I suppose it isn’t untrue to say Sky News has resurrected its Technofile strand – a programme which yours truly graced on regular occasions between 1998 and 1999. But at just four minutes long, it hardly qualifies as ‘web TV’: that’s equivalent to a couple of packages, or a single high-profile interviewee. I must admit, I expected more – although it’s great to see Martin Stanford back doing what he enjoys most.
Meanwhile, the channel’s website has restored its Technology channel, populated principally by content sourced from Pocket-Lint (the previous day, in most cases). I’m still not convinced that Sky can or should support multiple news channels like this: for me, it’s much more sensible to focus on what you do best – in Sky’s case, speed over depth. They can’t match the BBC’s resources, so they shouldn’t try to match the BBC’s method. I’ve seen them try countless syndicated content deals over the years, and few have had any real impact or longevity.
Response
[…] Simon Dickson is reporting on his excellent media industry blog that Sky News is undergoing a much needed makeover when it comes to its tech coverage. The Sky News website has resurrected its Technology channel but this will mostly consist of content sourced from the guys over at Pocket-Lint. Sky News has also restarted regular broadcasts of its Technofile programme, presented by Martin Stanford, with shows archived and available to watch online. As Simon points out Sky’s coverage of tech doesn’t come close to the BBC’s but this revamp deserves our encouragement. You can’t have too many outlets for tech news coverage to a mainstream national audience can you! No Comments so far Leave a comment RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI Leave a comment Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong> […]