NBC Sports Network will use Saturday's debut of its coverage of the Barclays Premier League to increase its efforts to change the name of the network to NBCSN.
Starting with the Liverpool-Stoke City match -- which begins at 7 a.m. ET -- the net will increasingly be referred to by commentators and within on-screen graphics as NBCSN. The brand-identifying "hallmark" the net opens with will show and say NBC Sports Network, followed by a dissolve to the NBCSN logo and a NBCSN voiceover. Eventually, the hallmark will only include the NBCSN portion.
The full switch to NBCSN will happen during its coverage of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics next February. NBC Sports Network began promoting the NBCSN name change during its coverage of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs earlier this year.
"The high-profile nature of our Premier League launch is the perfect platform to increase our campaign of branding NBC Sports Network as NBCSN. This is a natural evolution from the longer channel name to the acronym, as NBCSN is streamlined visually and a faster read," said John Miller, CMO, NBC Sports Group. "Premier League coverage will feature NBCSN as its primary mark. By the Winter Olympics in February, the transformation will be complete, and the Games will be used to solidify NBCSN as the network's name and brand."
NBC Sports Network rebranded from Versus in Jan. 2012, following the Comcast-NBCUniversal merger.
