The Newsroom

Sky News

Relaunch & beyond (October 2005)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
DV
dvboy
Someone gave Jonas the 11pm preview to read... he realised when he mentioned the press preview and I think he recovered quite well with the usual trick of promoting sky.com/news when you don't know what to say.
NG
noggin Founding member
fodg09 posted:
It would appear Sky News is not losing viewers,N24 are simply gaining new ones.

For example SN had a share of 0.4% for the w/e 14th Jan 07,0.5% share for w/e 15th Jan 06 and for the w/e 13th Jan 08 the share is 0.4%.

And the figures in the top tens on Barb do not appear to be going down.


How accurate are those figures - once BARB gets below 250,000 audiences in the digital ratings they couch caution. I'd imagine that there was a similar warning about share - though over longer periods there is a smaller degree of uncertainty possible?

In terms of absolute audience levels then the increased number of digital households - and increased numbers of digital-equipped sets within households - can only increase the total available audience in real terms, though Sky News' absence from Virgin Media households can't help them much.

Also - News 24 rates higher in Freeview households than Sky households as the "average" Freeview adopter is skewed slightly older and slightly more upmarket AIUI and a more natural "BBC viewer" Given that Freeview is now the fastest growing platform, the BBC are probably benefiting from more of the new audience being "BBC" viewers.

All sweeping - but pretty much the case in broadbrush terms AIUI.
MD
mdtauk
noggin posted:

How accurate are those figures - once BARB gets below 250,000 audiences in the digital ratings they couch caution. I'd imagine that there was a similar warning about share - though over longer periods there is a smaller degree of uncertainty possible?

In terms of absolute audience levels then the increased number of digital households - and increased numbers of digital-equipped sets within households - can only increase the total available audience in real terms, though Sky News' absence from Virgin Media households can't help them much.

Also - News 24 rates higher in Freeview households than Sky households as the "average" Freeview adopter is skewed slightly older and slightly more upmarket AIUI and a more natural "BBC viewer" Given that Freeview is now the fastest growing platform, the BBC are probably benefiting from more of the new audience being "BBC" viewers.

All sweeping - but pretty much the case in broadbrush terms AIUI.


Having the two main BBC channels to promote News 24 can't hurt either. I think Sky News needs a new look, and a marketing campaign on ITV, Channel4, and of course Five. Five news could do a much better job at publicising the fact they are run by Sky News.
SP
Spencer
martinDTanderson posted:
Five news could do a much better job at publicising the fact they are run by Sky News.


But would Five want them to do that? They're paying Sky as a producer to make their news programmes, not to direct Five's viewers to watch Sky News instead.
MD
mdtauk
Spencer For Hire posted:
martinDTanderson posted:
Five news could do a much better job at publicising the fact they are run by Sky News.


But would Five want them to do that? They're paying Sky as a producer to make their news programmes, not to direct Five's viewers to watch Sky News instead.


Who says instead...

"For more on all these stories and the latest celeb gossip, watch Sky News and visit the sky.com/news website" This can be said at the end of the bulletin. Surely it is better for five, to make out like they have a bigger source of news than it appears to have?
SP
Spencer
martinDTanderson posted:
Spencer For Hire posted:
martinDTanderson posted:
Five news could do a much better job at publicising the fact they are run by Sky News.


But would Five want them to do that? They're paying Sky as a producer to make their news programmes, not to direct Five's viewers to watch Sky News instead.


Who says instead...

"For more on all these stories and the latest celeb gossip, watch Sky News and visit the sky.com/news website" This can be said at the end of the bulletin. Surely it is better for five, to make out like they have a bigger source of news than it appears to have?


But still, it makes absolutely no sense for a channel to direct its viewers to a rival.
MD
mdtauk
hmm, I don't quite see Sky News and Five as rivals...
SP
Spencer
martinDTanderson posted:
hmm, I don't quite see Sky News and Five as rivals...


Well of course they are. If you're watching Sky News, you're not watching Five.
MD
mdtauk
So are BBC One and BBC News 24 rivals?
SP
Spencer
martinDTanderson posted:
So are BBC One and BBC News 24 rivals?


BBC One and News 24 are both BBC channels, so to an extent it doesn't matter to them whether someone's viewing one or the other, as watching either is a tick in the box for the BBC.

Five and BSkyB are commercial rivals. Five wouldn't want its viewers switching to a BSkyB channel anymore than it'd want them watching ITV or the BBC.

This is very basic stuff.
JH
Jonathan H
martinDTanderson posted:
Five news could do a much better job at publicising the fact they are run by Sky News.

I thought Sky were quite limited in their presentation of Five News viz BSkyB being the producer. Isn't it restricted to a BSkyB endcap or something like that?
JH
Jonathan H
Spencer For Hire posted:
martinDTanderson posted:
Spencer For Hire posted:
martinDTanderson posted:
Five news could do a much better job at publicising the fact they are run by Sky News.

But would Five want them to do that? They're paying Sky as a producer to make their news programmes, not to direct Five's viewers to watch Sky News instead.

Who says instead...

"For more on all these stories and the latest celeb gossip, watch Sky News and visit the sky.com/news website" This can be said at the end of the bulletin. Surely it is better for five, to make out like they have a bigger source of news than it appears to have?

But still, it makes absolutely no sense for a channel to direct its viewers to a rival.

This seems to be to be a very similar scenario to when ITN produced Five News. You could understand Five getting a little upset if ITN had directed its Five News viewers to other ITN produced news outlets on other channels. So the situation with Sky is no different. You have to think of BSkyB not as a news channel that also produces news for Five, but as a news provider (like ITN) that produces news for different customers with different (and separate) needs. To the average viewer, Five does not need to "make out like they have a bigger source of news than it appears to have". Either people will watch it or they won't.

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