Sky News went off air as hosts apologize amid global technical problem

Sky News was dramatically taken down this morning amid a major technical issue. Host Jacquie Beltrao took to Twitter to share the incident with viewers and explain all about the major issue.

In her post, alongside a hopeful emoji, she said: “Obviously we’re not on air – we’re trying.” Jacquie’s apology came as Sky was unable to broadcast live from Friday (July 19) at 6am, the Express reports.

However, the problem is not just a Sky one, as other broadcasters around the world are affected. These include SBS, the ABC and Network 10, while the global broadcast crisis has even hit Sky News Australia, all suffering identical technical problems.

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Broadcasters are not the only ones affected by the outage. Businesses, banks and even airlines have also had problems with American Airlines, United and Delta all stopped in the UK. It seems that the IT bug has even affected Australian airlines.

The cause is believed to be a Microsoft Windows antivirus update. Sources suggest the chaos was triggered by a faulty update to CrowdStrike, an American cyber security firm that many UK companies rely on.

For Sky News viewers, they first understood the problem when they switched on their TVs at 6am expecting the usual programming. Instead, they were met with a message that read: “We apologize for interrupting this show. We hope to restore the Sky News broadcast soon.”

In a makeshift solution, the broadcaster aired a previously shown Windrush documentary, followed by one on Russian President Vladimir Putin, as they continued to work through technical difficulties.

Adding to the turmoil, Microsoft acknowledged on its social media platforms that it was looking into “an issue affecting users’ ability to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services.”

Sky News viewers have sent messages to Jacquie as the station tries to make a comeback. One said: “We need our morning Sky News fix lol! BBC news too dry.”

A second said: “So strange to wake up and no Sky News hope you’re back soon.. miss you.”

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