Sky News is again on air after world tech outage shut it down
Sky News has returned to the air after a global Microsoft outage left it unable to broadcast this morning.
Baffled viewers were left with a static message from Sky when they tuned in this morning apologising for the ‘disruption’ to the service at 6am, when the channel was meant to be on the air.
It read: ‘We apologise for the interruption to this broadcast. We hope to restore the transmission of Sky News shortly.’
Sky returned later in the morning – but the channel was still reeling from the global tech outage, with presenters forced to read from sheets of paper or their phones.
And the graphics for the show, alongside its autocue, were still out of action. While elsewhere, presenters were unable to cut to pre-recorded segments of the programme which had originally been scheduled for today.
Sky News is back on the air after being unable to broadcast due to the Microsoft IT crash. But when presenters returned they were forced to read off sheets of paper as the autocue still did not work
Pictured is the message to viewers after they tried to tune in earlier on Friday morning to watch Sky News
After welcoming viewers back to the channel, Anna Jones, the morning anchor reported on the news saying: ‘Hello, a very good morning and welcome to Sky News. Let’s get you up to date with our top stories today. A major global IT outage is hitting businesses worldwide, including here at Sky News. It’s affecting airports and grounding flights. The London Stock Exchange is amongst businesses affected.’
Anna, who was joined by Gareth Barlow, continued: ‘A major global IT outage is impacting many of the world’s largest companies, including us here at Sky News. The system failure is believed to have been caused by a flawed anti-virus update – although nothing as yet has been confirmed.
‘Major broadcasters, banks and IT companies are affected as well as airports with some flights having been grounded.’
Earlier, Sky Sports Presenter Jacquie Beltrao posted on X saying: ‘We’re obviously not on air – we’re trying @SkyNews Breakfast.’
Viewers took to social media following the Sky News blackout this morning.
‘Sky News back on air after Microsoft #outage, presenters relying on their phones,’ wrote one person.
Another added: ‘Sky News back on air. No graphics, no autocue, unable to get guests on air and getting updates via their mobile phones. This will be the end for #crowdstrike cyber security software which is behind the global outage.’
The massive Microsoft outage sparked chaos around the world – grounding flights and knocking hospitals, GP surgeries, train services, banks, stock exchanges and TV channels offline.
UK Sky Sports Presenter Jacquie Beltrao posted on X: ‘We’re obviously not on air – we’re trying @SkyNews Breakfast’
Graphics and autocue still were not back in action on Sky News when it returned to the air this morning
Microsoft users around the world have taken to social media to express their confusion at their computers shutting down
The technical fault caused Windows computers to suddenly shut down, prompting departure boards to suddenly turn off at airports including Heathrow, Gatwick and Edinburgh on the busiest day for British airports since Covid.
In a sign of the global impact of the IT failure, passengers were seen sleeping in passageways at Los Angeles International Airport, huge queues formed at terminals across Spain, and in Delhi staff set up a whiteboard to record departures.
Shops in Australia shut down or went cashless after digital checkouts stopped working, while in the US emergency services lines went down in Alaska, Arizona, Indiana, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Ohio.
British train passengers have been told to expect delays due to ‘widespread IT issues across the entire network’, while NHS England told patients not to attend GP appointments unless told otherwise due to problems with the appointment and patient record system. There is no known problem with 999 services.
Microsoft has confirmed it was investigating an ‘issue’ with its 365 apps and operating systems and said users should expect ‘service degradation’.
US cyber security company CrowdStrike has admitted to being responsible for the error and said they are ‘working on it’. Experts believe the issue could have been caused by a ‘buggy’ security update but say it is too early to ‘rule out’ a cyberattack.
Windows is the most used operating system in the world, meaning the outage is affecting almost every part of the global economy – with supermarkets and cafes, including Waitrose and the bakery chain Gail’s, unable to take card payments. TV channels including Sky News and CBBC spent time off air this morning.
In a statement on social media, CrowdStrike said the global IT outage was ‘not a security incident or cyberattack’, adding: ‘The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed’.
