Sky News’ live ten-hour broadcast behind the scenes of its UK newsgathering operation today gave viewers a unique insight into the workings of a major modern newsroom, just without the swearing. Sky News Raw was a bold, brave and engaging project, conceived in celebration of Sky News’ 30th year on the air (to the day) that will go a long way in boosting trust in the media through transparency at a vital time. More than 40 remote-controlled cameras were installed in Sky’s newsroom and TV galleries in Osterley, west London, and its political studio in Millbank, Westminster, with cameras also following reporters at various external locations, offering up a window into the world of journalism. While there was the odd audio blip and more than a few awkward glances to camera, for a live rolling show running from 7am to 5pm around a 24-hour news operation in full flight, it all went surprisingly smoothly. Admittedly, a delay and bleeper button were deployed in the case of utterances from journalists mouths being unfit for broadcast. It may not silence all the critics of the so-called “mainstream media”, but it did show just how much hard work, early starts and quick decision-making goes into running a 24-hour news operation in 2019. And if trending on Twitter is a marker of engagement nowadays, which it is, the project appears to have been largely a success, with many tweeting their support – although it’s a stunt unlikely to be repeated anytime soon. If you missed it, a partial stream covering the last four hours is still up on the Sky News Youtube channel and below are a few takeaways. Perspex wall Sky News’ pop-up studio outside the Houses of Parliament is now surrounded by a Perspex wall. As newly appointed political editor Beth Rigby explained to viewers, not only has this made the outdoor studio warmer (it previously demanded thermals and thick coats) but it has dulled the noise from all those Brexit protesters who had been crying out during live broadcasts. The latter was revealed as the real reason behind its installation. A sensible decision all round. 1m subscribers Sky News Youtube channel has now hit 1m subscribers. Also, journalists who write articles for Sky News’ digital arm will be pictured on “author pages” as part of the Trust Project, which Sky has signed up to in a further act of transparency. John Oliver thought Sky News Raw was a ‘terrible idea’ Not everyone was a fan of the Sky News Raw idea. At a press junket for his new TV series, US-based satirist John Oliver told Sky News: “That sounds like… a fucking terrible idea.” He added: “People who work in news divisions swear a lot… how are you going to do your job? “That bleeper button had better have fresh batteries replaced a lot. Twenty-four hours of swearing in the Sky News office. Listen, I hate the idea but I am looking forward to watching it.” To their credit, Sky still ran with the interview. Meta reporting At one point on Sky News Raw things got very meta – well at a few points actually, but perhaps none more so than when Sky News reported on Sky News Raw, which was, in turn, reporting behind the scenes on Sky News. Ocean Room The main Sky News meeting room in Osterley has fish wallpaper and is known as the Ocean Room. It appears to have no windows however. Journalists are not evil Journalists who get excited over stories about horrific events are not actually evil, it was finally confirmed. As one Sky News Raw presenter put it today in an important disclaimer: “Some of the language used in these meetings, I know a lot of people watching on Twitter might wince slightly at some of the things journalists say, but in terms of stories being good stories or excellent stories, it doesn’t always mean it’s a good story. “It can be a bad story but we can have good access to it or we can have good images, which makes it a good story for us as a news organisation. So those watching at home, don’t think that just because we say something is great means that we actually think the content of the story is a great story.” Not all broadcast journalists love being on TV Sky News content director Cristina Nicolotti-Squires revealed there had been “a lot of nervousness about being on television” from those outside the studio. She told Sky correspondent Katie Spencer: “You’re used to it [being on TV], I’m not. I’ve spent many years keeping away from the cameras, but interestingly someone just came up to me about five minutes ago, I won’t name him, but he came up to me and he said: ‘I was really worried about this, I nearly didn’t do it…and actually I’m really glad I did because we’ve shown people what’s going on.’ “With all these things there’s always a little bit of jeopardy and you hope people behave, but I think it’s been so far it seems to have been a pretty positive thing. I hope people are enjoying watching it.” Nicolotti-Squires, who has been at Sky News for two years, arriving from ITN where she spent more than 20 years, added: “If you come to Sky News the world is your oyster. You can have an idea like this one and make it happen. That’s one of the reasons I came here.” Squires on being a woman journalist at the top of the industry… Nicolotti-Squires said: “I don’t think it’s been hard getting here. I think that, despite the fact that there’s a reputation in this industry for not being particularly female friendly, if I can manage it then anyone can.