Source : THE AGE NEWS
Sky News Australia’s future in regional Australia is up in the air and in the hands of Network 10 after it snapped up all the licences for beaming the News Corp-owned network on free-to-air television to almost seven million homes.
Network 10, owned by Paramount Global, picked up the television licences from regional broadcasters Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) and WIN over the past six months.
Sky News presenters Andrew Bolt, Paul Murray, and Peta Credlin.Credit: Monique Westermann
Sky News’ supply agreements with WIN and SCA – now inherited by Network 10 – are due to expire at the end of June. Should the network opt out of the deals and choose to air proprietary content such as children’s network Nickelodeon, Sky would be left without a signal into regional homes in Australia’s three most-populous states.
Sky News Regional broadcasts in the majority of populated markets on Australia’s east coast, not including the metro hubs of Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. This includes the Gold Coast, Canberra, Wagga Wagga, Ballarat, Bendigo, Port Macquarie, Orange, Wollongong, Cairns, Townsville and more.
The regional population of these three states combined amounts to 7.2 million people. Sky went dark in South Australia in 2024 after WIN discontinued part of its deal with the network.
Sky “After Dark” stars Paul Murray and Peta Credlin.Credit: James Brickwood
Initially broadcasting into some markets via WIN in 2018, Sky launched its dedicated Regional channel in 2021, extending its deal with WIN and expanding onto many SCA markets.
The decision on whether to extend Sky will be a commercial one and will consider advertising revenue and the amount Sky pays the network for the spectrum to air its programming. A clash in corporate values will also be a consideration but is unlikely to be a deciding factor.
Negotiations between Sky and Ten are ongoing. Ten and Sky declined to comment on the status of the commercial agreement.
It’s common for regional broadcasters to have affiliate deals with larger broadcasters that produce and air more expensive content such as Married at First Sight or MasterChef, often in return for a share of advertising revenue.
Many of the licences once owned by standalone regional broadcasters have been acquired by larger broadcasters, such as Seven and Ten, to create national networks as advertising revenue for broadcast television declines.
Regional broadcasters have affiliate deals with larger broadcasters that produce and air more expensive content such as Married at First Sight.Credit: Nine
Advertising revenue is often underrepresented in regional areas compared with metropolitan markets on a per-capita basis, and of that, even less is served to multi-channels with comparatively small viewership.
In the northern NSW market previously operated by WIN, annual ad revenue for Sky was about $500,000 and about $2 million in the markets previously owned by SCA, three people with knowledge of the financial arrangements, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.
Since moving into News Corp ownership in 2016, little insight had been offered into Sky’s full finances until earlier this year, when it revealed revenue of $27 million for the second quarter of the 2025 fiscal year, which would equate to about $108 million across the year.
Sky’s nightly audience is now also largely unknown, with Foxtel withdrawing from ratings agency OzTam’s reports last year. However, analysis of its four main “After Dark” programs across a week in December shows a marginal audience in regional Australia. Paul Murray Live was the most popular “After Dark” show, with an average audience of 20,000, followed by Credlin with 18,000, Sharri with 17,000 and The Bolt Report with 16,000, according to figures from OzTam.
Its leaders’ debate in April reached more than 210,000 unique regional free-to-air viewers, its highest-ever rated regional program, Sky said. It extended its carriage deal with Foxtel as part the recent sale to DAZN, a spokesperson confirmed on Wednesday, but pay-TV customers have been in terminal decline for some time as viewing habits change.
The spokesperson said that unlike many other channels, it was “defying linear TV trends and continues to grow its audience year-on-year”.
News Corp last published Foxtel’s subscriber figures in November, which counted 1.19 million residential customers as of September 30, 2024, and judging by historical cancellation trends, this figure is likely to dip below one million by the end of the year.
With most of Sky’s audience on YouTube, the network has launched a standalone streaming platform and Foxtel has also added Sky to its entertainment streaming service, Binge.
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