In the third of four blogs, featuring the speakers at our Big Talk 2025, we’ll be hearing insights from Jonathan Levy, the Managing Director and Executive Editor of Sky News. Our other three blogs feature Richard Burgess, Director of News Content at the BBC; Andrew Dagnell, Director of News and Current Affairs at ITV; and Debbie Ramsay, Editor of Channel 5. Our Big Talk posed the question: Is television news dead?
Jonathan Levy was promoted to Managing Director and Executive Editor of Sky News UK in 2023, with the primary responsibility for journalism on all UK platforms including digital, TV, and audio. Jonathan has been at Sky News for over 20 years, starting as an Output Producer.
He then progressed to Head of Politics where he was responsible for all political coverage. During this tenure he successfully co-ordinated Sky News’ RTS award-winning campaign for the first UK Prime Ministerial debates which took place in 2010.
In fact, an executive’s worst nightmare is to oversee a Kodak or Blockbuster video moment – where everything seems fine and, suddenly, it is not.
While television news is clearly not dead, it is worth exploring whether it is indeed dying. This question can be approached in a technological and a cultural way.
From the technological point of view, there is no doubt that fewer people are watching TV than before. In the case of Sky News, Jonathan explaines that their share of viewing has been going up, but their reach has declined.
The impact of technology
People are consuming news online across different platforms. Additionally, from a production point of view, the technological barriers to make news are lower – a phone is all is needed these days.
Jonathan went on to say that, in a technological sense, Sky News is shifting the way in which it’s thinking about news – less in terms of TV and more in terms of video storytelling.
The cultural aspect is more challenging, though. Jonathan alluded to the fact that the figure of the news anchor is not as authoritative and trustworthy as it once was.
This is accompanied by the proliferation of other platforms and creators, with podcasts being a good example. In fact, we’re seeing political parties coming up with podcast strategies, with politicians open to appear in this medium as well as on TV and radio.
What about the future?
There is a clear challenge in the way of delivering news and the fact that consumption is moving to different places.
Broadcasters have to stop thinking about TV and start thinking about video instead, considering the ways in which audiences want to get their news and the ways in which politicians and other influential people want to reach audiences.
However, Jonathan concluded, TV is certainly not dead.
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