No. I didn’t know of a better topic for the info than “OTH”
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Here’s a full edition from RTL Actueel, a short-lived late news block which aired on RTL4 in 1997. The show was a composite of four separate news and current affairs programmes which were independent each one of other, but under the coordination of RTL Nieuws, including sharing a then-new news studio, which was much derided by RTL news presenters, which thought was “too shiny”, and had a venetian panels background which could be switched by flipping them automatically, but didn’t always work correctly, so the breakfast news still had the late night background, for example.
As said, RTL Actueel, named after the German RTL Aktuell, was made of five parts: the Endemol-produced true crime show Peter R. de Vries, misdaadverslaggever (Crime Reporter), featuring the popular crime journalist (murdered in 2021) who mixed straightforward true crime storytelling with traditional journalism, including working with sources in both the worlds of law enforcement and organized crime; his work won many TV awards (including an International Emmy for his controversial special report on the Natalee Holloway case) and generated threats by organised crime groups. The programme had started in 1995 as a weekly, hour long programme; the switch to RTL Actueel led to the show expanding to five nights a week, but was cut to 15 minutes.
The other parts were an entertainment news bulletin, Shownieuws, with alternating presentation by Lucille Werner and Marion Keller, and the late news, with Rick Nieman and Sander Simons. Ending the show was a sports news roundup by Mari Carmen Oudendijk and Jeroen Latijnhouwers, and the weather forecast. The news block was also a part of a major plan to rejuvenate RTL4’s audiences and ratings. After a very successful period at the start of the decade, by the mid-1990s, the concept of the “family-friendly channel” with lots of American imports and strong light entertainment offerings helmed by local stars, which was seen as more attractive than the then-stuffy NPO channels, had started to decline.
As a result, quick intervention was needed, and, by the summer of 1997, a major brand and programming refresh was launched. As part of the changes, most of the station’s key programs were given a new look, whilst some underperforming shows were axed. Additionally, the network’s branding was completely redone, including a tweaked logo in a more stylized way and in the form of a sun; RTL Nieuws’ branding was also redone, with a much more cyberpunk-style look. The rebrand, by in-house creative director Willem van den Berg, also included more contemporary music by its longtime music director Hans van Eijck, with the assistance of a figure who would become a stalwart in TV music branding going forward: Martijn Schimmer.
The desperate rebranding did not work: viewer figures plummented even more. This was the reason that led the RTL Holland Media Groep board to set up a task force in the spring of 1998. A new CEO, Pieter Porsius, and program director, Bert van der Veer, were appointed to lead the reorganization within the company. Many of the network’s longstanding shows, including a local version of Wheel of Fortune and the lifestyle-oriented talk show, De Vijf Uur Show, were promptly axed, and massive budget cuts were made; Van den Berg was also sacked, as was the network’s entire creative department.
By that summer, a total rebrand of the network was carried out by Pittard Sullivan, which meant that many things, including the logo, had to change. Although the 1997 RTL Nieuws music was carried out, it was reorchestrated by Bernhard Joosten (who had made the music for the new Pittard Sullivan graphics), who gave it more urgency and gravitas to the tune, and was recorded by the Metropole Orkest; the initial version was quickly dropped after Joosten was dissatisfied with how the first version sounded, leading to the concert orchestra being called back to record the second and final version of the tune.
As for De Vries’ show, his show resurfaced later in 1998 on SBS6, having also being booted due to its very expensive budget; the show aired for 11 more seasons, before being axed in 2012 at his behest. De Vries returned to RTL, where he became the resident crime pundit on its daily tabloid newsmagazine RTL Boulevard until his eventual murder.
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A variety of local idents from ITV Granada in the late 1990s, before adopting the “hearts” network look in November 1999. The Christmas idents seen at the end of the video were shared with corporate siblings Yorkshire and Tyne Tees.
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Is there any local idents/UTV-branded out of vision continuity for Ulster Television/UTV these days post-pandemic?
