Sky Group Limited is a British, and pan-European media and telecommunications company owned by Comcast since 2018. It has operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and formerly Spain.
Sky is Europe's largest media company and pay-TV broadcaster by revenue (as of 2018), with 23 million subscribers and more than 31,000 employees as of 2019. The company is primarily involved in satellite television.
Sky Television[]
1984–1989[]
Designer:
Unknown
Typography:
Unknown
Launched:
January 1984
This was the first of Sky's many logos, used from the time Satellite Channel was named to Sky Channel in January 1984.
British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) won the Direct Broadcasting by Satellite franchise for fifteen years on 11 December 1986. The channel line up was originally to comprise of Galaxy, Now, Screen and ZigZag. Of these only Galaxy, Now and Screen formed part of the eventual launch line up.
1988–1990[]
Designer:
Unknown
Typography:
Custom
Launched:
1988
Following delays caused by issues with the manufacture of signal receivers, BSB eventually launched on 26 March 1990 with six channels; Galaxy (general entertainment), The Movie Channel (subscription movies), Now (news and current affairs), The Power Station (music), The Sports Channel (subscription-free sports) and The Computer Channel which was only promoted for business viewers and shared frequency with The Sports Channel. These logos were made by Lambie-Nairn.
In November 1990, BSB merged with its former competitor Sky Television plc, forming British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB). BSB branding was removed from the remaining channels (The Movie Channel, The Power Station and The Sports Channel) on 2 November 1990. Productions for these channels remained credited and copyrighted to BSB until 8 April 1991.
Sky Television merged with British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) to form British Sky Broadcasting on 2 November 1990. This did not bring any major changes to the Sky identity, other than the occasional addition of the full company name underneath using BSB's old font.
In 1993, Sky launched a new corporate look with a common design across all its channels. The new-look was created by Novocom. The logo was altered to make the 'Sky' wordmark larger in proportion to the circle, and the 'Y' was straightened up.
Yet another new look, also designed by Novocom, was launched in 1995. The Sky logo was given a slant and was put in an oval, which itself was usually put in a rectangle.
Individual channel logos and graphics were nearly identical. Channel logos were made up of the Sky logo in a rectangle with the channel name always written in the same lowercase font (except for Sky News). The channels were separated by using different colours for their graphics. Sky One used purple, themoviechannels used golden brown, Sky Sports used dark red, Sky News used dark blue, Sky Soap used pink, and Sky Travel used green.
1997–1998[]
Designer:
Unknown
Typography:
Franklin Gothic Heavy (brand) Rotis Semi Sans (brand)
Launched:
September 1997
Another new corporate look come in September 1997, and it was once again implemented across every channel. This time the logo with the oval usually appeared on its own, with 3D effects that almost made the oval look like an egg.
Although the channels had to adhere to yet another identical logo scheme, they were allowed more variety for their channel graphics.
Ahead of the launch of Sky Digital, Sky was rebranded in September 1998. This included a completely new logo that abandoned the font which had been used in various forms since the 1980s. Pittard Sullivan handled much of the rebranding.
With this rebrand, Sky started a practice of using one logo with the name in lowercase for the platform and corporate purposes and another with the name in capital letters for its channels.
The 'satellite edge' swoosh was retained, however, accompanied by a new logotype and a new colour scheme. The blue, yellow, and white colour scheme has been the trademark scheme from 1999 until 2005.
This was first seen in the endcap of Sky Digital Advert on 27 November 1999.
Custom Helvetica (brand, 1999–2005) FF Info Text (brand, 2005–2009)
Launched:
Late 2000
In late 2000, the satellite swoosh (used from 1998–2000) was phased out, leaving it as a wordmark-only logo. When Artsworld was rebranded as Sky Arts in March 2007, it used the lowercase version of the Sky logo, and since then the company has slowly moved back to using one logo for both corporate purposes and channel brands.
British Sky Broadcasting (2009–2014), Sky (2014–2018), Sky Group (2018–present)[]
Custom (modified from the previous logo) Sky Text (brand)
Launched:
Autumn 2009
In Autumn 2009, Sky updated its logo and introduced a new brand identity in order to make the company appear more friendly[2][3]. The new logo began to be launched on channels, with the first being Sky Movies and Sky Sports on January 1, 2010. Sky News and Sky Arts followed suit later that year.
British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) officially rebranded as "Sky" (or "Sky plc") on November 21, 2014, following shareholder approval at the company's Annual General Meeting.[4]
After Comcast completed its acquisition of Sky in October 2018, the company was delisted from the London Stock Exchange on November 7, 2018. Subsequently, the organization began operating under the name Sky Group Limited, reflecting its status as a consolidated European media and telecommunications group under Comcast's ownership.
