Sky News has set out plans to shift its focus away from live, breaking TV news towards more emphasis on “premium video” across various digital platforms.
It has set a target of being a “premium video-first newsroom built for the digital future” by 2030 and is also considering the introduction of paid content for the first time.
Funding for Sky News is currently guaranteed from owner Comcast under a ten-year deal agreed when it bought Sky in 2018. But after 2028 Comcast is no longer bound by that undertaking.
Managing director and executive editor Jonathan Levy told Press Gazette the Sky News TV channel will continue but will stop being the “metronome” around which the newsroom revolves.
The goal is to pivot from being 70% focused as a newsroom on breaking and live news towards being 70% focused on premium video journalism.
He cited the following examples of “premium video”:
- Sky News Africa correspondent Yousra Elbagir’s reporting this month from Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo as rebels took control
- Economics and data editor Ed Conway’s exposé about the sanctions-busting export of luxury cars to Russia
- Sky News chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay riding on top of Mexican migrant freight train The Beast
- Rachael Venables revealing allegations of sexual misconduct with the ambulance service.
Levy told Press Gazette: “The reason we’ve launched this is because it’s absolutely vital that Sky News is made commercially and editorially fit for the future. We’re operating in a transforming and disrupted media landscape.
“We feel it’s incumbent upon us in this moment with everything that’s going on in our industry, with all the changes and transformations that’s going on economically, technologically and to some degree editorially, to be really clear with our staff where the Sky News advantage is, where Sky News can win. And for us, premium video journalism is the Sky News advantage.”
Levy emphasised that the plan, which was announced to staff on Tuesday, is “not a cost-reduction exercise” although he added that “the composition of our newsroom is going to change” and “the way we do things is going to have to adapt”.
He added: “It’s about making us editorial and commercially fit for the future, which as leaders of the organisation is our responsibility regardless.
“We have complete confidence in the support from Comcast and from Sky. But regardless of that support, this is the right thing to do.”
Sky News paid premium content plan
Adding a paid offering to Sky News is similarly “both editorially and commercially the right thing to do,” Levy said, adding that the brand now needs a “more diversified revenue model”.
As part of this there will be a shift in focus from overall audience size towards reaching a highly engaged audience which may be willing to pay for some Sky News journalism.
Sky News is currently dependent on advertising revenue, both on linear TV – where audiences are declining – and via programmatic online.
Levy said Sky News is considering a possible paid element “within the digital and podcast space”, rather than connected to its TV news offering.
The Sky News TV channel reached 8.1 million people in the UK in December according to broadcast data body Barb, down from 11.1 million three years earlier. BBC News was on 9.6 million last month versus 16.3 million in December 2021.
Sky News is still ahead of challenger GB News (3.4 million reach in December) although the new arrival to the market has started recording milestones such as having a higher average number of live TV viewers than Sky News in November.
Heavy losses for GB News and shortlived challenger TalkTV underline how hard it is to make money out of TV news in the UK.
Levy said: “We’ve had a good look at what’s going on in the industry and clearly pay is part of it. There’s a new news economy out there, a 21st century news economy, and pay is a big part of it, and a lot of our rival news organisations are doing that.
“Exactly how we do that, and the exact composition of our commercial proposition, we’re now going to have to work out, but we envisage that being part of it. But, and it’s really important to emphasise that there’ll be a core free-breaking live proposition always at the heart of Sky News.”
Broadcasters GB News and CNN have both recently launched website subscription options offering extra content, as has Mail Online which crossed the 100,000 paying subscriber mark in under a year.
Meanwhile, multiple news organisations, including Tortoise and The Economist, have a paid podcast offering giving subscribers early access to episodes and ad-free listening.
International journalism to remain Sky News ‘advantage’
Levy said there are no plans to cut back on Sky’s expensive-to-produce international journalism despite the commercial changes.
“Journalism is at the heart of this transformation… and there’s absolutely no retreat from going out and covering stories all around the world. Quite the opposite. That’s our advantage.”
Asked if Sky News on TV will continue to be a rolling news channel, Levy said the details still have to be worked out.
“We very much see TV remaining an important bit of the proposition. It’s very important as a public service and public interest journalism. It’s important corporately to Sky. It’s important for our journalists.
“But we see it more within the breaking and live part of the Sky News proposition. That’s where we find the audience is, so that’s where we’ll serve them. But we’re not retreating from that at all.”
Sky News to be ‘video first’ not ‘video only’
The focus digitally will be on the Sky News website and app (rather than outside platforms such as Youtube). “That’s where we want people to come to consume our video journalism,” Levy said. “And then we want to use those other-third party platforms in ways that supports Sky News journalism in different ways.”
Youtube brings “a lot of viewership” to Sky News, Levy said, both for the TV channel feed and individual videos. The platform’s model of sharing 55% of advertising revenue with creators/publishers is currently providing a “decent amount” for Sky News but “doesn’t yet compete” with the revenues from TV or owned-and-operated platforms, he added.
Meanwhile short-form video platform Tiktok is useful to Sky News for “engaging a whole new generation of consumers who might not otherwise get Sky News,” Levy said. But it is harder to monetise.
The emphasis from Levy was that Sky News will become a “video-first newsroom”. He said the newsroom “somewhat thinks that TV is the video platform, that digital is the text platform, and that podcasts are the audio platform, and what we want to say is, no, that’s not the case. Everything can have a video element…
“The reason we’re saying video first, not video only, is we appreciate that some of our journalism is going to be written, but when we do have a written piece of journalism, we want our journalists to think how can we make that also a video-rich experience? How can we combine, with that written piece, video elements that can elevate it?”
The newsroom will also move away from a model that is “very much orientated around TV” and dictated by broadcast rhythms towards a hub model. The politics team is already “to a certain degree” operating in this model, Levy said, and other hubs could include UK news, international news and some key specialist areas and new areas altogether.
The plan is to cut duplication within the newsroom using new technology but Levy said they are still “exploring the best and right way to do it”.
“Our general approach to what’s going on in technology at the moment, including AI, is that it’s an opportunity. It’s an opportunity to create the space and time for us to do more journalism and more premium journalism.”
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