EurosportCopied

Eurosport's mark had barely changed since 1989: ten stars in a ring and italic type. In 2015 Discovery completed its takeover from TF1 in a 491 million euro deal and won the European rights to the Olympic Games from 2018 to 2024. The Guardian reported Discovery wanted to shed the baggage of a channel known for cheaper rights and production.

Pentagram designed the logo, brand hierarchy, guidelines and merchandise, working with strategic brand consultant Federico Gaggio, while DixonBaxi created the on-air branding and advertising. Creative Review interviewed Pentagram's Angus Hyland and DixonBaxi's Aporva Baxi about the thinking. VP of marketing Antonio Ruiz said the work followed multi-market research into how the brand was perceived.

The ring was reduced to one star that keeps the old dynamic geometry and sits inside the E of a new single-word logotype, with a monogram for social media and merchandise. Pentagram noted the star in the E echoes the globe inside the D of the Discovery logo. Red and blue were kept but updated, with an extra palette for products and campaigns, and three typefaces: Alpha Headline, Circular and Lexia.

The identity went on air on 13 November 2015 with the strapline Fuel Your Passion and a #sharemypassion social campaign. Chief executive Peter Hutton called it another huge leap forward, packaging a year of tennis, football, cycling and Olympic rights.

The Guardian detailed what the new look was meant to signal. Discovery had invested in what Hutton called jewels in the crown, including European Olympics rights, and in local premium deals such as Champions League football in Singapore and Formula One in Portugal. He wanted to move away from a faceless image of back-to-back live sport with commentary, signing John McEnroe for French Open tennis and Ronnie O'Sullivan for snooker. A logo cannot buy rights, but it can tell viewers the rights have changed, and that is what dropping the ring of stars was for.

The ring of stars, introduced to represent the European states when the EBU and Sky launched the channel, always looked like a European Union pamphlet, so losing it was overdue. The single star in the E is a clever, compact idea, and the parent-company rhyme with Discovery is neat if a little corporate. What remained generic was the on-air passion rhetoric, but the mark itself was finally fit for screens.