In a ranking of the biggest global news publishers on YouTube, Sky News Australia is the second fastest-growing. It is ranked at #25 in terms of most subscribers but is threatening to climb much higher. That makes it the #1 news publisher on YouTube in Australia, well ahead of the #2 ranked Australian publisher, ABC News.
Press Gazette ranks Sky News as second fastest-growing YouTube news publisher
Sky News outranks a number of global players including The Guardian, Daily Mail, The Washington Post and CBS Evening News.
The Press Gazette ranking sees Sky News Australia with 3.68m YouTube subscribers.
The only other Australian entrants in that Top 50 are ABC News Australia with 1.9m subscribers and 9News Australia with 1.31m subscribers.
With regard to an average number of views per video, 9News is just ahead of Sky News, with both just over 30,000 per uploaded news clip.
Details of Sky News Australia domestic platform growth Mediaweek published in September 2023
Sky News Australia flying in YOY growth
When it comes to analysing the growth of YouTube views year-on-year (YOY), Sky News really takes off.
Press Gazette ranks it #2 behind only USA Today. The comparison counts cumulative views as at June 2022 (2bn for Sky News Australia) and the number in October 2023 (3.8bn) which equals YOY growth of 89%.
ABC News Australia has YOY growth of 29%.
When it comes to growth of subscribers YOY, Sky News Australia is ranked #5 globally with 44%, up to 3.68m. ABC News Australia has 15%, growing to 1.9m.
Just last month, Mediaweek reported on Sky News domestic audience growth of 21.5% over the last 24 months, with 11.1 million Australians now engaging with the brand each month.
Paul Whittaker, chief executive officer Sky News Australia, said: “It’s been two years since we last undertook this study, and in that time we have expanded our content reach onto more platforms including news streaming service Flash, Sky News Radio on the Nova Player, Sky News Now on Samsung TV Plus, and the relaunched Sky News Australia App – all playing a contributing role in amplifying our reach and diversifying our viewer audience profile.”
With 3.68m subscribers, Press Gazette ranks Sky News Australia at #25 in Top 50 YouTube news publishers
Sky News Australia: Volume and exclusive content
The digital team at Sky News manage an impressive production line. Just yesterday there were over 100 different news clips published. Across each week the volume is enhanced by exclusive content including content by contributors to the Paul Murray show including US commentator Megyn Kelly and UK former politician-turned-broadcaster Nigel Farage.
The second most-watched Sky News Australia video on YouTube is Sharri Markson’s Sky News Documentary What Really Happened in Wuhan.
Over 13m views on YouTube for this Sky News Documentary.
Top: Paul Murray and Megyn Kelly
GB News milestone on YouTube
Press Gazette also reported on the impressive growth at GB News, where former Sky News Australia CEO Angelos Frangopoulos, now GB News CEO, has been facing a number of hurdles as he manages the audience growth.
GB News passed one million subscribers in September and hit one billion views earlier this month.
GB News chief digital officer Geoff Marsh told Press Gazette: “This is astounding growth at record speed and proves GB News is cutting through to the people of the UK – the numbers don’t lie.”
GB News, which launched on TV in June 2021 while its YouTube channel was created four months earlier, claimed in a statement that the figures meant it has become “officially the fastest-growing British news provider ever” on YouTube.