Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Sky News has unveiled plans for a root and branch overhaul of its programming and newsroom aimed at creating a model of premium paid content to safeguard its future from an existential threat to traditional TV.In a speech to staff on Tuesday, David Rhodes, executive chair of the Comcast-backed news broadcaster, laid out a strategy dubbed Sky News 2030 that will reshape its digital-focused service over the next five years to attract new audiences willing to pay for news, according to people familiar with the matter.Rhodes told staff that the business’s revenue streams were “largely stagnant” given a reliance on advertising and sponsorship, the people said, prompting the need for new income streams centred around subject hubs that will offer paid products from podcasts and newsletters to events and live shows.This is expected to include some subscription-based services where premium content is held back for paying customers. While its traditional 24-hour linear TV channel will continue to be important, Rhodes said priorities and resources would be shifted to these premium content tiers.As with most linear channels, Sky News is struggling to arrest a steep decline in traditional TV audiences, putting pressure on revenues as advertising moves online and where viewers increasingly use social media platforms such as YouTube and TikTok. Sky News is also facing a threat from the growth of rival linear broadcasters such as GB News, whose average audience in November exceeded that of Sky News for the first time.The lossmaking broadcaster’s budget is guaranteed by parent Comcast as part of its $39bn takeover of Sky, but these funding commitments end in 2028.Talking to the Financial Times, Rhodes said the broader media industry was seeing “profound disruption”, with linear TV in long-term decline as a generation of consumers who have grown up with digital-first content seek their news online and through social media.This will need a “fundamental rethinking” of the approach taken by Sky News, he added. “Premium is about things that people will pay for. It’s about putting engagement over reach,” he said.Rhodes warned that this would mean spending less time and fewer resources on making “breaking and live” TV news in a reorganisation of the newsroom, and cuts to duplicative processes by using technology such as artificial intelligence.Sky News cut costs last year, including in freelance budgets, but Rhodes said the purpose of the 2030 project was not a cost-cutting exercise. “It’s just not. It’s about being fit for the future. And I think there is a long future.”Instead, Rhodes wants staff to focus on “premium” content such as podcasts that can be accessed early by paying subscribers. He pointed to growing influence, and monetisation, of the “podosphere” — podcast and video formats that appeal directly to certain audiences. He estimates that about 30 per cent of Sky News is currently premium journalism, rather than live and breaking TV, which he wants to increase to 70 per cent by 2030.“Linear TV audiences and linear monetisation are in a structural decline. We are not the first to recognise that premium experiences, where engaged audiences are willing to pay, are where we need to be,” he said.“Some of [new revenues] are ad based. Some of them won’t be. Some of them could be conducive to subscription. We need to add to our revenue mix.”He pointed to areas where Sky News has already started this work, citing the example of the Sky News politics hub, which brings together a newsgathering operation, digital product, politics show and two podcasts.“We wanted to go to colleagues and say 2030 is how we set ourselves up to succeed. We have challenges. Many of those are just the challenges that are familiar with anybody working in news media today.”
