Increase in audiences for Sky a testament to understanding its viewers, says CEO Paul Whittaker
Sky News Australia boss Paul Whittaker said its overall upswing in popularity is the result of a carefully orchestrated transition to a truly multimedia digital business.
Sky News Australia recorded strong year-on-year audience growth in 2024, underpinned by its highest-ever share of the nation’s linear broadcast metro and regional markets, a surge in video views across its growing network of digital platforms, and the burgeoning popularity of its content on YouTube among local and international consumers.
Defying linear trends in the wider TV industry, Sky News Australia – the top-rating non-sport and weekday channel on Foxtel – grew its average audiences on its subscription platform by 4 per cent year on year, its free-to-air regional service registered an 18 per cent jump in viewership and, for the first time, there were more than two billion video views in a calendar year on Sky News Digital, according to data released by OzTAM and Ipsos.
In comparison, metro linear free-to-air ratings for ABC News dipped by 5 per cent in 2024.
Paul Whittaker, chief executive officer at Sky News Australia, said the news channel’s overall upswing in popularity was the result of a carefully orchestrated transition from “a fairly singular linear broadcast business to a truly multimedia digital business”.
“We’re getting bigger audience shares and we’re growing the business,” said Mr Whittaker, at the helm of Sky News for more than six years.
The Sky News boss, a former editor-in-chief of The Australian and one-time editor of The Daily Telegraph, said the news channel’s ratings success was partly the result of successfully “riding on the back” of big events over the past 18 months, including the voice referendum, the Bondi Junction stabbing attacks, various state elections, and the US presidential poll in November.
“For those big events, people come to Sky, and we see it every time in terms of the numbers we get,” Mr Whittaker said.
“People know that we stay on the big stories with rolling coverage. We stick with it. And that’s what appeals to a lot of people who watch our channel.
“Of course, we don’t have endless resources, so we have to quickly work out what actually works for us, and once we know that, we exploit that.
“My mantra is test, learn and earn – if we test and learn that it ain’t going to earn, we move on. If we test and learn that it earns, we double down.”
Mr Whittaker said Sky News’ growth was also testament to the news channel’s understanding of its audience.
“I would argue we speak much more to the mainstream of Australia than some of our competitors do,” he said.
“Those who were watching our competitors in the lead-up to the US presidential election would have had no clue that Donald Trump could possibly win. Whereas I think people that watched our channel could see, as a result of our reporting on the ground in the swing states, that it was a real possibility.”
Sky News’ coverage of the US election delivered the 30-year-old channel its highest-ever audience share for a single day on linear subscription TV, and it was also a hit on YouTube, where the Australian news channel has garnered significant international attention. Sky News is ranked 11th among the top English-speaking news brands on the video-sharing platform, just behind the BBC.
But Mr Whittaker is quick to counter any misconception that Sky News specifically produces content for its US and UK audiences on YouTube.
“There’s been a lot written about (our audience on) YouTube,” he told The Australian, alluding to claims by other media outlets that Sky’s digital strategy is to target international audiences at the expense of local content.
Such a suggestion is “completely wrong”, Mr Whittaker said.
“Yes, we have a large audience in America – about 30 million unique viewers a month.
“But we also have a large audience in Australia, with an average of 4.7 million unique viewers a month, which represents a far greater percentage of the population (than the US audience).
“In terms of our coverage of the US election, our team was there to cover the issues for Australian audiences.
“I heard someone suggest that we send this large team to the US to exploit YouTube. That’s not correct. We sent a team to cover the issues for Australia.
“Most of our success on YouTube – in relation to the US election – was for content that was produced here in Australia.”
Sky News Australia’s earnings from its presence on YouTube represent a “relatively small” percentage of the network’s overall revenue, Mr Whittaker said.
“We do well on YouTube simply because we spend tens of millions of dollars producing a television network each year. And we can make incremental revenue on YouTube because we have a huge volume of video, and we can move at speed with that video.
“It’s a lot harder to do that on YouTube if you don’t have a television network.”
Mr Whittaker also sought to puncture the idea that the news channel’s audience is not politically diverse.
“Some people have a perception about our channel, particularly about opinion (content),” he said.
“The truth is that when we actually do the deep-dive survey of our audience across all platforms, we discover that more than 30 per cent of the audience identify as voting progressive – Labor or Greens.”
In coming weeks, Sky News will launch a new smart TV app that will allow subscribers to access the news brand’s streaming service on compatible Apple TV, Samsung and LG devices, or other devices that use the Android TV operating system.
“Most of the feedback we’ve got from our customers with streaming is that they love being able to watch it on their mobile phone and on their iPads but they also want to have the big experience on smart televisions, so we’re delivering on that.”
Later this year, Sky News Australia will shift its operations from its current location in Macquarie Park, in Sydney’s northwest, to News Corp’s Australian headquarters in inner-city Surry Hills.
“There’ll be eight studios at Holt Street and six control rooms. It will be a world-class broadcast multimedia facility and will give us the opportunity to work much more closely with News Corp’s publishing assets, by dint of proximity.”
Sky News Australia is owned by News Corp Australia (publisher of The Australian), and is not part of the proposed sale of Foxtel to UK sports streaming giant DAZN, announced in December.
“We will continue to deliver the trusted live breaking news, sport, weather, expert analysis, and leading opinions that our audiences rely on every day,” Mr Whittaker said.
More Coverage
Journos fail to grasp basic terror truths
Journalists often misunderstand the point of terrorism. Islamist attacks in Western countries are designed to show young Muslims that the West cares more for white victims than it does for Muslim victims in Islamic countries.
Howzat: networks cash in on Indian summer
If the incoming owner of Foxtel and Kayo was concerned about sharing cricket rights with Seven, the results of the Australia vs India Test series show there’s little cause for concern.