All is not well at Sky News. In the Telegraph, James Warrington reports on its desperate scramble for survival as it battles falling viewership, mounting losses and an uncertain future. Here’s an excerpt:
For Sky News boss David Rhodes, there’s a lot in a name. When the U.S. cable news veteran this week unveiled a major strategy overhaul aimed at dragging the channel into the digital age, he called it “Sky News 2030”.
The plan, announced in a town hall last week, is intended to help the channel weather the decline of traditional TV affecting all broadcasters.
But Sky News has a deadline. The funding commitments put in place by U.S. owner Comcast are scheduled to expire in 2028. Rhodes’s blueprint signals confidence it won’t pull the plug despite losses that have been in the tens of millions of pounds on a budget of £100 million.
Unsurprisingly, staff are fearful of job losses.
“The total lack of clarity around job security is worrying everyone in the newsroom,” says one insider. …
Sky News now faces a complete overhaul of its business with a highly uncertain outcome. Rhodes aims to put much of its journalism behind paywalls for the first time and multiply its sources of income.
The likes of CNN, under former BBC Director General Mark Thompson, are attempting similar revolutions while making profits. Nobody in the TV news business thinks it will be easy. Sky News, on the clock and in the red, arguably has an even tougher task ahead. …
Rhodes plans to shift focus away from live and breaking news to high-quality programming, podcasts and newsletters that people will pay for. To stand a chance, he wants original, differentiated journalism to account for 70% of Sky News, up from the current level of just 30%.
The motive is clear. Traditional TV is in retreat as audiences get their news and entertainment online. Advertising revenues have in turn dropped sharply as brands follow the exodus of viewers. …
Now, as well as questions over its financial sustainability, the broadcaster is grappling with its position in the political landscape.
Despite the regulation of broadcast news for impartiality, Sky News’s roots in the Murdoch empire gave it a political tone to the right of the BBC that stood out.
Since the 2018 takeover by Comcast, which owns the Liberal-leaning NBC News and MSNBC, observers and insiders have detected a drift to the Left. Meanwhile GB News has staked out new territory further to the Right. One executive at a rival broadcaster says Sky News has “lost sight of its purpose” in recent years.
Worth reading in full.
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