British Satellite Broadcasting

Background

British Satellite Broadcasting (or BSB) was a satellite television company that was founded in December 11, 1986 and began broadcasting three years later on March 25, 1990. However, seven months later on November 2, the company merged with Sky Television plc to form British Sky Broadcasting.

1st logo (1988)

Nicknames: "Marble Orbit", "The Early Ring"

Logo: On a cornflower blue gradient background, the camera focuses onto a teal ball with red, green, and blue lights on it, giving off a trail as it goes around a ellipse. The camera turns when it's over it and zooms away from it after the ball gives out onto a incomplete ring. The ring then turns as a piece of green marble and the gold letters "BSB" appear and shine, turning with the ring.

FX/SFX: CGI animation.

Music/Sounds: Just the reporter talking over the report.

Availability: Extinct. This was only seen on a report from ITN.

Legacy: The gold-on-green color scheme makes the logo hard to see, making look more like a slab of marble.

2nd logo (March 25-November 1, 1990)

Nicknames: "Multicolored Orbit", "The New Ring"

Logo: On a black background, 3 balls of light (in red, green, and blue) circle around a black sphere. The balls then fly away as red bars emerge from the sphere and start to curve around. The colors then brighten as the balls return and disappear again. The bars then form a multicolored ring and the letters "BSB" emerge from the front of the screen with green, blue, and red on them respectively. As everything settles down, "BRITISH SATELLITE BROADCASTING" fades in below.

Variant: On broadcasters using the Marcopolo 1 satellite, the logo starts off the same way, but the text below doesn't appear and the "BSB" text fades to grey, becoming the print logo. It then zooms out into a diamond, where "5 Channel TV" appears below.

FX/SFX: The balls of light, the text and ring forming.

Music/Sounds: A light mellow tune combined with what sounds like the ticking of a clock. On the "TELEVISION" variant, a single synth theme was used.

Availability: Extinct, but preserved on tape by various people.