Timeline of Sky News

This is a timeline of the history of Sky News, a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation.

1980s
  • 1988
    • 8 June – Rupert Murdoch announces plans to launch a four-channel service on the soon to be launched Astra satellite. One of the new channels is a continuous news channel.[1][2]
  • 1989

1990s
  • 1990
    • 2 December – Following the merger of Sky TV and BSB,[3] Sky News launches on the Marco Polo satellite although arts programmes are shown for a short time as a weekend opt-out service from Sky News.
  • 1991
    • 16 January-2 March – Sky News provides rolling coverage of the Gulf War.
  • 1992
    • February – TV-am closes its in-house news service and contracts out news bulletins to Sky News. This is the first time that any output from Sky News has been seen on terrestrial television, and continues until 31 December, TV-am's last day on air.
  • 1993
    • No events.
  • 1994
    • No events.
  • 1995
    • No events.
  • 1996
    • No events.
  • 1997
    • 31 August – Television schedules are dominated by coverage of the Diana, Princess of Wales's car accident and Sky News provides rolling coverage for much of the following week, culminating in her funeral on 6 September.
    • 9 November – Sky News faces competition for the first time when the BBC launches its rolling news channel BBC News 24.
  • 1998
  • 1999

2000s
  • 2000
    • March – Sky News Active launches.
    • 1 August – The ITN News Channel launches, providing Sky with further competition in the UK rolling news market.
  • 2001
    • 11 September – Viewers around the world witness a terrorist attack on the United States, and the collapse of the Twin Towers in New York City. Sky News provides rolling coverage with some of the coverage coming from Fox News.
  • 2002
    • 7 January – Sky News content becomes available on terrestrial television for the first time in a decade when Channel 5 begins simulcasting part of its breakfast news programme Sunrise.[6]
    • February – Sky News Today is launched. It is the new name for Sky News' weekday morning slot.
    • 30 October – Freeview launches as a replacement for the failed ITV Digital and Sky News is one of three channels that Sky provides on the new service.
  • 2003
    • 20 March – As the 2003 invasion of Iraq begins many broadcasters abandon regular programming to provide up to date coverage of unfolding events. These include ITV's News at Ten is moved to 9pm for the duration of the conflict and the launch of a 30-minute lunchtime news bulletin on channel 4 which is retained following the end of the conflict due to the bulletin's instant popularity.
  • 2004
    • 24 May – Sky News Ireland is launched as a bespoke news broadcast for the Republic of Ireland.
  • 2005
    • 1 January – Sky News replaces ITN as news provider to Channel 5. Consequently, the channel's output is seen on a terrestrial channel for the first time, both in early morning scheduled slots and during major news events, such as Sky News' overnight coverage of the results of the 2005 General Election.[7]
    • Sky News launches an overnight global bulletin Sky World News. It broadcasts each weeknight between 3am and 5.30am.
    • 24 October – The first edition of global news programme World News Tonight is broadcast on Sky News as part of a revamp of the channel which sees rolling news replaced by presented-led programming. The new show co-insides with a move to new studios in Isleworth, Greater London. The new studio is integrated with the newsroom.[8] New music was scored by Adelphoi Music and recorded with a full orchestra at Air Studios, Hampstead, and mastered at Metropolis Studios.[9] Other new shows, in a schedule designed around "appointment to view" programmes rather than continuous rolling news, include Julie Etchingham presenting The Sky Report, Kay Burley presented a new programme called Lunchtime Live from 12 to 2 pm, the daytime show Sky News Today introduces a three-presenter format and the following weekend, Saturday Live is launched.
    • 23 December – The ITV News Channel stops broadcasting at 6pm, partly because of low ratings when compared to Sky News.[10]
  • 2006
    • 10 July – After less than a year on air, the final edition of World News Tonight is broadcast on Sky News. The programme is dropped due to a poor reception from viewers which had seen BBC News 24 overtake Sky News in the ratings. The evening programmes were replaced by rolling news and an interactive programme, Sky News with Martin Stanford, and the return to a two-presenter format on Sky News Today.
    • 3 November – The final edition of Sky News Ireland is broadcast. The programme had been intended to end at the end of the month but finished early following a staff walk-out following the announcement of the decision to end the programme.[11] The walkout was over the handling of the closure by their British Sky News managers in London.
  • 2007
    • 1 March – The Sky Basics channels, including Sky News, stop broadcasting on Virgin Media when the two companies cannot agree a new carriage deal.[12]
    • 1 October – Sky News introduces another new schedule, extending Kay Burley's Lunchtime Live programme and renaming it Afternoon Live. It also switches to a new format for much of the day, with a solo lead presenter and a summary newsreader. Sky News also puts more emphasis on interactive news with Martin Stanford's new SkyNews.com programme; an early evening financial news programme presented by Jeff Randall, was also introduced, initially on Mondays only.[13]
  • 2008
    • 8 September – Colin Brazier presents the first edition of The Live Desk, and Martin Stanford's Sky.com News became SkyNews.com, moving to 7 pm every weeknight.
    • 13 November – After more than 18 months, the Sky Basics channels, including Sky News, return to Virgin Media.[14]
  • 2009
    • Jeff Randall Live is expanded from a weekly show to being on air four nights each week, Monday to Thursday.
    • 3 March – Independent Radio News switches its main supplier of news from ITN to Sky News Radio, expanding its customer client list by more than 280 stations and giving it a near-monopoly in UK commercial radio news provision. The first Sky News produced bulletin is broadcast at 2pm.[15]

