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On Sunday 7th June 2009, Rose Neill presented the news on UTV for the first time since 1985. I for one would like to say "Welcome Back Rose!"

 

This site is dedicated to the on-screen presentation style of the Northern Ireland television channel UTV. Since the site's launch in June 2005, I have been capturing, encoding and uploading almost every aspect of on-screen presentation on UTV.

 

This includes material such as station idents, programme promotions, local news presentation on  UTV Live, local weather, end credit promotion menus (ECPs), in-vision continuity by Julian Simmons and Marc Mallett, numerous bloopers and mistakes and also Christmas and New Year presentation.

 

It also includes images and info about UTV's regional programming past and present, with everything from cookery shows with Jenny Bristow, current affairs shows Insight and Late and Live, entertainment with Frank Mitchell in Ultimate Ulster and comedy with Julian Simmons in UTV Rewind.

 

I aim to make this site the ultimate resource for anything UTV. This can only be done with the help of you, our visitors, so make sure to check back soon for the latest updates. Enjoy!

 

uPlayer uPlayer

 

Site Last Updated: Thursday 18th June 2009

For details click here...

 

 

About UTV

 

UTV is the Channel 3 (ITV) licensee for Northern Ireland. It is one of the two remaining independent ITV contractors left, with the others having formed ITV plc and SMG. UTV have stood defiant against ITV plc and have managed to keep their separate identity intact despite many attempts over the years.

 

Political correctness, and a want to attract more advertising revenue from the Republic of Ireland led to the word 'Ulster' being dropped from the title and the channel being renamed UTV. Since 4th June 1993, Ulster Television has been known on-air simply as UTV, this being the name most used by the general public. The registered company name remained "Ulster Television plc" up until 26th May 2006 when it was decided at the AGM to change the name to "UTV plc", as the old name no longer reflected the full scope of the company's business. The registered name was again changed in 2008 to UTV Media plc.

 

UTV is notorious for being the only ITV company to continue to use in-vision continuity announcers, a once common practice that was disowned by most other regions in the 80s and 90s. Julian Simmons is the main continuity announcer at UTV, being seen only on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings. Robin Taylor is also sometimes seen in-vision, being used mainly for holiday cover. In 2007, a new batch of continuity announcers were hired by UTV, with Marc Mallett being the only one to try his hand at in-vision continuity. He does so only on occasions when he does not have to read UTV News bulletins.

 

Local programming on UTV consists of the daily news programme UTV Live hosted by a number of viewers favourites such as the long-standing Paul Clark and our weather man Frank Mitchell with his daily 'weather watchers'! In February 2006, Northern Ireland's favourite married couple Mike Nesbitt and Lynda Bryans were split apart after Mike's departure from UTV over a contracts row. UTV made no mention of this on-screen and Mike had a very low profile exit on Friday 10th February 2006.

 

Other programmes made by UTV are the award winning current affairs programme Insight, cookery programmes by Jenny Bristow and the long running Lesser Spotted Ulster. Until 2005, UTV also produced kids' chat show School Around the Corner, UTV School Choir of the Year and talkshow Kelly which came to an end after 17 years on Friday 16th December 2005. Gerry Kelly later returned in March 2006 with his new half-hour chat show called Gerry Meets... in which he dedicated the full half hour to one guest. This previously aired on Friday nights at 8:30pm but in 2007 was moved to Thursdays at 7:30pm. 2006 also saw the return of UTV's home & lifestyle programme Home Sweet Home, hosted by Mike Nesbitt and Lynda Bryans. The programme was recorded in 2005, before Mike's departure from UTV, however it was agreed that the programme still go ahead. In 2007, more local programmes were added to UTV's portfolio, including the series UTV Focus which airs occasionally on Tuesdays at 7:30pm, and the natural world series Hidden Heritage which featured places of interest across both Northern Ireland and the Republic. In summer 2007, Northern Ireland viewers found new favourites in Ultimate Ulster, hosted by Frank Mitchell, and UTV Rewind, hosted by Julian Simmons.

 

The majority of UTV programming comes from the ITV network, however UTV opts out of network programming more than any other region. Dropped programmes have included the majority of Friday night primetime (to make way for Kelly), and any network programmes shown at 5pm. This is due to the clash with UTV's news hour, consisting of UTV Life at 5:30pm and UTV Live at 6. In the past this has included shows such as The Paul O'Grady Show, Richard Hammond's 5 O'Clock Show, and The Sharon Osbourne Show which were replaced by various programming like The Planet's Funniest Animals or You've Been Framed. It has also included programmes such as Supermarket Sweep and Soapstar Superchef which have been dropped and replaced with half-hour episodes of The Price Is Right. More recently, UTV have begun time-shifting their afternoon schedule and removing a half-hour programme from earlier in the afternoon to make way for UTV Life at 5:30pm. Shows such as Goldenballs, The Royal Today and House Guest are still shown on UTV, but are shown at a different time from the network schedule.

 

UTV's official website can be found at u.tv