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Sky News’ morning got off to a bit of a rough start after the station found itself unable to broadcast.
On Friday, viewers who would usually tune into the news channel for their morning updates were initially greeted with archive footage, followed by a mysterious message, which read: “We apologise for the interruption to this broadcast. We hope to restore the transmission of Sky News shortly.”
Sky News currently playing whalesong, seemingly because of a globally bodged external software update affecting a lot of companies.
— Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) July 19, 2024
Where’s my @SkyNews this morning?
— Carol Vorderman (@carolvorders) July 19, 2024
Big uh-oh for Sky News now… 👀 pic.twitter.com/Qpu7R20xsf
— Matthew Joyce (@ItsMatthewJoyce) July 19, 2024
Wow @SkyNews not on air this morning due to tech issues 😳 #SkyNewspic.twitter.com/zWoqvdnx4d
— Mike Thomas (@mikeacthomas) July 19, 2024
@SkyNews has something happened to the online transmission as I can’t watch sky news via apple tv / iPad or iPhone. It says interruption in broadcast?
— Marianne Hills (@mazzamossa) July 19, 2024
Sky News is down and isn't broadcasting live at the moment. pic.twitter.com/VwwguAFPPA
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) July 19, 2024
Looks like Sky News is off as well as a lot of Microsoft stuff 🤔 pic.twitter.com/KJyqxMnMyw
— Duncan Newell (@Duncan_Newell) July 19, 2024
Missing my Sky News fix this morning. 😒
— Neil (@NeilIMcKechnie) July 19, 2024
During the outage, Sky News Group’s executive chairman wrote on X that the team was “working hard to restore all services”, while sports anchor Jacquie Beltrao said: “We’re obviously not on air.”
“We’re trying,” she added, alongside a crossed fingers emoji.
Sky News presenter Gareth Barlow also commented on the debacle, putting the issue down to “tech issues that don’t seem limited to just Sky News”.
“IT and production teams are working on a solution. See you, soon?!” he said.
.@SkyNews have not been able to broadcast live TV this morning, currently telling viewers that we apologise for the interruption. Much of our news report is still available online, and we are working hard to restore all services.
— David Rhodes (@davidgrayrhodes) July 19, 2024
We’re obviously not on air – we’re trying 🤞@SkyNews Breakfast pic.twitter.com/ZKvVacRgUY
— Jacquie Beltrao (@SkyJacquie) July 19, 2024
As you might have noticed, we're not on air at the moment – tech issues that don't seem limited to just @SkyNews. IT and production teams are working on a solution. See you, soon?!
— Gareth Barlow (@GarethBarlow) July 19, 2024
Sky News’ broadcasting woes were linked with a mass technology outage that has affected Windows computers, impacting airports, banks and other services around the world, and presenting users with the so-called “blue screen of death”.
According to several reports, the issues were the result of a flawed update to the anti-virus software Crowdstrike.
The outage has caused numerous airlines to ground their flights on Friday morning, with BBC News reporting supermarkets experiencing “checkout chaos”, with the London Stock Exchange also reportedly affected.
Something super weird happening right now: just been called by several totally different media outlets in the last few minutes, all with Windows machines suddenly BSoD’ing (Blue Screen of Death). Anyone else seen this? Seems to be entering recovery mode: pic.twitter.com/DxdLyA9BLA
— Troy Hunt (@troyhunt) July 19, 2024
The issue is worldwide: https://t.co/zeym1Pq5ZX
— Troy Hunt (@troyhunt) July 19, 2024
Good morning. Stay in bed today. Early reports suggest Crowdstrike Falcon – a computer threat checker used by lots (and lots and lots) of businesses pushed out an update that might have broken a lot of computers. Airlines, businesses etc affected https://t.co/amhNIqe1Ss
— Chris Stokel-Walker (@stokel) July 19, 2024
You might expect to find out about this on TV news channels like Sky News. Except… they are also affected and are currently not broadcasting live https://t.co/UJGtHJXUgH
— Chris Stokel-Walker (@stokel) July 19, 2024
Crowdstrike said that it was “aware of reports of crashes on Windows related to the Falcon Sensor”, as reported by The Telegraph.
After around two hours, Sky News eventually returned to broadcasting, albeit not from the show’s usual studio.
Broadcaster Anna Jones began by telling viewers: “A major global IT outage is affecting many of the world’s largest companies, including us here at Sky News.”
Sky News eventually returned to broadcasting after around two hoursShe continued: “The system failure is believed to be caused by a flawed anti-virus update, although nothing has as yet been confirmed. Major broadcasters, banks and IT companies are affected, as well as airports, with some flights having been grounded.”
HuffPost UK has contacted Sky News for comment on the outage.
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