New Sky News channel to be rolled out across regional Australia

Sky News Australia is launching a new channel that will allow millions of viewers access to premium content for free.

Sky News Regional will give regional viewers access to a mix of programs featuring some of the station’s prime time hosts, including Peta Credlin, Andrew Bolt (pictured), Alan Jones and Paul Murray. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Free-to-air viewers will be able access a new dedicated Sky News Australia channel under a multi-year broadcast agreement that will deliver news, sport and commentary to many of the nation’s regional locations.

Sky and Southern Cross Austereo have signed a deal that will give viewers a 24/7 news channel, Sky News Regional, across three states and the ACT.

The new channel will broadcast on Channel 56 across 17 of SCA’s regional markets nationally, including the Sunshine Coast, Townsville and Cairns, southern NSW and Canberra, Wollongong, Wagga Wagga, Orange, Ballarat and Bendigo.

Sky News Regional will give regional viewers access to a mix of programs featuring some of the station’s prime time hosts, including Peta Credlin, Andrew Bolt, Alan Jones and Paul Murray.

The channel will go live on August 1 and begin on the same day Sky News Australia starts a revised arrangement with WIN Network.

Sky’s relationship with WIN was due to end on July 31, but the reworked deal will see the new Sky channel appear on the WIN channel 53 in northern NSW, Channel 83 in Griffith, NSW and also in South Australia.

The new deals come after months of upheaval in the regional TV landscape. Nine Entertainment will formally end its relationship with SCA on June 30, with dozens of staff losing their jobs.

Nine is instead reigniting its long-running collaboration with Bruce Gordon’s WIN.

Just last week it was revealed WIN would shed many staff in its regional newsrooms after a decision was made to axe local news bulletins and move to statewide bulletins from July 1.

The new statewide bulletins will be delivered in nearly all of WIN’s regional locations across the nation’s east coast, severely limiting local news coverage for viewers.

The only WIN News locations that will continue to deliver localised content will be Wollongong, Canberra and Tasmania.

Sky News Australia’s chief executive Paul Whittaker said the new agreement would see its strong presence continue to flourish in the regions, making news and sporting content available around the clock for viewers outside of the metropolitan areas.

“We have established a strong and dedicated free-to-air audience in regional Australia and we are pleased that, through this new multi-year agreement with SCA, we can now provide viewers on the SCA network with the opportunity to discover Sky News content through a dedicated channel,” he said.

Mr Whittaker said since the launch of a dedicated free-to-air news channel in 2018, “our news and national affairs programming has reached more than 5.5 million unique regional viewers seeking credible and reliable coverage and analysis”.

Sky News Australia is operated by Australian News Channel and is a subsidiary of News Corp Australia (publisher of The Australian).

SCA’s CEO Grant Blackley said the new deal would ensure regional Australians still had free access to the best news coverage, weather, sport and political commentary every day.

“Our commitment to provide news and entertainment to regional Australia is core to our charter,” he said.

“We are delighted to be able to ensure regional Australians will have access to the high calibre and diverse programming this new partnership with Sky News delivers.”

Sky News Regional will also include a live breakfast program on weekdays and Sky’s full suite of premium Sky News channels will continue to be available on Foxtel.

The re-signing of the deal between Sky and WIN will also allow the News Corp-owned station to be able to spread its coverage even further.