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Location: Grenoble, France – More Info
TV Broadcaster: ABC
Logo Status: Found
ABC 1968 Winter Olympics Logo
1968 brought us both the Winter and Summer Olympics being broadcast by ABC. The rights fee for Grenoble was $2,500,000, with the network airing 27 hours of coverage from France. By this point in time, the entire broadcast was in full color and satellite enabled, providing live coverage for select events. ABC's extensive coverage of France's Jean-Claude Killy during the alpine events (he won 3 gold medals) and America's own Peggy Fleming in skating (winning the only gold for the U.S.) helped to popularize the Winter version of the Olympics in the States.
Another look at ABC's Grenoble Logo
ABC's Winter/Summer combo brought us the introduction of what I like to call the "ABC Olympic Badge" design, a format that the network continued to use up through 1980. It's here the network established a design strategy to include both the official host city's emblem and the broadcaster logos together.
1968 Winter Olympics Emblem
This practice of "commercial logo + city emblem" combo was terminated after ABC's coverage of the 1998 Winter Olympics in Calgary; no other network has continued the design strategy. One wonders if this change was instituted by a change in International Olympic Committee policy or other factors.
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