British Swimming Seals BBC Deal Ahead Of Rebrand

The BBC has secured the broadcasting rights to the British Swimming Championships as British Swimming officially announces its rebrand.

The deal with the BBC will see the British Swimming Championships streamed live on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website.

The meet, which takes place at the London Aquatics Centre from 2^nd to 7^th April, doubles as the British trials for this summer’s Olympics and Paralympics.

The BBC will broadcast every final session while Channel 4 will stream the finals plus the morning heats.

BBC Sport will also broadcast the British Diving Championships which take place in May.

The broadcast deals have been announced alongside the launch of British Swimming’s new rebrand – which sees the organisation become Aquatics GB.

With each of the five disciplines of swimming, diving, para-swimming, artistic swimming and water polo forming Aquatics GB, the new brand identity aims to ‘serve to better represent and reflect the breadth of sports, teams, athletes, staff and experience that make up the organisation.’

This will officially kick off next week with the British Swimming Championships renamed the Aquatics GB Swimming Championships.

Aquatics GB has stated that the rebrand decision ‘involved consultation with athletes and support staff across multiple disciplines and departments, as well as key stakeholders including our Home Nations partners at Swim England, Scottish Swimming and Swim Wales.’

Aquatics GB CEO, Drew Barrand, said, “This is such an exciting moment in the history of our organisation, as we become Aquatics GB and take on a name and identity that truly reflects the variety of this National Governing Body.

“In the past three years alone, we have seen our divers register historic achievements and our best-ever results at a World Championships, multiple athletes on our para-swimming team become both Paralympic and world champion, and our swimming team achieve their greatest medal haul in British Olympic history. At the same time, we have broken into the world’s leading nations in artistic swimming, burst back on to the international water polo scene and climbed back to the World Championship summit in high diving.

“Bringing together the greatness that each and every person in our organisation strives for is crucial, and we are aiming to see that collaboration not only drive us forward in the water, but also to break through to new audiences and continue to make a difference in inspiring people into the life-giving values that aquatic sports offer.

“Seeing the new name launch is one thing – but when the athletes dive into the London Aquatics Centre pool next Tuesday for day one of the Aquatics GB Swimming Championships, and we see the new brand all over that iconic venue, it will feel like a truly special moment.”