Murdoch-owned pay TV channel will air to potential audience of eight million on Win TV network

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Sky News shows hosted by commentators such as Andrew Bolt and Chris Kenny, as well as the network’s more traditional daytime news programming, will be broadcast to a wider free-to-air audience across Australia from next month.

In an historic deal with regional broadcaster Win, Sky News on Win is launching in 30 markets to a potential audience of eight million across Win’s regional network throughout Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia, and state-wide across Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory.

The first commercial free-to-air 24-hour channel will also be competition to the ABC’s 24-hour news channel, ABC News, which currently has a far higher reach than Sky News on Foxtel, which is only available in 30% of households.

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Regional audiences will be able to see news programs hosted by respected journalists like David Speers and Laura Jayes during the day and conservative opinion from Sky presenters Bolt, Kenny, Paul Murray, Alan Jones, Peta Credlin and Rowan Dean and Ross Cameron at night.

The expansion of the Murdoch news brand into the free-to-air market comes at a sensitive time for Sky, which has been in the headlines for hosting offensive content and airing the views of far-right extremists such as Canadian YouTube celebrity Lauren Southern and Australian United Patriots Front leader Blair Cottrell. Southern appeared several times on Sky during a recent visit to Australia, including on Bolt and Kenny’s programs.

Dean and Cameron recently had to apologise for broadcasting offensive remarks by senator David Leyonhjelm about Sarah Hanson-Young on their Outsiders program.



Sky’s Sunday night program hosted by the former Northern Territory chief minister Adam Giles, who invited Cottrell for a one-on-one discussion about immigration, will also be available on Sky News on Win.

Giles is yet to comment publicly on why he made the decision to invite Cottrell on his show and who in management knew about it. Sky said management was investigating the circumstances around which Cottrell appeared on the channel.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Far-right extremist Blair Cottrell with former Northern Territory chief minister Adam Giles. Photograph: Facebook/ Blair Cottrell

Last year the former Labor leader Mark Latham was sacked by Sky as a panellist on the Outsiders program after a series of controversial remarks, but he has recently begun to appear as a guest on the channel again.

At the time of Latham’s sacking, the chief executive and managing editor of Sky, Angelos Frangopoulos, said while the channel welcomed “strong opinions” it prided itself on offering them in a “civil and respectful manner”.



The outgoing Frangopoulos, who has been promoted to an international role as the head of Sky News Arabia, said Sky News on Win was an opportunity to share the depth and breadth of content available on the Sky News channels.

“We are excited to announce our program lineup for Sky News on Win including the launch of Headline News which will provide viewers with a snapshot of the news they need to know for the day ahead, featuring for the first time in a breakfast show, content from across regional Australia thanks to the resources of Win News,” Frangopoulos said.

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Recent ratings figures released by Sky suggest the channel reaches one million Australians a week but those are very generous numbers as they count every person who tuned in for at least one minute. The actual number of people watching Bolt on any individual weeknight is 31,000 and Murray is 36,000.

Andrew Lancaster, chief executive of the Win Network, said: “Headline News will be simulcast on Win’s main channel as well as Sky News on Win which will provide our viewers with a live breakfast news program with a focus on regional issues.”



Warren Mundine will host a second season of Mundine Means Business featuring the success and entrepreneurship of Australia’s Indigenous communities.



Win, which is the only TV network in regional Australia producing 16 dedicated half-hour local news bulletins each weekday, will share its local news with Sky in return.