Sky Sports are planning to sack a number of well-known presenters and reporters as part of a major restructuring. The broadcaster informed employees on Tuesday that a round of redundancies are coming to Sky Sports News.
The 24/7 sports news channel is braced for significant changes in an effort from bosses to become ‘more agile’. No names have been mentioned at this stage, with a consultation process set to take place first, but staff were said to be shocked after attending a meeting at Sky’s headquarters.
A Sky Sports News spokesperson told The Daily Mail: “We’ve shared proposals with the Sky Sports News team to change how we’re structured, aimed at making us more agile and better equipped to serve audiences across TV, digital and social. A small number of roles are impacted, and we are now entering a period of consultation with those colleagues.”
Sky Sports are trying to court a younger audience and have been phasing in the use of influencers and online personalities to their coverage. The broadcaster is keen to move with the times and, while they will continue to cover breaking news stories, they are trying to diversify their content in the face of changing viewing habits.
Figures released by Ofcom last year showed that less than half of 16 to 24-year-olds now watch broadcast TV in an average week.
Sky Sports managing director, Jonathan Licht, told the Telegraph last year: “Generationally, there comes a time where the people that have been on screen for long periods and people that we’ve been hugely grateful for their exceptional service, there’s going to be points of natural change.
“What happened last year… I think people were joining lots of dots that didn’t necessarily exist. There were different circumstances.”
Sky Sports have been through a number of changes in recent years, with reporters Bianca Westwood, Guy Havord, Dickie Davis, Greg Whelan, Lynsey Hooper and Jaydee Dyer leaving back in 2023.
They followed changes to Soccer Saturday after presenter Jeff Stelling was replaced by Simon Thomas. Stelling had presented the show since 1994 but was moved on in an effort to modernise Sky’s output.
Sky also decided to axe Soccer AM back in 2023 with presenters Jimmy Bullard and John “Fenners” Fendley losing their jobs. Soccer AM had been on screens since 1995 and attracted a major following when it was hosted by Helen Chamberlain and Tim Lovejoy.
The latest moves are a continuation of the trend which started back in 2020 with the sacking of Phil Thompson, Charlie Nicholas and Matt Le Tissier. Reflecting on his time on Soccer Saturday, Thompson said: “That was the great thing about Sky. They mixed things up. They created new programmes. They pushed the boundaries.”
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