Sky Sport Sheds Light on Rebrand

Tomorrow afternoon’s opening Sky Super Rugby Aupiki round will be the first time viewers can experience a radical new identity for Sky Sport. 

Here’s the media release:

Sky Sport to unveil ‘First Light’ rebrand at start of Sky Super Rugby Aupiki and NRL Telstra Premiership seasons

Sky Sport launches an exciting new visual identity this weekend for all its locally produced sports broadcasts, which puts greater emphasis on athletes and teams, in a premium creative offering that reaffirms Sky Sport as a distinctive brand of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Audiences will get their first taste of the new identity during the opening Sky Super Rugby Aupiki round, led by the match between Chiefs Manawa and Matatū at 14.00 on Saturday 1 March – and the NRL Vegas round, which kicks off with Raiders v Warriors at 13.00 on Sunday 2 March.

Called ‘First Light’, the refreshed design system is inspired by the sun’s rays hitting Aotearoa’s Mount Hikurangi, one of the first places in the world to see the new day.

Light is a core design element, symbolising the energy of sport, creating and emphasising team emblems and acting as a point of origin for key information graphics.

Gary Burchett, Head of Sports Content for Rangiata Sky New Zealand says, “The new ‘First Light’ creative is a modern and premium look that is a significant departure from our previous creative design.

“This new identity aims to attract and engage audiences. Its design principles and function support us to share stories and hold our audiences’ attention.

“It’s crafted around the idea of heroing the identity of the athletes, the teams and the competitions – and, importantly, the identity of Rangiata Sky.

“We’re excited to be presenting our audiences with a compelling and distinctive look that will enhance the sports viewing experience.”

The new identity, which was created by Auckland based design studio, AE Live Ignite, has been designed to be able to flexibly and seamlessly integrate team and franchise identities, ensuring that the audience understand who they are watching at a glance.

Player photography is also central, helping to build fans’ awareness and knowledge of the players who represent the teams they love.

The ‘First Light’ diagonal was derived from the ‘K’ in the Sky logo, which drew inspiration from existing cultural designs that bring to life the company’s Māori strategy, Kia Rere.

Developed in partnership with creative agency Ira Aotearoa, and later supported by RUN Aotearoa, the directional arrow design acts as a navigational cursor drawing the eye to important match information.

The new brand will be visible across all Sky Sport channels and events and includes all the visual graphics touch points that are included within a sports broadcast, from on screen graphics and pre-match sequences to logos and studio design.

Specific graphics have been designed to meet the needs of individual sports codes and their teams.

Kaylene Hurley, AE Live GM, New Zealand, said: “This rebrand celebrates our long-standing relationship with Sky Sport, built on trust, collaboration, and a shared passion for delivering exceptional sports content.”

Reuben Thorpe, AE Live Ignite’s Senior Creative Director, said: “It’s been wonderful to partner with Sky to successfully develop this new Sky Sport identity, which is built around the iconic fern – and visually connects New Zealand sport to audiences both locally and globally.”

About AE Live

Recognised globally within the industry as an essential partner, AE Live specialises in capturing, processing and visualising live sports data using innovative, attractive, and informative on-screen graphics and augmented reality.  AE Live works with clients to ideate, develop, and deliver creative solutions for virtual studios, OTT graphics, optimised fan feeds, newsroom graphics systems, virtual advertising, and in-stadia feeds across a broad range of platforms in multiple languages. 

AE Live provides design studio services for Sky Sport New Zealand, including motion graphics livery, live match graphics delivery, logo work, studio design and branding for application across all platforms.AE Live Ignite has a long-standing relationship with Sky New Zealand, and in recent years has delivered show packages, match graphics, design elements and titles for all their content including the Game of Two Halves, The Breakdown, The Crowd Goes Wild and many more. For more information visit https://ae.live/