike their Carlton equivalents were produced in 16:9), and by October 1996,Lenton Lane was now known as 'Carlton Studios' and sufficiently signed as such:
i2-prod.nottinghampost.com 

Note the proportions (but also the presence of the Central logo) - I think that it was all part of a 'scheme', for want of a less sinister sounding word - that probably dates back to when Carlton first acquired all of Central. Almost as if they were phasing in the Carlton name and removing Central, given that the Central name was quite 'strong' in its respective region, which would explain why there was a piece on Central News, I assume this was an effort to try and be a dominant player in a consolidated ITV. Carlton were clearly quite clear with their strategy of having everything branded as Carlton with whatever thereafter - (Television, Screen Advertising, Books, Publishing, .com, Media, London, Central, Westcountry)...

[nwtv2003]

Don’t forget Carlton UK Productions too, that had a habit of appearing prior to the endcap on anything made by Central for a couple of years in the mid 1990s. I’m not sure if it was an actual separate entity or just an excuse to extend the Carlton brand. This was also the same period where the respective logos aside, both Carlton and Central had the same style endcap.

[Rdd]

That was the rebrand of Central’s production arm, wasn’t it, done long before the actual station rebranded.

It was ironic because Carlton had bid for the London weekday franchise on the basis of being a Channel 4 style “publisher broadcaster”, it would be making nothing itself, which given that the London weekday franchise was historically one of ITV’s “Big 5” network companies was a massive change. But after it took over Central, it suddenly had a massive in house production business.

[James2001]

Before their takeover of Central, Carlton really didn't seem to commission much for the network at all, certainly not that ran for any length of time or gets remembered now. The most successful seemed to be Catchphrase- which was just a continuation of what TVS had been making for years, and also being responsible for presenting The Bill to the network after taking over from Yorkshire- again, a programme that had been running for years made by the company that they replaced.