ITV To Drop Celebrity Idents As Part Of Rebrand
ITV1 is planning to drop its celebrity idents as part of a rebrand timed to coincide with the launch of ITV3, its new digital channel for older viewers, later this year.
The broadcaster has used a range of its biggest stars to promote its flagship ITV1 brand for the last two years. However, the celebrity idents will be ditched in early November to make way for a much stronger focus on the ‘digital family’ of channels.
The new idents will show previews of new shows coming up on the main terrestrial channel, as well as focusing attention on ITV2 and the soon-to-be-launched ITV3. They will also carry more cross-promotional information in an attempt to stop viewing from changing channels.
ITV’s controller of marketing, Jo Davey, told NewsLine: “We are trying to make better use of the ident time to promote our full range of shows because at the moment we are totally committed to driving commercial impacts and increasing viewing across the ITV family of channels.”
She added: “It was felt that the previous idents had done a great job in selling ITV as one company and in promoting its biggest stars, but because we are now so tight on promotional time we wanted to get more bang for our buck by using that time in a more cross-promotional way.”
ITV has had a rough ride recently with its average weekly share of viewing dropping by 3.3% points year on year during August as the success of the BBC’s Olympic coverage and a bumper summer for Channel 4 took its toll on the UK’s largest commercial broadcaster (see Digital Television Round-Up – August 2004).
However, ITV is putting its faith in a strong autumn schedule and chief executive, Charles Allen, recently revealed ambitious plans to launch a raft of new channels over the next five years in an effort to compete more effectively against the BBC in the burgeoning multi-channel environment (see ITV Reveals Plans To Launch Range Of New Channels).
ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com
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