But then look at the mess they have made of Sky Sports Racing, which is still using At The Races branded social media and web presences.
At The Races is billed as the digital partner of Sky Sports Racing. There's some legal or compliance reasoning behind it I believe?
Arena Racing Company are co-owners of Sky Sports Racing. So as part of the deal to rebrand, At the Races, the Arena side of the company provide the digital side.
But then look at the mess they have made of Sky Sports Racing, which is still using At The Races branded social media and web presences.
At The Races is billed as the digital partner of Sky Sports Racing. There's some legal or compliance reasoning behind it I believe?
Correct. At The Races is the digital partner of Sky Sports Racing (and a joint venture of the broadcast channel), hence why the branding still appears.
If, like someone said, Pick is becoming a window to viewers to show what Sky has to offer, does it necessarily need a new set of idents? It could just use idents already on the channels they already have. E.g. if showing a program from Sky Witness, use an ident from witness with a 'Sky Pick' logo and perhaps a voiceover 'Now from Sky Witness, here is 'The Good Doctor' on Sky Pick'. The logo could even follow the same colour schemes on the already established channels to try and establish brand synergy.
They could also rebrand Sky Sports Mix as Sky Sports Pick and perhaps Movies24 as Sky Cinema Pick. Three FTA channels showcasing the best 'picks' that Sky has to offer. Obviously, I know there would be limitations with Freeview space and I doubt they would want a return to anything Sky Sports related to Freeview but Pick could be the flagship FTA channel with some sports/films thrown in every once in a while.
If, like someone said, Pick is becoming a window to viewers to show what Sky has to offer, does it necessarily need a new set of idents? It could just use idents already on the channels they already have. E.g. if showing a program from Sky Witness, use an ident from witness with a 'Sky Pick' logo and perhaps a voiceover 'Now from Sky Witness, here is 'The Good Doctor' on Sky Pick'. The logo could even follow the same colour schemes on the already established channels to try and establish brand synergy.
That gives me an idea.
...a visual idea, at least.
- - - -
Some kind of ident-esque animation, starting from the end of a Pick ident, and merging into, like you said, a Witness ident.
A normal Pick ident starts it off, the text in the rounded rectangle...
thing
fades out with the graphics, the rectangle changes color to match the aforementioned channel, and said channel's name fading into the rectangle.
If, like someone said, Pick is becoming a window to viewers to show what Sky has to offer, does it necessarily need a new set of idents? It could just use idents already on the channels they already have. E.g. if showing a program from Sky Witness, use an ident from witness with a 'Sky Pick' logo and perhaps a voiceover 'Now from Sky Witness, here is 'The Good Doctor' on Sky Pick'. The logo could even follow the same colour schemes on the already established channels to try and establish brand synergy.
That gives me an idea.
...a visual idea, at least.
- - - -
Some kind of ident-esque animation, starting from the end of a Pick ident, and merging into, like you said, a Witness ident.
A normal Pick ident starts it off, the text in the rounded rectangle...
thing
fades out with the graphics, the rectangle changes color to match the aforementioned channel, and said channel's name fading into the rectangle.
It's something.
I'm agreeing with you on this.
Sky should start making Pick it's preview sky channel. They might not be able to show all programming like The Simpsons on Sky One. They could show Sky produced programminh like League Of Their Own or Save Me. They could even show one live football match per week. Possibly a match from the lower leagues like League 1 or 2.
I know Sky did this before with the free weekend but they could go back to doing that again.
But then look at the mess they have made of Sky Sports Racing, which is still using At The Races branded social media and web presences.
At The Races is billed as the digital partner of Sky Sports Racing. There's some legal or compliance reasoning behind it I believe?
Correct. At The Races is the digital partner of Sky Sports Racing (and a joint venture of the broadcast channel), hence why the branding still appears.
Indeed. SS Racing is just the name of the channel in the UK. The rest of the operation is run as ATR, primarily run by Arena.
ATR uses the Sky Sports logo styling, but is otherwise seperate. ATR branding is used on-screen by some international broadcasters when showing UK racing.
If, like someone said, Pick is becoming a window to viewers to show what Sky has to offer, does it necessarily need a new set of idents? It could just use idents already on the channels they already have. E.g. if showing a program from Sky Witness, use an ident from witness with a 'Sky Pick' logo and perhaps a voiceover 'Now from Sky Witness, here is 'The Good Doctor' on Sky Pick'. The logo could even follow the same colour schemes on the already established channels to try and establish brand synergy.
That gives me an idea.
...a visual idea, at least.
- - - -
Some kind of ident-esque animation, starting from the end of a Pick ident, and merging into, like you said, a Witness ident.
A normal Pick ident starts it off, the text in the rounded rectangle...
thing
fades out with the graphics, the rectangle changes color to match the aforementioned channel, and said channel's name fading into the rectangle.
It's something.
I'm agreeing with you on this.
Sky should start making Pick it's preview sky channel. They might not be able to show all programming like The Simpsons on Sky One. They could show Sky produced programminh like League Of Their Own or Save Me. They could even show one live football match per week. Possibly a match from the lower leagues like League 1 or 2.
I know Sky did this before with the free weekend but they could go back to doing that again.
I just feel they are missing a trick and not utilising Pick on Freeview. Someone mentioned (maybe in another thread) that Sky's rebrand to a more thematic/genre channels lines up gives an online streaming feel. They could easily use Pick to promote Now TV. E.g. after a show 'Enjoying Gangs of London from Sky Atlantic? Catch the box set and more instantly on Now TV'. Show the odd film and sports fixture, promote the Now TV passes. Like you said, it may not be possible to show every thing on there due to licensing but Sky (and Comcast) have a wealth of rights that could populate the Pick schedule with decent programming, even if it is 12-18 months behind the original broadcast.
The likes of Merlin/The Chase could still be part of the schedule, just acknowledging where they would usually be placed within Sky's spectrum of channels (SYFY/Challenge).
Pick and Challenge promoteSky 24/7 but also have to exist in their own right. Showing "one live match a week" is of no benefit and Sky quite rightly need to respect their subscribers. The idea of it being a "preview" channel is also a non-starter as nobody wants a channel full of shows where they can only watch the first episode of a series - it serves Sky better to show older content in full and can be just as enticing to subscribe for Sky originals.
I would agree it would be easier for it to happen to Sky Cinema. Sky Sports Mix is already a channel outside the bigger sports subscription packages so I'd disagree it would be disrespecting their customers if the odd match, from a variety of different sports, was available to more people. Furthermore, I don't think the idea is a complete 'non-starter'. I am unaware of anyone suggesting to just showing one episode of a series and that is it. My point about promoting Now TV after showing an episode of a series would be to tap into society's want to have things on demand. More and more pieces of tech are carrying the Now TV app. If you catch something on Pick and you don't want to wait until the next episode is aired on Pick, you can access it via Now TV, at a cost but without a contract.
Why is the DOG on Pick positioned well during football but badly positioned during normal programming? Even Challenge manage to get the DOG in the corner.
