Nigerian news channel Arise News resurfaces on Sky after ten day outage and loss of Freeview outlet.
- Sky has reinstated the channel, which collapsed off air earlier this month, on its former channel slot – channel 516.
Ever since the 2016 Arise News scandal, which left journalists and suppliers unpaid, the channel has been unable to reliably transmit on Sky without interruptions to service.
Most recently, it fell off Sky in August 2022, again in March and November 2023. On Friday morning, Arise News returned to Sky channel 516.
Sky will usually withdraw a service if it has fallen behind on payments for carriage, or if it is unable to offer a technically compliant service. In turn, a channel may not be able to offer a technically compliant service if other suppliers involved in distributing and uplinking the channel are not paid.
Arise News hasn’t commented on its most recent outage and whether the outage is due to missed payments.
The channel lost its Freeview streaming outlet earlier this week. It was briefly carried as a regular broadcast channel on Freeview, but lost the slot after it fell behind on payments in late 2015. Ofcom found the channel breached the terms of its licence for falling behind on payments to the regulator.