<doc-sep>To celebrate its 30th anniversary, the British news channel Sky News provided viewers with a live feed from inside the organisation yesterday that was labelled Sky News Raw. Sky News viewers were offered the chance to see how the news is made, with a day of special coverage offering unprecedented access behind the scenes. Sky News Raw was broadcast on its own pop-up channel from 7am to 5pm – 30 years to the day since Sky News aired its first bulletin. Key editorial meetings, every element of the newsgathering process and live studio and outside broadcasts were all being shown on the special channel. Fixed cameras were capturing what was going on in the Sky News newsroom in west London, events in the political nerve-centre at Westminster, as well as what was happening in the on-air TV galleries, the Sky News studios and locations around central London. Viewers also got the chance to follow a day in the life of a reporter in one of Sky’s bureaus as they tackled a news story. John Ryley, the head of Sky News, said: “Over the last 30 years, Sky News has earned its reputation as one of the UK’s most trusted news organisations – offering original, distinct journalism and clarity in what is an increasingly uncertain world. “But now is the time to look forward to the next 30 years of Sky News, to offer viewers a glimpse of the news organisation of the future. “Sky News Raw will do just that – we look forward to opening our doors and inviting the viewer in.” A four-hour recorded stream (with not much happening) of Sky News Raw showing a 360 degree view of the newsroom is available on YouTube.<doc-sep>What I learned spending the day watching Sky News Raw Happy 30th birthday to Sky News ONLY To celebrate turning 30, Sky News opened its virtual doors and allowed us, the nosey swines that make up the general public, to see exactly what goes on behind the scenes. Advertisement From 7am - 5pm today (Tuesday 5th February), viewers were able to tune in and learn about the mammoth effort that goes into keeping a 24-hour rolling news channel on air. I watched a good chunk of the day, what I am saying is that I didn't technically start at 7am because I was still asleep at that time (as any sane person should be), but I did my very best. There was a lot to learn, some fascinating, some very mundane. Overall, without exaggeration, I think it may have been the greatest production on British TV in quite some time? Please, I urge you, find a feed and watch back all 10 hours. It was glorious. Here's what you missed on Sky News Raw. Advertisement Lewis Goodall revealed himself to be an absolute savage Enda Brady was giving us a glimpse of what reporting from outside 10 Downing Street is like, where we got to watch Lewis Goodall doing a piece to camera. Afterwards, he was chatting a bit about his job, mostly complaining about how cold it is in that particular area, then like a scene straight out of a sitcom, Jeremy Hunt exited the building. Ever the journalist, Lewis refused to allow the opportunity to pass him. He shouted after the foreign secretary: Lewis Goodall: Any agreement on the backstop, Jeremy? Jeremy Hunt: Happy Chinese new year! Lewis Goodall: Yes, happy year of the pig! Advertisement Hunt had no choice but to wave and smile, signifying that he had indeed just been had by Lewis live on a Sky News Raw. With that, we have immediate confirmation that Lewis Goodall is an absolute savage. Would we have known that if it wasn't for this wonderful show? Probably not. Adam Boulton got absolutely done in by a caricaturist Advertisement After being taken on a thorough wander through the newsroom, we were brought into Adam Boulton's old office, which mainly consisted of framed photographs of the man himself. Two people from the politics department chatted about some stuff, but the most important thing that happened during this segment was when the camera swung around to reveal an absolutely brutal caricature of the big boy Boulton himself. Not only has Adam embraced this exaggerated representation of his face and indeed forehead, he's gone and hung it on the wall of his old office and left it there, presumably to reside forevermore. Credit where it's due, the eyebrows are absolutely spot on, as is the trademark disapproving smile big Boulton is teasing us with. But overall, yikes. Advertisement If nothing else came out of Sky News Raw other than the revelation that this caricature exists, that would've been enough for Great Britain on this momentous day. What a treat. Kit Bradshaw was very eager to show off his hands which were once used in an iPad commercial Radio newsreader Kit was roped into offering up an interesting fact about himself, which ended up being the best one of the day - Kit once worked in an Apple store and ended up being a hand model in an advert for iPads. To be fair to Kit, he has got some very nice hands, which the cameraman treated us to a closeup of. Sky News Raw is the greatest thing that has ever happened to British television. I am being deadly serious. What a time to be alive. Emily ate a cupcake! In an interesting change of pace, it was gripping to see that producer Emily had a special 30th anniversary Sky News cupcake sitting beside her at one stage, then it was no longer there when we returned. The voiceover sarcastically described this as breaking news, but truly, it was. Look, the feed ran from 7am - 5pm. It can't all be solid gold. Even Mozart had his quiet times. It was revealed that Dermot Murnaghan and Adam Boulton share a desk Easily the most shocking revelation from Sky News Raw was when it emerged that two heavyweights of the presenting industry, Dermot Murnaghan and Adam Boulton, actually share a desk. Surely their importance merits their own individual space, perhaps even an entire cubicle each, but no, they're forced to slum it together at an admittedly very large desk which comes with what appears to be some flavoured tea and a box of Lemsip. Amidst the chaos that is Brexit negotiations and the absolute shit show that is British politics right now, we must not lose sight of the injustices facing our beloved TV presenters. Get Murnaghan and Boulton their own desks 2k19. We should not be forcing these grown adults to hot desk, not in this current economic climate. The guys at the foreign desk never ate their apple, not one single bite all day As someone who has had the same banana sitting underneath my computer monitor for nigh on a week now, it was comforting to see that Sky News workers and myself aren't