Recent Sky News/News 24 ratings

took this from a ratings round-up on digital:spy_

7pm - 8pm
Sky News: 18,000 (0.13%)
News 24: 34,000 (0.25%)

8pm - 9pm
Sky News: 16,000 (0.1%)
News 24: 32,000 (0.2%)

9pm - 10pm
Sky News: 35,000 (0.22%)
News 24: 58,000 (0.35%)

10pm - 11pm
Sky News: 33,000 (0.27%)
News 24: 23,000 (0.18%)

For once, it seems that News 24 is actually beating Sky News. Apart from the 10-11pm slot, BBC News 24 hammered Sky News rating-wise on Monday night. Look at the 8-9pm slot - News 24 has twice more ratings than Sky News. Personally, I think this is due to News 24's great election coverage. From what has been reported, I think the BBC's coverage of the general election is better than what is promised by Sky. Also, Sky News' graphics for the election are grotesque. That box on the left hand-side is just a mess. I feel a more neater layout would be better. Whereas News 24 has a special caption graphic that appears at the top left everytime the election is reported and when it is not it goes away - I like that. News 24 also has a 'complete' news ticker unlike Sky and I like how it changes from Labour, Conservative, Lib Dems, SNP, and the Green Party when the ticker is updating viewers on what's happening in these parties campaigning. News 24 - you've finally done it. The news bus is coming to Edinburgh too - I'll be there!
whose graphics and coverage of the general election do you prefer,
Sky News or BBC News 24?

Thought one thread would be enough but anyway.

News 24 has been beating Sky for months now. Those figures, though trailed as election coverage ratings, are from Monday- the day before the election was announced.

But having read that DS article, I'm somewhat surprised that the run-on-a-pittance Sky Sports News is KICKING News 24's and Sky News' collective arses in audience terms, without even any live football going on.

Those figures on Digital Spy are from Tuesday not Monday.

The reason for SSN getting so many viewers is that it hasn't got any real competition. Proper news viewers have to choose between Sky News, BBC News 24, ITV News Channel, CNN International, to mention just the main ones. If you want pure sports news, when you want it, you turn to SSN, otherwise you'd have to wait for one of the news channels to get to the sport bulletin.

If you genuinely believe all that bullsh*t, you shouldn't be looking at figures.

It's all down to Freeview.

I imagine Sky are slightly concerned about it now - but BARB figures say their overall daily reach is still higher, and they keep viewers watching for longer. They also attract a much younger, and therefore more attractive to advertisers, demographic.

The features shows they're going to introduce will probably redress the balance quite comprehensively.

Sky News is available on Freeview.

Yes, but as Sky News has a significant lead on Sky Digital compared to News 24, News 24 has a significant lead on Sky News on the Freeview platform. As Freeview is now the most popular way of getting multichannel TV and is expanding rapidly, the boost News 24 is getting is attributable to that... and only that. The programming hasn't improved significantly enough to merit overtaking them so dramatically.

It also benefits from the fact that it is now constantly - and unfairly - promoted on BBC One, to the point at which they put the DOG up on BBC One even when the programme is being presented by BBC One presenters and not really anything to do with News 24. Hardly surprising also that when it's trailed at the end of every BBC One bulletin that it gets some migration.

It's hardly a crime, though, for the BBC to promote their own news channel. If they have the advantage of having a mainstream channel on which to advertise N24, they I say grasp it with both hands. I'm sure if Sky had the opportunity, they would exploit it too. It's only human nature! ITV1 also trails the News Channel at the end of every one of their bulletins, too.

I think you're being a little harsh in saying that N24's programming hasn't improved dramatically enough to merit a jump in viewing figures. Since December 2003, N24 has come on in leaps and bounds. Compare the channel today to three years ago...presentationally, it was staid and boring. Now, it's much more vibrant and upbeat, both in look and feel. It's news coverage, in my opinion, has also vastly improved over recent months.

the studio is by far the worst they have ever had, how has programming changed? presenters are certainly as good as sky's, but the channel still doesn’t flow like it does on sky. perhaps if they stopped wasting so much time showing bbc trailers, ditched the studio for something closer to what they started out with, and sorted out the graphics it might start to look a little better. sky's graphics are OTT, but at least they look pretty. bore 24's do not.

although unlike cat i see no problem with the beeb trailing it at the end of network news, after all, its just giving the licence fee payer greater access to the news they have paid for.

well seeing as those figures were from Tuesday night, Sky Sports News had a Soccer Special results service tracking the scores from the night's games, so it wasn't quite a regular night for the channel.

Also note that like Soccer Saturday, Tuesday's Soccer Special was also transmitted on Sky Sports 1, so it's likely more people on Sky and Cable would probably watch it on SS1 and Freeview/non-subscribers will watch it on SSN. It's still good ratings considering that ITV1 and ITV2 show the Tuesday games from the Champions League.

Interested to know what people think about this - I've not seen a discussion about the overnight merits of Sky/News 24 for a long time, if ever:

Sky have always 'shutdown' for the night at midnight - ie. gone from 2 presenters to one, lost dedicated text producer and vision mixer (and possibly even autocue operator, is it manually done?) and sky active staff until 6am the following morning.

News 24 keep going till 1am when the World team take over, so have more staff throughout the night. They seem to have generally more lives between 12 and 1 when there are breaking stories.

However Sky can lead on UK stories throughout the night as much as they like - e.g. there was that oxygen cylinder spill on a motorway in the recent bad weather and they could get a spokesman on the line shortly after 1am.

Meanwhile over on 24, usually all but one or two UK stories are lost from the running order at 1am and everything has to be referred to in a global context ("the British Prime Minister has called a general election for May 5th"). It strikes me for most people (who don't necessarily realise they're watching a simulcast with World) this must be very confusing if they started watching when the 24 late team was still on.

Any reason Sky have chosen not to adjust their shift patterns to compete with News 24 between 12 and 1? And *why* do Sky persist in running that awful (imho) world weather sequence just before the top of the hour. I can't honestly believe many people find it of any use? I can understand some of the criticism of the number of weather forecasts on 24, but at least they give you detailed information.