Check out the surprising theory that claims Channel Nine got the Olympic logo wrong

Channel Nine could be hearing from the International Olympic Committee after an eagle-eyed TikTok user spotted the station using an incorrect version of its famous Olympic rings logo.

The media company secured the rights to broadcast the next five Olympic Games from Channel 7, starting with the 2024 Paris Games, for $305 million in cash and $10 million in free advertising.

Full coverage of the Paris Olympics is available on free-to-air Nine, streaming on 9Now and paid streaming on Stan.

Marketing expert Kiandra Trickett, who goes by the social media handle The Original Kiki, has revealed that network Nine is likely using an unauthorised, modified version of the Olympic rings.

The image appears on the welcome screen of the 9Now app, which can be accessed via mobile devices, computers and smart TVs.

“Did I just miss the Olympic ring’s image change?” she wrote on TikTok.

She then showed photos of different versions of the logo that have been used over the years.

Designed by Pierre de Coubertin, the rings are a global representation of the Olympic Movement. They consist of five intertwined rings of equal dimensions in blue, yellow, black, green and red.

The rings symbolize the union of the five continents and the global meeting of athletes at the Olympic Games. The rings were first introduced in 1913, appeared on the Olympic flag in 1914 and made their official debut at the Games in 1920.

The same design has been used since 1914, except for the period from 1986 to 2010, when white spaces appeared where the individual circles joined.

This project was officially abandoned in 2010 and the original was restored.

Trickett then showed a version to 9Now that shows a different ring connection than what is specified in the official IOC guidelines.

While each ring interlaces behind and in front of each adjacent ring according to these guidelines, the 9Now version has each ring fully layered either in front of or behind its adjacent ring, with no interlacing effect.

The rings themselves are also thinner than those officially designed by the IOC.

“What is this? What is that?” Trickett said, pointing out the differences.

“I think your designer just created five circles that are not a logo.

I’ve been looking at this for the last two days and thinking, “What’s wrong here?”

“Now I’ve actually seen it up close, yes. I don’t know if it’s a legal issue, but I would feel like it couldn’t be done.”

The IOC has approved seven different versions of the rings, including multiple single-color and monochromatic versions, but none of them match the rings currently available on the 9Now app.

Media guidelines for the 2024 Paris Olympics state that “the Olympic rings should never be modified in any way” and include two pages of examples of common but prohibited modifications.

Trickett’s fans were shocked by her discovery, but some noticed that the bug only appeared on the splash screen and not in the app itself.

“The 9Now app icon on my Samsung TV shows the correct interlocking rings logo,” one user wrote.

“My app displays correctly in 9Now, but when I open it, the wrong version shows up on the welcome page,” added another.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Channel Nine for comment.