Sky News celebrates 24 years of Breaking News

Behind the scenes in the Sky Newsroom back at the beginning.

Today, technology plays a key part in bringing you the latest news as you can now get all the latest breaking news on your smartphone, tablet, computer and on television at any time over a 24 hour period. It wasn’t always that way though.

Sky News first launched on February 5th 1989 and was part of the four-channel Sky TV service. Back then Sky News provided an hourly news service and also offered news to various radio networks in the UK and Ireland. Sky News was the first 24 hour rolling news service until 1997 when the BBC launched their own 24 hour news channel.

On Sunday, 5th February, 1989 at 6pm Penny Smith – pre-GMTV – and Alastair Yates were the first Sky News Presenters to front the new rolling news service.

Sky News has seen various redesigns and studio relocations but the news has always remained consistent. In 2005 Sky News began introducing dedicated ‘programmes’ to the channel where various anchors would focus on certain topics whether it be business or politics to stray away from the constant breaking news stories. Though, a ticker would continually appear on the bottom of the screen with the latest news.

When high-definition broadcasting was about to break onto the scene Sky News wanted to be part of that so they were on par with everyone else. On the morning of the 30th March 2010Sky News moved to its second studio (Studio B) while the main newsroom received a makeover.

Broadcasting in Studio B continued until 9pm on the 6th of May before the team moved back to the main newsroom and the company launched Sky HD – just in time for the 2010 General Election.