09-03-2023, 11:41 PM
Interesting, I’d have thought it would make sense to launch the TNT brand and then advertise TNT as “available through Discovery+” with TNT being the home of bikes! Otherwise it’s all just a bit messy, especially given that they are promoting brands which Discovery have already decided to axe, so it makes no sense.
I’m a bit late to the thread, so apologies if my thoughts below are a bit out of date.
I suppose the Eurosport brand, while long-running, never quite resonated that well in the UK. It always seemed very much in a “second tier” of sports channels, not the big names like Sky Sports or even BT Sport that probably come to mind if you ask people what sports channels are available. I gather that’s not so much the case in the rest of Europe.
It was also a pretty generic generic name and, quite problematically, if you were not familiar with the brand you may assume that the channels showed “European Sport” only (i.e. La Liga, Serie A and so on) rather than the wealth of content they actually shows. Brands which project a misleading image like that are quite problematic and difficult to market, and I can see why Discovery would not have wanted to retain the BT name either (royalties to BT) plus BT’s own probable reluctance as they look to reposition EE as their primary consumer brand. So neither existing brand works and I can understand how it would have been appealing to start with a “clean slate” using TNT. Even though it isn’t well known, as it’s an existing brand they won’t have issues with trademarks, etc and will be able to presumably save money by potentially sharing presentational elements and idents. We’ll have to see how the rebranding unfolds!
I’m a bit late to the thread, so apologies if my thoughts below are a bit out of date.
I suppose the Eurosport brand, while long-running, never quite resonated that well in the UK. It always seemed very much in a “second tier” of sports channels, not the big names like Sky Sports or even BT Sport that probably come to mind if you ask people what sports channels are available. I gather that’s not so much the case in the rest of Europe.
It was also a pretty generic generic name and, quite problematically, if you were not familiar with the brand you may assume that the channels showed “European Sport” only (i.e. La Liga, Serie A and so on) rather than the wealth of content they actually shows. Brands which project a misleading image like that are quite problematic and difficult to market, and I can see why Discovery would not have wanted to retain the BT name either (royalties to BT) plus BT’s own probable reluctance as they look to reposition EE as their primary consumer brand. So neither existing brand works and I can understand how it would have been appealing to start with a “clean slate” using TNT. Even though it isn’t well known, as it’s an existing brand they won’t have issues with trademarks, etc and will be able to presumably save money by potentially sharing presentational elements and idents. We’ll have to see how the rebranding unfolds!