Sky News Australia expands in Victoria with new Melbourne studios
Sky News Australia is expanding its operation and has launched its new Melbourne studios.
Sky News Australia has bolstered its news presence in one of the nation’s key media markets by creating a new and expanded bureau in Melbourne.
Victoria is home to two prime time shows — Bolt hosted by Andrew Bolt and Credlin hosted by Peta Credlin — as well as flagship show The Friday Showdown, co-hosted by Rita Panahi and Nicholas Reece.
The launch of the new TV studio, inside the Herald and Weekly Times building in Melbourne’s Southbank, has reinforced the station’s commitment to providing Victorians and national viewers with live breaking news and robust opinions by some of Australia’s best commentators.
Sky News Australia’s chief executive Paul Whittaker said the investment in quality journalism would ensure the delivery of even richer content for viewers.
“The launch of our new Melbourne studio occurs at a time when Sky News continues to see record viewership, with Melbourne now being our leading market,” he said.
“Bringing Sky News Australia into the Herald and Weekly Times building with its rich journalistic pedigree reinforces our continued commitment to quality journalism and further integrates our businesses, talent and teams as we celebrate our 25th year on air.
“We are committed to ensuring our Victorian news and opinion offering continues to be unrivalled for our viewers.”
Sky News host Peta Credlin said the bolstering of Sky in Melbourne would help amplify its importance as a news-breaking operation, together with opinions from some of the nation’s top commentators.
“To have two of the four evening prime-time programs come out of Melbourne is a real change in focus for Sky and it’s paying dividends,” she said. “While of course my program has a national focus, I always felt like Victoria was under-served in news and current affairs and that in part explains why some truly bad governments survive at state level.
She also said it was “overdue to have a studio in Melbourne”.
Sky News Australia has delivered record ratings in the past year and its digital engagement has soared.
The channel has increased viewership by 26 per cent year on year, and viewership in Melbourne alone is up by 54 per cent over the same period.
In 2020, Sky News rated as the number one channel on Foxtel.
It has also attracted more than 1.3 million YouTube subscribers and is the most-viewed Australian news brand on the platform.
The Friday Showdown and Outsiders co-host and Herald Sun columnist Rita Panahi said Sky News was continuing to draw in growing audiences.
“Sky News is growing strongly, the audience is more engaged than ever, the content is better than ever and the work is more important than ever given the state of the media,” she said.
“The investment in Melbourne shows Sky News isn’t Sydneycentric.”
The launch of the new studio is part of significant investment in Sky News bureaus across Australia and internationally and comes after the establishment of a premium studio at Parliament House in Canberra and the appointment of the station’s first Washington correspondent, Annelise Nielsen.
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