Sky Sports HD logo

In February 2011 Sky made a major effort to have each channels logo in the same style, all its entertainment channels received new logos, with a transparent glass effect behind the 'sky' and 'hd' text with the channels color behind the channels name. Sky Sports and Sky Movies did not adapt this look, which I think is a shame as they were so close to achieving a common look for all its portfolio of channels. Below is a mock of a Sky Sports HD logo in the February 2011 style.

Blue backdrop
http://skyidentstest.yolasite.com/resources/blue%20backdrop.png

Black backdrop
http://skyidentstest.yolasite.com/resources/black%20backdrop.png

No backdrop
http://skyidentstest.yolasite.com/resources/transparent.png

My understanding is Movies and Sports are similar but deliberately off to mark the premium channels from the chaff.

And you've not really offered us much here. If you're after an idea, Sky Sports' new ident has gone pretty PowerPointy naff for some reason, why not see if you can improve/better it?

The transparent white thing at the top is way off. Plus the red part should have some gradient as well

Colour the "sky" text black and fill in the blank spaces within the rounded rectangle off-white. I can see what you're trying to do with the "no backdrop" but it doesn't work well on white.

Handy hint: white doesn't show up on white... at all.

The final image is there, completely, but you need to place some kind of background behind it to expose it.

Hence the example backdrops.

You know, to demonstrate the transparency... otherwise you wouldn't be able to see it.

Clicked?

Do any of the channels use Sky Bold as their choice of font? Even if they don't, I'm sure they don't leave the text untweaked, even a little tighter kerning would be an improvement but right now... eh, it's too friendly for a brand aimed at men.

When used on a white background the 'sky' logo would be almost the same colour as the coloured block and not black, like the Sky Arts logo used on the website.
http://www.skymedia.co.uk/_downloads/94/Sky-Arts-2-HD---On-White.png

Sorry, I'm not very familiar with bSkyb. I live in Canada, and I don't have satellite.

Take 2, with extra gradients on the white part at the top and the red section.
http://skyidentstest.yolasite.com/resources/TAKE%202.png.opt733x904o0,0s733x904.png

What changes? All I can see is that they're on an abstract background which isn't too much different. Given the Sky Arts logo simply because it's the nearest real-world example I can see, yours is much too simple and ignoring a lot of the craft that went into giving them their overall appearance. You've taken something flat and made it slightly less flat by adding a semi-transparent shape haphazardly on the top.

Really look at and study what makes these logos tick, they're actually very simple if you break them down into what element had what effect applied be it a gradient or something more complex.

Sky Sports and Sky Movies both had a distictive colour scheme before the last rebrand, making the sky 'part' of the logo transparent would in a sense ruin it. Like Baa said, the 'real' logos are rather simple to recreate if you take each colour as a different layer, the white 'highlight' for example has a slight fade near is bottom. Have a look at my Sky Challenge mock logo to see what you can do.