NBC Sports Network has announced that it is “evolving” its brand identity to the acronym “NBCSN.” Accordingly, NBC Sports Network will increasingly be referred to by commentators, and within on-screen graphics, as NBCSN. Viewers will see and hear NBCSN with greater frequency across all NBC Sports Group platforms and marketing initiatives in the months leading up to the 2014 Sochi Olympics in February.
According to John Miller, CMO, NBC Sport Group: “We’re ready to show how little we know about branding by undertaking this unnecessary change. In addition, we know that we are throwing away two years’ of hard work getting viewers to recognize we were no longer the “Versus” channel. And, honestly, without the luck of a strike-shortened NHL season with record-breaking viewership, who knows where we’d be right now?!?! But, hey, calling a company or a TV network by using only initials is. All. The. Rage. ATR, if you will.”
Asked for more detail, Miller said: “This is a natural evolution from the longer channel name to the acronym, as NBCSN is streamlined visually and a faster read."
Told that the difference in “faster read” goes from six syllables to just five, Miller remarked, “Hey, in sports that would be a one-run victory! Doesn’t matter if the final score is 1 to 0, or 9 to 8 !!!”
As to “streamlined visual,” when asked what the meaning of the stand-out, scripted letter “S” in the new logo represents, Miller said: “I don’t know. Anyways, we are going to use that cool dissolve thing where the old logo turns into the new logo right before the viewers’ eyes, so they just need to see that it is different. Who cares if they get any meaning out of it???”
In response to a query as to why Al Michaels did not refer to the network as “NBCSN” during the Giants-Cowboys game on Sunday night, an NBC spokesperson replied, “That old git? It’s enough he can remember his own name!”
NBC Corporate Marketing issued an accompanying announcement that within a few weeks the following name changes would take place:
- NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams will become “NBCNN w/BW”
- The Today Show will become “NBCTS w/ML w/o AC”
Asked for detail on these upcoming changes, NBC’s Corporate Marketing VP said, “This is the first I’ve heard about it. I was at a Big Data conference all last week. OMG. TMI. LOL. TTYL !!!”
