Breaking News....Breaking News....Breaking News...Breaking News...Breaking News (Sky News)

Member Name: luke1081

Product:	Sky News
Date:	08/01/09 (25 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It isn't BBC or CNN; and doesn't pretend to be

Disadvantages: Breaking News all the time

Let us try and forget the infamous moment when Sky News announced Harold Pinter's death, 2 years early. Sky News is what you make of it. If you want fast, furious, sometimes sensationalist news, with a slice of Americanisation, this is the channel for you. Do not be fooled into thinking this channel isn't owned by News Corp, owners of the awfully slanted and often jingoistic Fox News in the USA.

You know what you're getting with Sky News, which, for the most part, is designed as a dip-in, dip-out 24 hour news service. It is fast-paced and will not always endeavour to check and verify information before hyping it up as a major breaking news story. It is never going to be Panorama or Newsnight, and doesn't ever pretend to be. If you want more detailed, factual information, you know where the BBC or CNN is.

Presenters on Sky News are generally forgettable apart from two notable exceptions - one of which is actually dead. Bob Friend, who recently died, was a warm and delightful addition the team who is sadly missed. Kay Burley is a memorable character because she is so awful. I dislike her screen presence, find her utterly terrible as an interviewer and suggest she really isn't that talented.

Sky News does suffer with a terrible tendancy to bring you breaking news all the time; so much so, that it can be difficult to distinguish between a major disaster and another minor new story (Breaking News: Tile falls off roof in Southend). That is my only gripe; though I fear, Sky are only too aware of this but feel viewers actually tune in for this kind of overhyped sensation. Let us not forget that these rolling news channels get a huge increase in viewers when some something "exciting" is happening.

I also wish there wasn't quite so much "rolling" news, where a cycle of the main headlines is repeated seemingly constantly. I guess this is the beauty of the channel itself, but for me, I would prefer some more debate shows, talk shows and opinion shows - that like of which you may see on Fox News for example (Fox and Friends or Bill O Reily - we need something similar on Sky!).

Summary: A popular channel that will survive a long time