Sky is exiting its TV news joint venture with the United Arab Emirates, Sky News Arabia, which has been criticised for its coverage of the war in Sudan, with accusations of genocide denial.
Sky and its partner IMI – the investment vehicle controlled by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the vice-president of the UAE and owner of Manchester City – have announced a new commercial deal in which the UK-based broadcaster will relinquish all strategic and operational ownership of the 24-hour Arabic language news and current affairs service.
However, Sky UK has struck a multi-year brand licensing deal that will allow Sky News Arabia to retain its name.
The Abu Dhabi-based free-to-air channel was created in 2010 as a rival to Arabic-language TV news channels including Al Jazeera and the BBC World Service’s News Arabic.
The joint venture began broadcasting across the Middle East and north Africa in 2012.
“We are proud of what has been built through our partnership with IMI over the years and the significant presence built throughout the region,” said David Rhodes, the executive chair of Sky News Group. “The time is right for this change and we look forward to continuing our relationship in the next phase of Sky News Arabia.”
Internally, Sky executives have become increasingly concerned about the editorial position Sky News Arabia has taken on news in the region. Coverage of the atrocities carried out in Sudan by the UAE-backed paramilitary group, Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has been accused of whitewashing genocide.
In November, the government of Sudan banned Sky News Arabia from operating inside its territory after the satellite channel sent a crew to El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, which produced a report claiming the security and humanitarian situation had stabilised.
The reporter sent by Sky News Arabia is married to a senior official in the RSF’s parallel government.
The channel has subsequently filed news reports and online articles suggesting there was no evidence on the ground supporting satellite imagery and testimony from survivors of the atrocities.
In February, a UN-mandated fact-finding mission concluded that the siege, capture and 18-month occupation of the city by the RSF and allied militias deliberately targeted the destruction of ethnic minority communities with the “hallmarks of genocide”.
The UAE has denied any responsibility for atrocities committed by the RSF.
Nakhle Elhage, the chief transformation officer at IMI, said: “As we enter this next phase, IMI will take full ownership of the platform’s future with the agility, focus and investment capacity to continue building the leading multimedia news destination for the Arab world.
“Sky News Arabia today stands as one of the Arab world’s leading media success stories. Over the past decade it has built scale, trust and relevance across television, digital, audio and social platforms, reaching audiences at a pace few media organsiations in the legion have achieved.”
The original joint venture deal was struck by News Corporation, which at the time controlled Sky.
The exit from news provision in the Middle East follows a similar decision in Australia.
US-based Comcast, which acquired Sky in 2018, opted not to renew a licensing agreement held by News Corporation to use the Sky News brand in Australia. Sky News Australia is rebranding as News24 later this year.
In 2020 a plan to launch a global rolling news channel to challenge CNN by bringing together Sky News and Comcast’s US-based NBC – called NBC Sky World News – was scrapped.