Sky News Australia has revealed its online audience has grown in 2022 and delivered year-on-year growth across all its digital platforms.
For the third consecutive year, Sky News Australia has maintained its position as the number one Australian media brand on YouTube, citing analytics from the video-sharing platform.
Sky News Australia noted that it is one of the country’s largest digital news publishers by becoming the first Australian TV news channel to reach the 3 million subscriber milestone on YouTube.
An average of 30 million unique monthly viewers watch Sky News Australia’s YouTube channel, including 6.6 million Australians, making it one of the world’s largest news channels and Australia’s highest-reaching news brand on the world’s most-visited video-sharing platform.
For the third consecutive year, Sky News Australia claimed it is the most-engaged Australian TV news channel page on Facebook, and the second most-engaging Australian news page overall, reaching 6.4 million Australians each month on the social media platform throughout 2022.
Sky News Australia’s Facebook posts have delivered more audience engagement (likes, comments, and shares) than any other TV news page, based on post engagement data it sourced from Crowdtangle.
SkyNews.com.au has received more than 5.2 million monthly unique visitors worldwide accessing the site, an increase of +125% year-on-year, based on data from Adobe Analytics from January 1 2022 to October 2022.
Sky News Australia has boosted its investment in digital journalism and long-form text offering on SkyNews.com.au, expanding its team of digital journalists, and adding a roster of local and international columnists and newsmakers including Megyn Kelly, Nigel Farage, Douglas Murray and Piers Morgan.
Driving the surge in viewership and readership across all digital platforms, Sky News has covered a broad range of major news events including extensive digital coverage of Queen Elizabeth II’s death, and an exclusive Sky News documentary investigation into the disappearance of MH370 which received more than nine million online views, and is the network’s most viewed program for the year.
Sky News Australia’s high-profile commentators such as Chris Kenny, Peta Credlin, Andrew Bolt, Paul Murray, Rita Panahi and Piers Morgan continue to resonate with online audiences in Australia, and around the world.
Paul Whittaker, chief executive officer, Sky News Australia said: “We have rapidly scaled up our video content offering delivering premium news, opinion, documentaries, and special investigations, to more Australians than ever before, across more digital platforms. In just four years, the Sky News YouTube channel alone has grown from 8,000 to 3 million subscribers.
“Local and international audiences are seeking out, and engaging with, our online news and national affairs offering in record numbers, accessing the latest news and analysis from the Sky News team whenever and wherever they want to watch. Over the next 12 months we are continuing to invest heavily in our digital strategy, further boosting our team of digital journalists and digital-first content initiatives.”
Sky New Australia also claimed its video content has been viewed more than 1.5 billion times across its digital network annually, an increase of +30% year-on-year.
Tim Love, head of digital, Sky News Australia, said: “The huge interest in Sky News Australia’s news and commentary, not just in this country but around the world, has been exciting to watch grow.
“Our SkyNews.com.au team has become the nation’s top group of content creators across video and text reporting and our 2022 results show that the network has become Australia’s most engaging news brand on the internet, and testament to the team’s ability to cover the big issues that resonate with mainstream audiences.
“Planning is underway to invest to grow the network and reach even greater milestones in 2023 and beyond.”
Sky News is Australia’s 24-hour multi-platform news service provider available on Foxtel and free-to-air regional channel Sky News Regional, and available on news streaming service Flash.
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Top image: Paul Whittaker