MSNBC and the United Kingdom’s Sky News have struck a multi-year distribution deal, the two outlets announced Wednesday, allowing the newly spun-off network to tap into Sky News’ roster of correspondents and analysts.
The deal, which begins Oct. 1, allows MSNBC to expand its international coverage through Sky News’ 11 foreign bureaus, including those in Beijing, Jerusalem and Moscow. MSNBC has also hired Ian Sherwood, an NBC News alum, as its director of international newsgathering
It comes months before MSNBC is set to rebrand as MS NOW (My Source for News, Opinion, and the World) as Versant, its parent company, completes its spinoff from Comcast and NBCUniversal. The separation will begin next month.
“In this moment of consequential and historic news events happening around the world that are rapidly reshaping our collective future, we are honored to bring Sky News’ premium, on-the-ground reporting and roster of top journalists to the MSNBC community,” MSNBC President Rebecca Kutler said in a statement.
“This partnership with Versant will put that eyewitness reporting in front of even greater audiences in the U.S. and around the world,” Sky News Group Executive Chairman David Rhodes said. “We’re delighted to get to work with their creative and entrepreneurial team.”
The deal allows MSNBC to expand its international arm without having to shell out millions of dollars in resources, salaries and benefits to set up and staff its own foreign bureaus. It is currently hiring for dozens of roles across New York and Washington, D.C.
The cable news network has poached scores of domestic correspondents from its former sister network NBC News, including Jacob Sorboroff, Brandy Zadrozny and Vaughn Hillyard. It has also expanded some of its programming this year, hiring veteran political reporters Eugene Daniels and Jackie Alemany as hosts of its weekend panel show “The Weekend.”
“This partnership marks a new chapter for us at MSNBC and emphasizes a key element of the network’s new brand promise as MS NOW … bringing global reporting to our audiences,” Kutler said.