2010s
  • 2010
    • 6 May – Sky News HD launches.
    • 21 May – Sky News confirms that it is to ditch weather presenters, apart from during breakfast programme Sky News Sunrise, and replace them with headline bulletins read by the news presenter.[16] The move comes at the same time as Sky News slims down its sports reporting in favour of bulletins from Sky Sports News.[17]
    • 10 September – The final edition of SkyNews.com is broadcast.[18]
    • December – The final edition of Sunday Live with Adam Boulton is broadcast. It is replaced in the new year with a similar show presented by Dermot Murnaghan.[19] Boulton moved to a new weekday show at 13:00 on Sky News.[19]
  • 2011
    • 15 January – The final edition of Saturday Live is broadcast.
    • 17 January – The first edition of Boulton & Co is broadcast.
    • April – Live at Five is dropped from the schedule following a change in branding policy, and the majority of Sky News output is rebranded as simply Sky News. The name had been in use since the channel's first day on air. Also disappearing from the schedule in 2011 is The Live Desk.
    • December – Sky News produces the Queen's Christmas Day broadcast for the first time.[20]
    • December – Today is the final day in which Sky News provides Channel 5 with its news coverage as the following day sees the contract return to ITN.
  • 2012
    • 23 October – Digital switchover is completed in the UK meaning that Sky News is now available in around 90% of UK homes.
    • 26 November – A 60-second bespoke news bulletin from Sky News is launched on Pick and is broadcast nightly at 21:00.[21]
  • 2013
    • No events.
  • 2014
    • 27 March – The final edition of business news programme Jeff Randall Live is broadcast.[22]
    • 1 August – The final edition of weekday lunchtime programme Boulton & Co is broadcast.
    • 1 September – Sky News launches a new flagship evening bulletin Sky News Tonight.[23]
  • 2015
    • Following the 2015 general election, Sky News is rebranded, with a new top-of-the-hour sequence and on-screen graphics. The traditional opening voiceover, read by Bruce Hammal, is dropped after two decades in use.
  • 2016
    • 21 April – The first edition of discussion programme The Pledge is broadcast. It is broadcast each Thursday evening at 8pm.[24]
    • 24 October – Sky News begins broadcasting from a new studio (Studio 21) at Sky Central, Sky's new headquarters in West London.[25]
  • 2017
  • 2018
  • 2019
    • 13 October – Sky News Sunrise is broadcast for the final time. The programme, which launched with Sky News first went on air more than 30 years ago, is broadcast. It is replaced the following day with two new shows – The Early Rundown and Sky News @ Breakfast.[29]
    • 16 October – 1 November – Sky News operates a pop-up channel called Sky News Brexit-Free. On air on weekdays from 17:00 to 22:00, it broadcasts coverage of other news headlines unrelated to the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union. Sky News head John Ryley cited viewer fatigue over the near-constant coverage of Brexit as justification for the channel.[30][31]

