Six teams to save America: Sky News goes all out for MAGA fans

Sky News Australia has sent a football team-sized crew to cover next week’s United States election for its MAGA-obsessed online US audience, as it works to make up for a dwindling broadcast audience in Australia.

The News Corp-owned network has 18 staff in the US, fronted by a mix of its opinion and news stars James Morrow, Paul Murray and Peter Stefanovic. Its model thrives off scale, speed and frequency, with the channel pushing the picture of a flailing Vice President Kamala Harris and a “rock star” Donald Trump as November 5 approaches.

Previously fixated on President Joe Biden, Sky has shifted focus to Harris, posting 138 largely disparaging videos with her name in the title on its YouTube channel in the past week alone.

“‘Snowflake’ Kamala Harris freezes after heckler interrupts Michigan rally”; “‘So big and beautiful’: Donald Trump vows to ‘bring back’ the American dream”; “Lefties losing it: Kamala fan screams at toddler in stroller”; “‘Woeful candidate’: Kamala Harris’ campaign a ‘disaster’ ” highlight the tone of the content that rates well.

There is also overwhelmingly positive coverage of Trump on the channel, and popular videos rarely reference Sky talent or Australia.

The lengthy, and tightly contested US election campaign has been a boon for Sky’s increasingly digital model. YouTube views of the channel have skyrocketed during the campaign, attracting more than 5 million daily views in October, spiking in the week of Trump’s assassination attempt in July, and gaining 90,000 subscribers and more than 250 million video views. By comparison, the ABC News account averages 13 million monthly views.

Sky’s election team is significantly larger than that of other Australian media, highlighting that its strategy caters to an increasingly online and partisan American audience. Almost 40 per cent of Sky’s digital audience is based in the US, compared with 26 per cent in Australia, this masthead reported last year. It finds most of its reach on digital platforms, in particular YouTube, where it has nearly 5 million subscribers.

That’s in stark contrast to its broadcast audience in Australia, where locally recognised News Corp talent including Sharri Markson, Chris Kenny and Peta Credlin broadcast nightly to a declining customer base and marginal regional viewership.

Sharri netted an average metro audience of 31,000 at prime time on Wednesday evening this week, while Credlin drew an audience of 34,000. Rita Panahi is Sky’s most popular talent online, yet her nightly show rarely ranks in the top 250 multichannel shows.