SKY NEWS

including hosting the only leaders' debate and peric being the first channel to accurately predict the thr01 election result. St Sky News's political editor David Speers was We ei the first toannounce the result of a 2006 Labor (real Party leadership spill by taking a text message \Vith . live on air from a member of the Labor caucus. and In 2007, he broke the story of thwarted moves 1 Uno by key Cabinet ministers to dump Prime Minis­ most­ ter during the APEC summit; he nent provided dramatic coverage of 's Geo1 deposing of Prime Minister in Joe 201 O; and hisinterviews with Rudd precipitated Virg' Rudd's failed 2012 Labor leadership challenge. A Speers also hosted federal election debates in 145, 2010 and 2013. war< As a proportion of Australians watching each television, Sky News' audience share is low­ 192: sometirnes only 0.5 per cent. Viewers tend to the ; be heavy news consumers who check headlines in 1� regularly. beco Compared with other networks, Sky News pap, operates on a shoestring budget. It has relatively fell I few staff, and much of their work involves resu. re·packagl!!_g stories from external sources. Sky c_ _g_ b�_ t_ News's reporters are also expected to ,vrite their We e own scripts and edit their own video. uncc In 2004, Sky News expanded from a single Frar news channel co the eight-channel Sky News £50, Active. The Sky News Jlusiness Channel was year launched in 2008, followed by A-PAC (Aus­ \11 tralia's Pub lic Affairs Channel, an Australian role version of American public affairs network eral C-SPAN) in 2009. In late 2012, Sky News took Wee over the Weather Channel, rebranding it as Sky Joyr News Weather. Sky Ne\vs is also available as a leas1 mobile service and SMS/MMS. a list Sky News's presence has influenced Australian edit1 journalism, encouraging a faster, longer ne\vs he a cycle and a digital newsroom, content-packag­ We e ing approach. Other outlets now also privilege to a immediacy, 'breaking news', live coverage and to 2 the visual. In 2010, the ABClau nched the frce­ agai to-air ABC News 24, ending Sky News's 14-year maj, monopoly on local 24-hour television news. Australia's firstlocally produced television news Keit channel, Sky News Australia features news on REFs: S. Young,'Audien,es ·and the Impact of 24-hour tion News in Australia and Beyond', inJ. Le\vis and S. · that the hour, headlines every 15 minutes , regular Th e Rise 24-Hour News Te levision half-hour programs including Sportsline and Cushion (eds}, of REF Agenda, (2010) and 'Sky News Australia: The Impact of Local R.B. as well as panel and discussion shows 24-hour Ne\vs on Political Reportingin Australia', including The Contrarians and The Nation. Journalism Studies 10(3) (2009). Sky News began broadcasting on pay tele­ SALLY YOUNG vision in 1996. Its parent company is a joint venture between Rupert Murdoch's British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) and the two companies 1soc w Soc that own the largest commercial free towair televiw 199 sion ·networksin Australia-Kerry Stokes' Seven of t West Media and the Nine Entertainment Co. forr Sky News rose from early obscurity to build and its reputation through coverage of live events, corr including the Beaconsfieldmine collapse in 2006 plat and a series of bushfiresin 2006-07. It provided of e live coverage of the 2004 federal election as a refe dedicated channel, but it was during the 2007 and electiori that Sky scored a series of triumphs

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Minerva Access is the Institutional Repository of The University of Melbourne

Author/s: YOUNG, S

Title: Sky News Australia

Date: 2014

Citation: YOUNG, S. (2014). Sky News Australia. Australian Scholarly Publishing.

Persistent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11343/136342

File Description: Published version