Microsoft down: Sky News goes off-air amidst global outage
The Sky News team appeared to be experiencing technical difficulties, as presenter Jacquie Beltrao took to Twitter to explain the blunder.
Using a fingers crossed emoji, she agonised: "We’re obviously not on air - we’re trying." Sky isn't the only news outlet to be hit by technical struggles as a corrupt Microsoft Windows anti-virus update is thought to be responsible for a series of glitches.
Other major networks to face issues include SBS, ABC and Network 10. The catastrophic broadcasting crisis has stretched across the globe as the Sky News Australia team is also experiencing exactly the same glitches.
It has reportedly been sparked by a faulty update to the antivirus program CrowdStrike, a US cyber security company used by many British brands. The aftermath has seen banks, supermarkets, IT firms and airlines brought to their knees too.
The first viewers knew of the problem was when they tried to tune into the show as usual at 6am ths morning. Instead of seeing any action, they were met with a message on the screen reading: "We apologise for the interuption to this broadcast. We hope to restore the transmission of Sky News shortly."
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In desperation, the broadcaster then resorted to playing an old Windrush documentary, followed by one on Russian leader Vladimir Putin, as the channel continued to face struggles.
It comes as Microsoft has published on its own social media account that it is investigating investigating "an issue impacting users' ability to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services".
Some have also had frustrations with their computers, taking to the internet to complain.
Meanwhile, Jacquie was flooded with support over on Twitter, as fans begged for the channel to be reinstated.
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"We need our Sky News morning fix lol! BBC news too dry!" one declared.
"So weird waking up and no Sky News, hope you are back soon.. missing you," one added, before echoing: "Not keen on BBC too stuffy."
"Sky News Australia down too. This is an almighty hack," exclaimed a third.
Then another viewer objected to the choice of historical documentaries being screened in the absence of live programming.
"And you're showing a documentary about Putin? Like any right minded person wants to watch anything about him..."
