Sky News slashes freelance budgets as viewing figures slump

Sky News has begun to slash its freelance budgets as bosses look to cut costs amid a decline in viewing figures.

The Telegraph has seen evidence that the broadcaster has reduced its use of freelance workers in roles including producers and guest bookers.

Staff have reported a sharp reduction in the number of shifts available in recent months.

It comes as Sky News tries to reverse a slump in audience numbers as traditional TV viewing continues its decline.

Figures seen by The Telegraphshow Sky’s The News Hour with Mark Austin has pulled in just 47,000 viewers in recent months – less than a third of the 165,000 that tuned into BBC News at Six.

Evening news programme The World with Yalda Hakim, which launched earlier this year, was averaging around 60,000 viewers compared to more than 100,000 at the same time for BBC News. Insiders pointed to a slump in morale among staff as bosses attempted to boost audience numbers while cutting costs.

It comes amid questions over the future of Sky News, which has an annual budget of more than £100m but racks up tens of millions of pounds in losses.

US media giant Comcast guaranteed to maintain the channel’s funding for a decade as part of its $39bn (£30.7bn) takeover, but these commitments are due to run out in 2028.

Comcast has already taken an $8.6bn write-down on its investment in Sky.

Sky is grappling with a broader exodus of viewers from traditional TV to streaming rivals and social media platforms such as TikTok.

It is also contending with the emergence of opinionated broadcasters such as GB News and TalkTV, though both start-ups are also heavily loss-making. Rupert Murdoch pulled TalkTV off air earlier this year after losing at least £90m on the venture.

One source at Sky News said: “It’s clear management are making cuts, despite them pointing out at town halls that they’re not currently under pressure from Comcast to make Sky News profitable.

“The freelancers are very concerned and the industry isn’t thriving at the moment given the demise of TalkTV and the massive losses GB News makes. It’s all very unsettling.”

Speaking in front of MPs earlier this year, Sky News executive chairman David Rhodes played down concerns about the future of the channel, insisting it was a “really critical part of the proposition”.

He added: “We have an ongoing commercial and business plan to properly monetise what we do and spread it into more and more areas of digital, audio and visual presentation, as we have been doing.”

The freelancer cutbacks come amid broader job cuts at Sky, which employs around 27,000 people around the UK.

In January, the company said it will cut roughly 1,000 jobs. Many of these will be focused on the group’s team of engineers as it navigates the shift from its traditional satellite business towards streaming.

A Sky News spokesman said: “Sky News spending is up 10pc on last year.”