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News Corp buys SKY News

"An exciting new chapter." Long-rumoured takeover is now a reality.

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The long-rumoured takeover of SKY News by News Corp is now a reality with The Australian reporting
a formal takeover of parent company Australian News Channel.

The deal for the company, which has one third ownership by Seven West Media, Nine Entertainment Company and SKY (UK), is rumoured to be worth $20 million.

News Corp will take control of channels SKY News Live, SKY News Business, SKY News Weather, SKY News Multiview, Australia’s Public Affairs Channel A-PAC, SKY News New Zealand and Australia Channel.

News Corp executive chairman Michael Miller told staff in an email today, “This is a significant investment that reinforces News Corp Australia’s continued commitment to quality journalism, talent and content.

“I’m excited by the prospects offered by this acquisition and to lead a company that is investing in the best news coverage for all Australians.

“This acquisition has come about because News Corp Australia recognises the increasing value of SKY News; its employees, the shows they host and the audience it attracts.

“Together, we will ensure the strengths and benefits of each company are leveraged fully in the long term.”

Australian News Channel chief executive officer Angelos Frangopoulos described it as a “tremendous opportunity to grow and develop talent, content and commercial revenues”.

“Today marks an exciting new chapter in the 20-year history of Australian News Channel,” he said.

“We are now within a global business forged by quality journalism and I can’t think of a better partner to invest and grow SKY News. The industry is rapidly changing and today’s announcement goes beyond securing the future of this company — it means it will be playing a significant role.”

The move means significant video resources for News Corp online. Content from Nine, Seven and SKY will continue to be supplied.

Foxtel’s carriage agreement with SKY currently ends in February 2017.

24 Responses

  1. No such thing called Quality journalism at News Corp anymore. That’s why News Corp hires Opionist these days rather than Journalist. Journalists deals with Facts, Opionist don’t deal with facts, instead they offer their own Bias Opions.

    News Corp is bad news for any democratic Country.

    1. I think David Speers (photo above) would not agree with you, Newscorp papers and other news commentary outlets got a lot of value from his SKY News interview with Mr Turnbull, I don’t think he’s on the LNPs Christmas card list.

  3. Cheap nasty trashy outdated dinosaur of right wing biased garbage of the most extreme kind with every on air presenter only qualification is to have been or currently is a member of the liberal party .thats what sky news was and is .poor mans version of Fox News in Amercia ,with the same biased views .and they have the gualle to attack the ABC for being based .

      1. Even Fox News have the token lefties on the station and like Sky News the other 98% are Libs /Democrats and fully biased. Now Sky News will be 100% biased, even Mark Latham has converted to keep his job

          1. I think Latham was always Beasley & Crean’s way of reminding the party “you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone”…

    2. @Tim Tam I can use your response to describe the ABC…

      Cheap nasty trashy outdated dinosaur of left wing biased garbage of the most extreme kind with every on air presenter only qualification is to hate Andrew Bolt, the Liberals/Nationals and anyone that dares to challenge their so-called experts. Q&A is just a hour for left wing bigots to whinge about everything that is bad about this country. That is what ABC was and still is.. A left biased publicly funded network which does not reflect the views of the majority of Australians.

      1. Funny how it’s only the right wing extremists who think the ABC is biased ,I never hear any one else say it’s biased . I guess if your fair minded and have a balanced view of life you know the ABC is not biased.it won’t be long before Turncoat and Morrison turn it into our state broadcaster

      1. The dream has already been realised once before, featuring a man famous for “keeping the dream alive.” But it was short lived and had very little Australian content.

    1. My thoughts exactly. If it happens, don’t think 7 or 9 would allow vision they will continue to supply to Sky News to be broadcast on a TEN multi-channel? More so as TEN don’t pay for any News Chopper vision that 7 and 9 now share the costs in.

      1. Nine and Seven would no doubt get upset, but that would have nothing to do with the channel having a number starting with 1 (in metro areas).

        It remains to be seen how much longer Nine and Seven choose to supply footage and programs. Both produce so many news programs now that each wouldn’t find it difficult to launch their own channel on every platform but Foxtel.

        If the Australian ad-supported FTA market fails, the main value that Nine and Seven have left is as trusted sources of news.

  11. Sky News does need a bit of a revamp as it’s starting to look a bit politically biased and tired, as a news and current affairs show the changes made before the Federal Election have not done much for content, Sky just appeared to add a few more shock jocks to the opinion roster. It’s time to return A-PAC to its former full screen version and tidy up Sky News multi-view so all shown available content there can be seen in full screen as well.

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