Sky News is currently down and not broadcasting its usual programming, as it is seemingly hit with technical issues.

This morning viewers have been seeing a static message apologising for the ‘disruption’ to the service.

It read: ‘We apologise for the interruption to this broadcast. We hope to restore the transmission of Sky News shortly.’

Now Sky Sports Presenter Jacquie Beltrao has posted on X saying: ‘We’re obviously not on air – we’re trying @SkyNews Breakfast.’

There are also reports online that Sky News is down in Australia and New Zealand.

The channel is playing out documentaries instead of its usual content.

Reports are that the problems are being caused by an issue with Microsoft, causing systems to shut down. “Our systems are currently impacted by a Microsoft outage, which is also affecting other companies,” says an spokesman for an airline whose systems use Mircrosoft and were shut down

UPdate :

• A major IT problem is disrupting transport, healthcare, businesses, and other sectors across the world
• Cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike blames an issues with one of its updates for Windows – it says the problem has been “identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed”
• Crowdstrike’s shares are down by more than 20% in unofficial trading in the US – equal to a $16bn loss in value
• Worldwide, more than 1,000 flights have been cancelled – but American Airlines says flights are resuming again
• In the UK, NHS England says most GP practices are affected – but there is no known impact on emergency services

Update  :

CBBC is now back on air after being down all morning. The children’s channel and Sky News were the only British channels that had problems.

Some global channels are still down – Paramount channels MTV, VH1, CMT and Pop TV are offline as well as ESPN cable channels.

Both Sky News and ABC News Australia are back on air, but are broadcasting without graphics.