BT has unveiled the logo for its new £1 billion-plus BT Sport venture ahead of its launch in the summer.
The logo, which was developed by digital media firm Red Bee Media, mixes the imagery from BT Connected World with a new font developed specifically for the new brand.
Alongside unveiling the new logo, BT has also today started taking online pre-registrations for the BT Sport channels, which will broadcast live Premier League football, rugby union and other sports from July 2013.
Contained in a black lozenge shape, the left-hand corner features the traditional corporate BT font, with partial elements of the globe in red, yellow, lilac, purple and green.
The rest of the logo is the word sport in white lettering in a bespoke new font based on gotham. Unusually for a sport logo, the lettering features lower case instead of just upper case.
The new identity for the channels, which is also in development with Red Bee Media, will feature in all the company’s BT Sport marketing materials, on air and across social media.
Grant Best, senior channel executive producer, BT Sport, said: “We are delighted with the logo Red Bee Media has produced for BT Sport.
“We wanted to build on the familiarity of the BT brand, and also appeal to customers who have not considered BT before as a sports broadcaster.
“We have used the BT connected world globe, with a twist.
“The globe colour palette allows us flexibility to introduce elements of creativity throughout our new sports channels, giving us a unique look and feel.”
The company has opened a pre-registration site for customers to register their interest in BT Sport at www.btsport.com.
BT is taking a huge gamble with its new sport operation, after spending big on live rights to take on the dominant Sky.
Last year, the telecoms giant snapped up a three-season deal for Premier League rights worth a total of £738m, and then spent £152m on a four-year deal to Aviva Premiership Rugby.
It has poached BBC Formula 1 presenter Jake Humphrey to lead its football coverage and has signed up Clare Balding to host a sports chat show on the new channel.
BT Sport has the rights to show 38 live games a season from the Barclays Premier League, including 18 of the top clashes, for three years from August 2013.
The channels will also show up to 69 live rugby union games a season from the Aviva Premiership.
BT has also signed a deal with the WTA to show up to 800 hours of live tennis, including the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships.
The BT Sport channels will be based at the iCITY development at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford.
The channels will launch in the summer ahead of the start of the new football season in August 2013.
Alongside BT Vision, the BT Sport channels are also expected to be available on Sky and Virgin Media.
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It’s going to be a bit more than £10 a month isn’t it.
As punters already pay enough and now there’s more to buy. When will the well run dry?