iTV or ITV? There’s Only One Way to Find Out…

By Laurie on Thursday, February 16, 2012 -

Any Harry Hill fans reading this have probably immediately screamed “FIGHT!” in their minds, but in this case, fighting isn’t the only option. In fact, it might be over before it’s even begun.

The next Apple product to be released will be the integrated Apple TV set which will be completely synched with all your other Apple devices, the internet, and of course more channels than you’ll ever watch or need. There have been a lot of rumours on what this will include. For example, it is likely that it will be a minimum of a 42” TV controlled either by voice or a downloadable app on your iPhone and that it will sell at not far off £1,000. The potential release date is rumoured to be December 2012. 

However, the most pressing question in our industry is not what it will include, but what it will be named. Apple has thus far prefixed every piece of technology with an “i” which is quite clearly not going to work, thanks to that television network that has graced our screens since the mid 50s – ITV.

Option one for Apple here is to avoid all potential legal conflicts and use “Apple TV” which is what they currently call their not so successful or particularly inspiring television box. This would quite easily flush out held opinions like stated above. Plus, with the marketing push which will inevitably come with the release, the brand equity of Apple would be more than enough to support the product. In my opinion though, this is the least likely of all the options. Apple certainly have never feared a legal battle which has been more than well documented in the past, so why should they this time? I should imagine ITV would be quaking in their boots at the mere thought of this occurring.

Spinning off from this, another option is for Apple to call the new integrated set “Apple TV” within the UK and use their more favoured name “iTV” in other territories. This will mean an avoidance of any court battles and legal complications and also the brand name Apple are yearning for with the rest of Europe. It could be argued though that the UK is one of Apple’s biggest markets within Europe, and ultimately any potential branding issues could cause a loss of profits.

Apple have quite possibly the largest financial clout in the world, which has been proven in their continued court cases and legal fights regarding name rights, patents, and potentially anything they can deem to be “theirs”. Would they have a problem with fighting ITV in court for the name iTV? Probably not, but they’d want it done fast to coincide with the product launch. This is unlikely to occur as I’m sure ITV will fight tooth and nail to keep the name, and even if they were to lose, they would require an ample amount of time to create a rebrand plan to whatever name they might potentially want to use, maybe a reversion to Carlton or Granada.

There is one option however which is certainly more intriguing than anything listed above.

What if Apple were to simply buy ITV?

Think about it for a moment. What’s stopping them? Why wouldn’t they? I’m sure they wouldn’t even blink at the current valuation of ITV. It would offer them an already existing platform to launch their services on and a known and loved brand within the UK television industry that has been around for over half a century. It would mean they could also use the name they ultimately want – iTV. It wouldn’t surprise me if Apple’s financial intelligence officers (posh for bankers) were looking through the possibility of buying ITV already...

Whatever Apple choose to do, I’m excited to see what the next steps are and also to see the final product. If any previous product launches are anything to go by, this could be the biggest one yet. But what will it be called? Watch this space.

Tagged with:
tv, branding, apple, itv,

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