ITV To Get New Central Identity

ITV is scrapping its on-screen regional idents in favour of a single brand image that will be used across the whole country.

The new “central identity”, which is thought to have been created by Bartle Bogle Hegarty, will be unveiled in the autumn and will replace existing regional brands such as Granada and HTV, which will only appear occasionally during local programming.

ITV has been looking to revamp its indents for some time and last year Jim Hytner was drafted in from Channel 5 (see

It has also been reported that ITV’s 2002/2003 programming budget will be increased by between £50m and £100m in an attempt to regain ground lost in the ratings against the BBC (see Feature: Playing The Ratings Game). However, the network has so far refused to comment on speculation.

Last month ITV’s 2001/2002 programming budget received a £25m boost (see ITV Increases Programming Budget For 2002) following the appointment of a new management team at the network. Shortly after the collapse of ITV Digital, ITV’s chief executive Stuart Prebble resigned and was replaced by Mick Desmond of Granada and Clive Jones of Carlton (see Prebble Steps Down From ITV).

ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.co.uk

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