Comcast’s global news channel Sky News is activating a new editorial strategy that centers around digital platforms and distribution, executives said at an all-staff meeting on Tuesday.
That plan, called Sky News 2030, aims to make the 36-year-old television news channel more competitive in the era of apps and platforms through the production of podcasts, live events, social-first content and premium products.
The shift comes as advertising revenues in the United Kingdom and elsewhere have been “largely stagnant” over the last few years, Sky News Group Executive Chairman David Rhodes said.
The new model has a long-term goal of convincing international news viewers and readers to pay for Sky News products in the coming years, though its international TV channel will continue to be available and largely accessible for free, Rhodes affirmed.
The changes come as Sky News is facing a potential revenue pitfall once Comcast stops making guaranteed funding payments in three years. The payments were part of Comcast’s $39 billion takeover of Sky Group in 2018, a move that brought the news channel under common ownership with NBC News.
Launched in the late 1980s, Sky News was one of the first modern rivals to television news produced by the United Kingdom’s public service broadcasters — specifically, the BBC and ITV, the latter of which relied on bulletins from Independent Television News (ITN).
The channel gained a following for its tabloid-style reporting and right-of-center political coverage, aligning Sky News with newspapers like The Sun and The Times. Rupert Murdoch, the owner of those newspapers, founded Sky Satellite, the operator of Sky News, in 1989.
Under Comcast’s ownership, the channel has shifted its editorial focus to include more in-depth reporting of Britain’s political affairs and international events. It produced reports from the front lines of multiple wars, including the civil conflict in Syria and the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces. Its fearless coverage of climate change, artificial intelligence, government surveillance and political wrongdoings have resulted in numerous awards over the past few years.
Still, Sky News has remained much of an afterthought at Comcast, with the Philadelphia-based company struggling to figure out how to nurture its London-based newsroom while focusing much of its efforts on NBC News. Five years ago, the company laid out plans to consolidate Sky News into NBC News through the launch of a new global news channel called NBC Sky World News. The coronavirus health pandemic caused Comcast to put those plans on indefinite hiatus, and they have not been revisited since.
The new path for Sky News mirrors that of other major news operations, including CNN, which recently affirmed plans to reorient its channel around digital news production and distribution through online platforms. CNN rolled out a subscription model for its website late last year, and has plans to launch a direct-to-consumer streaming service in the coming months.