cut from too dissimilar a cloth. They're busy sourcing credible news segments for broadcast, whilst I am watching telly all day under the disguise of work. But what unites us? Our inability to set aside enough time to eat a goddamn piece of fruit during the workday. Sure, we're all doing our best out here in these modern ages, but if Sky News Raw has taught us anything, it's that we must all make time for fruit, regardless of our importance in the world. The benefits of this special broadcast were truly infinite. It turns out that the presenters actually wear proper pants behind the news desk<doc-sep>(Pocket-lint) - It’s 30 years to the day since Sky launched its satellite TV service in the UK. To celebrate, Sky News has decided to do something rather unusual – the network has equipped its studios with 44 cameras and you can watch behind-the-scenes footage all day today. While the footage seems rather dry to start with, it’s actually quite addictive and you’ll be curious if you’re at all interested in how TV works. Most of the cameras are concentrated in the Sky News Centre at Sky’s UK HQ in Osterley, south west London. Others are based at Sky’s Westminster studio in Millbank and Sky’s Washington bureau. Sky News is watched by 169.1 million viewers across 168 countries. Viewers are being told what they’re seeing on screen and what people’s responsibilities are in, say, the gallery or studio. It’s actually quite interesting and the channel is being narrated by Niall Paterson and Jayne Secker during the day. There will also be insight into editorial meetings although when we listened in on one the sound got cut because they were discussing an embargoed story. You can watch the channel right here on YouTube: There’s also a 360 camera stream, but it isn’t quite as insightful: Writing by Dan Grabham.<doc-sep>
At 9:46 this morning, Sky News ate itself. During the morning editorial meeting, broadcast live to the nation under the vaguely ridiculous banner of Sky News Raw, an editor looked up from her pile of papers and sighed “Should we do a piece about Sky News Raw?” There followed some back and forth, right there on Sky News Raw, about whether or not Sky News should indeed do a piece about Sky News Raw. The matter was then discussed of the broadcaster best positioned to do it. A name was mooted, and the woman shook her head. “He can’t do a piece on Sky News Raw because he’s currently doing Sky News Raw,” she mumbled as a million different realities crashed into each other and imploded behind her. If – to quote the great sage Matt Goss – CNN is the thinking man’s reality show, then Sky News Raw has to qualify as Einstein’s Big Brother. For one day only, to mark the channel’s 30th anniversary, the entire workings of the channel have been exposed to the world. We, the viewers, get to watch all the backstage shenanigans of Sky News as they happen. All day long, as Sky News fills its day with the usual cobblers – a slick cocktail of essential breaking news and aggressively non-essential Jon Culshaw interviews – cameras are showing us how the sausage is made. We have eavesdropped on staff meetings. We’ve watched reporters on location hurriedly run over their lines before they linked live to the studio. We have seen people in the gallery feed lines to Adam Boulton, just like Holly Hunter in Broadcast News if Holly Hunter in Broadcast News primarily existed to seamlessly line up a selection of heavy-handed satirical cartoons from that morning’s papers. ‘How can we move the Liam Neeson story on?’ … Sky News Raw. Photograph: Sky One of the big stories of the day, the editors decided this morning, was Liam Neeson’s bizarre decision to tell everyone that he wanted to randomly murder a black person once. This threw everyone for a loop. By the time the story would air, it’d be over a day old. How could they move the story on? Should they find someone to defend him? Perhaps they could do a viewer poll: one editor suggested “Have you ever had an angry racist thought?” as the question to put to the country. In moments like this, you were struck by what a mad gamble this whole thing is. News as we know it – especially broadcast news – is a finished product. What we read and watch and hear is the result of countless meetings like this, batted back and forth until all the bad ideas have been shaken out. To watch people actively lobbing bad ideas into the mix (and hopefully being rejected; the poll hadn’t run at time of writing) feels incredibly cavalier of Sky, especially in an age when social media is so quick to condemn missteps like this. Nevertheless I’m pleased it exists, if only because it has showed how absolutely bored everyone who works for Sky News is. Everywhere – the newsroom, the gallery, the studio floor – is packed with glum-looking people mundanely going about their jobs. In fairness, this is true of all other news channels and all other newsrooms and most other offices. I, for one, have found this boredom incredibly reassuring. Unlike Twitter, where every microscopic news story explodes on impact like a meteor shower, Sky News Raw showed us how calmly events are absorbed and redistributed in the real world. It is actually quite soothing. If it was a subscription channel, sign me up. Watching people silently stare at screens with pens in their mouths is apparently an unbelievably peaceful thing to do. Compared to the gentle ebb and flow of the backstage news gathering, Sky News looks like a circus. Photograph: Sky News In fact, I think I prefer Sky News Raw to Sky News itself. At all times, in the top right of the screen, there is a muted feed of the actual Sky News output. Compared to the gentle ebb and flow of the backstage news gathering, it looks like a circus; a dumb, brightly-coloured procession of talking heads scowling and jabbing at absolutely nothing just to fill time. It is, for want of a better word, a distraction. So please Sky News, keep this experiment going.