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Local continuity at UTV was discontinued during the pandemic, but I’m not sure if was reinstated later.
Several years before that, UTV was known for providing in-vision announcements until 2016. Here’s a snippet from December 2002 featuring Julian Simmons.
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You’d think ITV would have been smarter than to “John Bull” the local ITV franchise area given the still visible sectarian issues in Ulster?
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As the report @south_97 shared says, what was a pandemic-related issue, became permanent with the departure of Simmons and Porter; since then, UTV has been behaving as a “normal” ITV1 station, taking full branding and presentation from London, including network announcements, idents, promos and end credit sequences. However, there is still quite a number of variations on UTV’s schedule and content.
First of all, the UTV brand is still used for local programming (still UTV Live for news, not ITV News Northern Ireland), and the UTV (ITV1 NI) schedule operates in a similar disposition to ITV Cymru Wales, where ITV1’s national schedule there is often preempted during some late prime time periods and many daytime hours to broadcast more current affairs, documentary and features programming targeted to each nation. Channel Television still provides additional features content in a semi-regular basis, though these were reduced after ITV took over the ownership of the franchise.
The same case with STV: they also air ITV network programming, but have long provided extra news and current affairs programming which emphasise Scottish issues; for many years, particularly after the Scottish-Grampian merger, these have been shared, jointly produced and presented between the Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen studios. Their news bulletins are separately produced, however, due to licensing reasons. Additionally, given STV is still independent from ITV plc, local continuity (now shared between both regions) and a distinct branding (different from that of ITV) is still provided.
A similar situation happens with ITV Border: given most of its designated broadcast area is in Southern Scotland, they are required to provide an opt-out service for southern Scotland, so they can broadcast extra current affairs programming during non-peak slots, plus select STV programming. Ceased in 2009 due to the merger of Border’s operations with Tyne Tees in Gateshead (something that still exists, though the Border newscasts are again produced separately), Ofcom ordered ITV to reinstate the opt-out in 2013, and had complied by 2014.
In other English regions, ITV local programming is now limited to regional news and token monthly political programmes; otherwise, they take the full national schedule. National productions previously handled by regional broadcasters (e.g. Granada and Yorkshire) are now handled out of London by ITV Studios, though soap operas like Corrie and Emmerdale are still produced out of Manchester (since 2014 at MediaCityUK in Salford) and Leeds; the Kirstall Road studios also handle playout for the northern ITV1 channels (for the rest of the country, it is operated from Red Bee Media’s Chiswick centre), and currently houses the ITV Studios film archive, which includes the Rank, Korda and ITC Film libraries.
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A full edition of NOS Journaal in June 2006, six months after the Dutch broadcaster’s identity was fully revamped by Lambie-Nairn. Iwris Kelly was the newsreader.
Stephen Emmer made the upbeat theme music, showing a skillful versatility as a composer: in 1995 he produced a very somber fanfare for Journaal.
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Dutch music channel TMF’s digital channels were launched on May 1, 2005 with TMF NL, Pure & Dance and sadly, it got closed on 31 December 2011
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The first 8 minutes of CBC News, 1989 (March 24 judging from the news items).
The opener was a weird adaptation of The National one, because it was The National. That day was just over a week into the walkout of CBC employees under Canadian Union of Public Employees, which included the flagship newscast’s lead anchor, Peter Mansbridge. The bulletin was renamed to stress the difference during strike time.
(Quoted from The Kingston-Whig Standard)
Your news anchor for the night: Don Goodwin, originally a sport announcer-turned-regional director in the public broadcaster. His last-minute substitution on the news, which delayed his own retirement plans, was well-received by the viewers.
(From McCord Stewart Museum Montreal)
I’m definitely not that well-versed on Canadian TV… maybe @edcanada can help me out a bit?
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Not a Canadian, but I’m guessing the graphics were supposed to be used for shorter bulletins.
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