2020s

See also

References
  1. The £199 dish that will launch a television revolution. by Richard Evans Media Editor. The Times, Thursday, 9 June 1988
  2. "Sky News Success Story". www.successstory.com. Retrieved 2019-10-15.
  3. "Maggie Brown on the early years of Sky Television". The Guardian. London.
  4. "You're wrong to bong, ITN tells Sky News". Daily Record. 1 March 1999. Retrieved 2016-03-13.
  5. Holmwood, Leigh (8 October 2008). "Former Sky News presenter Bob Friend dies aged 70". Guardian Online. Retrieved 2016-03-13.
  6. "Sky News debuts on Channel 5". BBC News. BBC. 7 January 2002. Retrieved 29 January 2019.
  7. "Five to take Sky News bulletins". BBC News. 9 March 2004. Retrieved 29 September 2007.
  8. Owen Gibson (21 October 2005). "Sky News unveils new studios and beefed up schedule". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
  9. "Adelphoi Music – Music Composition and Sound Design".
  10. Conlan, Tara (2005-12-14). "ITV News Channel axed". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
  11. "Ray Kennedy presents the final Sky News Ireland programme". October 3, 2009.
  12. Virgin customers wake up to no Sky channels
  13. Dowell, Ben (6 September 2007). "Jeff Randall given own Sky News show". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
  14. Sky and Virgin Media resolve distribution row
  15. http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=43094
  16. Sky ditches weather presenters
  17. Sky News sports operation to be streamlined
  18. so skynews.com is the only tv show with the web agenda for only another 10 days... then I cede 7pm to Randall and occupy 8-10pm instead! Martin Stanford, Twitter, 1 September 2010
  19. Sky News Announces New Shows for Boulton and Murnaghan Sky Press Office, 6 January 2011
  20. Queen's Christmas message to be produced by Sky for first time
  21. "Sky News bulletins coming to Pick TV". Digital Spy. 26 November 2012. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
  22. Sweney, Mark (18 July 2013). "Jeff Randall to leave Sky News role". The Guardian.
  23. Boulton, Adam (1 September 2014). "Sky News Tonight: Show Takes Fresh Approach". Sky News. Retrieved 2016-03-13.
  24. "Sky News to launch Question Time rival The Pledge". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 November 2018.
  25. "Sky Central now open." 18 July 2016. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  26. Sweney, Mark (16 November 2016). "Sophy Ridge to host new Sunday morning show on Sky News". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
  27. "Sky News unveils new daytime line-up, with brand new programming and on-air talent". Sky. Retrieved 12 August 2019.
  28. "Sky's Kay Burley and Mark Austin launch new shows". Sky News. Retrieved 3 November 2018.
  29. Twitter, Freddy Mayhew (23 September 2019). "Sky News announces new morning slate as Kay Burley moves to breakfast show". Press Gazette. Retrieved 12 October 2019.
  30. "Sky News Brexit-Free closes down". Retrieved 2020-04-21.
  31. "The Brexit-Free TV Channel Is Meant to Solve News Fatigue – It Made Mine Worse". Vice. 2019-10-22. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
  32. "Kay Burley off air at Sky News for six months over Covid rule breach". the Guardian. 10 December 2020. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
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