Broadcast area | United Kingdom |
---|---|
Frequency | Lyngsat Home Page |
Branding | Sky News Radio |
Programming | |
Language(s) | English |
Format | News |
History | |
First air date | June 1999 |
Links | |
Website | news.sky.com/info/radio |
Sky News Radio is the radio arm of Sky News, owned by Sky UK. It has been operating since June 1999, providing a news bulletin service for UK commercial radio stations operators across the UK and for a number of English-speaking radio stations around the world.
Sky News Radio is also responsible for producing a number of podcasts, including the Sky News Daily, which is regularly hosted by Nial Patterson and Ian King live.
Sky News Radio also produce a news service for smart speakers including Amazon Alexa.
Sky News Radio launched in June 1999 originally providing bespoke bulletins for Talk Radio UK. The service subsequently expanded in October 2001 to provide hourly news bulletins, audio and scripts for clients including UTV Radio, GMG Radio, Global Radio and DNN. [1]
The radio newsroom operated from Sky News' studios at Osterley, London. Adverts following peak-time news bulletins were sold via UBC Media and reached more than eighty radio stations.
On 15 October 2008, Independent Radio News (IRN) announced it was switching its main supplier of news from ITN to Sky News Radio, expanding its customer client list by more than 280 stations and giving it a near-monopoly in UK commercial radio news provision.
The new IRN service from Sky News Radio began at 14:00 on Tuesday 3 March 2009, with the first bulletin read by Ursula Hansford and simulcast on the Sky News television channel. Bulletin duration was reduced from three minutes to two minutes, and the previous IRN 90 overnight and weekend bulletin service was dropped. [2]
Audio cuts are distributed to stations via FTP from the IRN website. Stations can also source their own audio cuts from Sky News and Sky Sports News television. The solus Newslink advertising spots are managed by Global Radio.
IRN operates two audio channels on the Eutelsat 9B satellite: IRN1 transmits the hourly news bulletins and live sports reports. IRN2 transmits press conferences and live events.
IRN1 is also broadcast on an audio channel on the Astra 2B satellite.
In the event of a major news story (e.g., royal death or major terrorist incident), audio from Sky News television will be relayed on IRN1 and IRN2 with additional one-minute bulletins on the half-hour.
IRN supplies match reports from every Premier League match, with reporters supplied by sports radio agency World Sports Communications. A classified football results check is broadcast every Saturday at 17:10.
Many community, student and hospital radio stations around the UK take the hourly bulletin service. Copy and audio cuts are also used by BFBS Radio, in addition to radio stations in the Republic of Ireland, Spain, Cyprus, UAE, South Africa and Australia.
In 2001, BSkyB proposed to become a partner in DAB news station DNN. This deal fell through, although Sky News Radio did become the main national news supplier to DNN. The station closed in July 2006 and was replaced on the MXR multiplexes by London speech station LBC.
In March 2007, BSkyB and Chrysalis Radio announced a new joint partnership to launch a dedicated Sky News Radio station on the proposed bid by Channel 4's 4 Digital Group for the second UK DAB multiplex. [3] Chrysalis's existing London rolling news station, LBC News 1152, was to be re-branded "Sky News Radio for London". A large amount of programming was planned to be shared with the national DAB service. [4] However, following the sale of Chrysalis Radio's stations to Global Radio, [5] chief executive Ashley Tabor announced in October 2007 that the contract was "not commercially attractive" and they would not be continuing with the proposals. [6] [7]
LBC is a British phone-in and talk radio station owned and operated by Global and based in its headquarters in London. It was the UK's first licensed commercial radio station, and began to broadcast on Monday 8 October 1973, a week ahead of Capital Radio.
Independent Radio News provides a service of news bulletins, audio and copy to commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom and beyond. The managing director, Tim Molloy, succeeded long-term MD John Perkins in November 2009. Perkins had been MD of IRN since 1989. IRN's shareholders are Global (54.6%), Bauer Radio (22.3%), ITN (19.7%) and The Wireless Group (3.4%).
LBC News is a rolling news radio station based in the United Kingdom. It broadcasts in Greater London on AM and UK wide on DAB and online.
Heart West Midlands is a regional radio station owned and operated by Global as part of the Heart network. It broadcasts to the West Midlands from studios in Birmingham.
