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The channel was launched in 1989 as a free-to-air news channel, but its conception was officially announced one year before, in 1988, by Rupert Murdoch himself, the then-owner of Sky Group Limited. The channel’s key goal is to inform viewers about important matters in an unbiased and critical way; the channel was never intended to be for-profit.

Sky News has a pop-up version called Sky News Raw. It shows the behind-the-scenes of news programmes with help of cameras put in presenters’ rooms and in planning rooms as well as on boards of vehicles used for information gathering and livestreaming from the field (the Sky News helicopter included).

Sky News was initially designed to provide a serious competition to BBC and ITN news channels. The channel repeatedly received praises for upholding high reporting standards and it was named Royal Television Society News Channel of the Year 12 times.

In October 2019, the channel launched the temporary channel Sky News Brexit-Free that provided main news coverage without tackling the Brexit topic. The channel was on air from 17.00 to 22.00 daily and its goal was to keep viewers updated on important matters without aggravating their Brexit fatigue.

Sky News once had a partnership with the American CBS News for resource-sharing, including sharing of event footage and reporting. In 2017, when Sky was to be overtaken by 12st Century Fox, CBS ended the agreement and launched a partnership with the BBC.

Sky News is available practically worldwide due to its presence on multiple platforms and carriers and can be watched on cable, satellite, and in hotel TV networks. Internationally, viewers can access Sky News in continental Europe, Middle East, and Africa and watch the original UK programming (except advertisement).

The channel sometimes faces criticism in regard to the assumed breach of unbiased journalism principles and broadcast of opinionated content. However, most of the time Sky News is considered to be balanced and fair in presentation of facts and events and is often named as a first source of information for making opinions on a given matter.

Sky News got its full HD version in 2010, in time to broadcast the results of general elections. This launch coincided with the channel logo refresh and update given to its signature orchestral sound ident, also taking place in 2010.

Several times, Sky News was accused of fabricating news reports on hyped topics for the sake of attracting viewers. One such case was imitating the submarine cruise missile launch in the Iraq war, which actually did not happen on camera. Also, in 2016, a Sky reporter hired a group of Romanians to act like gun smugglers from Eastern Europe for the sake of ‘investigation,’ but the local police disproved the channel’s claims as fake.

Sky News consistently gets recognition for its high-quality information dissemination work. The channel received several BAFTA awards, International Emmy, and won a nomination at the Broadcast Digital Channel Awards.