Sky News wins News Channel of the Year for the seventh year in a row at the RTS Television Journalism Awards

Sky News has been named News Channel of the Year for the seventh consecutive year at the Royal Television Society Journalism Awards.

The jury said Sky was given the award for "the comprehensive way it covered the main news stories of the year both in the UK and around the world".

Political Editor Beth Rigby was awarded Political Journalist of the Year. The jury described Rigby as "the stand-out winner" among stiff competition and that "she is always exciting to watch and her packaging is excellent, always asking the questions we are all yelling at the telly”. 

Sky News and Tortoise Media were awarded the Innovation Award for their "pioneering work" on the Westminster Accounts, a publicly available tool to give voters the chance to explore how much their MP earned above their base salary since the last election and how much they have declared in donations - and from whom.

David Rhodes, Executive Chairman for Sky News Group said: “It’s been a momentous year for news and I couldn’t be more proud that Sky News has been recognised by winning News Channel of the Year for a phenomenal seventh year in a row. To provide audiences with the full story first, our 800 journalists around the world have told compelling human-interest stories, held those in power to account, have gone deep into the data and delivered powerful eyewitness reports from around the globe”.

Sky News winners:

Innovation Award

WINNER – Westminster Accounts - Sky News & Tortoise Media

Judges praised the outstanding quality of data work and presentation which was genuinely surprising. They said “it was a real example of public service journalism that opened up an opaque world, was innovative and made it available to everyone. The judges were impressed by the clever use of technology and it was absolutely vital to democracy.”

News Channel of the Year

WINNER – Sky News

“Trying to evaluate a year’s output for a 24-hour news channel from a one hour submission makes this a difficult category to judge, but the jury was impressed by the winning news channel for the comprehensive way it covered the main news stories of the year, not just the developments in the Middle East and in Westminster, but also a wide range of other news events, both in the UK and around the world.”

Political Journalist of the Year

WINNER – Beth Rigby, Political Editor Sky News

“From a very strong set of entries Beth Rigby was the stand-out winner. Her work is absolutely box office. She is always exciting to watch and her packaging is excellent, always asking the questions we are all yelling at the telly. She does a great democratic service and is a political editor at the top of her game.”