Heart London is a regional radio station owned and operated by Global Radio as part of the Heart network. It broadcasts a hot adult contemporary radio format. Across London and its neighbouring counties, it can be heard on 106.2 MHz.
GMG Radio was a company that owned the Real Radio and Smooth Radio networks. As GMG Radio, the company was the radio division of the Guardian Media Group until it was bought in 2012 by Global Radio, however pending regulatory review of the merger the company was renamed Real and Smooth Limited and operated as a separate entity, until May 2014.
Digital One is a national commercial digital radio multiplex in the United Kingdom, owned by Arqiva. As of March 2010, the multiplex covered more than 90% of the population from 137 transmitters. Coverage was extended to Northern Ireland in July 2013. It contains a list of DAB and DAB+ radio stations operated by Bauer Media Audio UK, Global and Wireless Group.
Smooth Chill is a British digital radio station dedicated to chill out, ambient and trip hop music. On 3 September 2019, Chill was rebranded as Smooth Chill to align it with the Smooth Radio brand. It is owned and operated by Global.
MXR West Midlands was a regional commercial digital radio multiplex in the United Kingdom, which served the West Midlands. The multiplex closed on 27 August 2013 after the shareholders Global Radio & Arqiva decided not to renew the licence. The Bromsgrove transmitter frequency block transferred over to MuxCo Herefordshire and Worcestershire in September 2013.
Easy Radio is an Independent Local Radio station that broadcasts to the Swansea Bay area. It is owned and operated by Nation Broadcasting and broadcasts on 102.1 FM and DAB from studios near the St Hilary transmitter in the Vale of Glamorgan.
Galaxy Digital was a radio station broadcasting through the digital platform across the United Kingdom and was owned by Global Radio. It primarily broadcast in areas where Galaxy was not represented on FM, such as London, Leicester, Nottingham, and Derbyshire. It also formerly broadcast in Central Scotland, until the relaunch of Xfm Scotland as Galaxy Scotland, at which point Galaxy Digital on DAB was replaced with a relay of Xfm London.
The Arrow was a British digital radio station playing classic and contemporary rock music. It broadcast on DAB Digital Radio and was also streamed over digital satellite TV and online. The station was operated by Global; prior to Global's formation it was owned by their predecessor Chrysalis Radio.
DNN was a rolling news service on Digital Radio in the United Kingdom.
4 Digital Group was a media consortium in the United Kingdom. In July 2007, the group won the licence to operate the second national DAB radio multiplex. The consortium, led by Channel 4 Radio, was a combination of existing commercial radio operators and brands new to radio. The group aimed to boost the up-take of digital radio in the United Kingdom in a similar manner to the growth of digital television since the introduction of Freeview. Their strategy for this was the introduction of ten new national stations, including speech and music services, and advertising for the format.
In the United Kingdom, the roll-out of digital radio has been proceeding since engineering test transmissions were started by the BBC in 1990 followed by a public launch in September 1995. The UK currently has one of the world's biggest digital radio networks, with about 500 transmitters, three national DAB ensembles, one regional DAB ensemble, 48 local DAB ensembles and an increasing number of small-scale DAB ensembles broadcasting over 250 commercial and 34 BBC radio stations across the UK. In London there are already more than 100 different digital stations available. In addition to DAB and DAB+, radio stations are also broadcast on digital television platform as well as internet radio in the UK. Digital radio ensemble operators and stations need a broadcasting licence from the UK's media regulator Ofcom to broadcast.
Global Media & Entertainment Limited, trading as Global, is a British media company formed in 2007. It is the owner of the largest commercial radio company in Europe having expanded through a number of historical acquisitions, including Chrysalis Radio, GCap Media and GMG Radio. Global owns and operates seven core radio brands, all employing a national network strategy, including Capital, Heart, Gold, Classic FM, Smooth and LBC.
Capital Life, also known as Life, was a digital radio station broadcasting across the UK on the Digital One network and streamed online. Capital Life was due to be available on DTV but never launched due to the closure of the station.
Capital Yorkshire is a regional radio station owned by Global as part of the Capital network. It broadcasts to South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, North Yorkshire, the East Riding of Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire from studios in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.
A timeline of notable events relating to Global Radio, a British media company founded in 2007.
This is a list of notable events in the timeline of digital audio broadcasting in the UK.