In July 2025 I had the unique opportunity of being on a work placement at Sky Sports News. The week took place at Sky’s Osterley Campus in West London, where all the Sky employees work. I was able to shadow a different department each day, giving me a great feel for what life at Sky is like. I started off at the newsdesk, followed by the TV production, social, and digital teams. The final day was spent at Charlton Athletic’s training ground interviewing Charlton’s striker.
Monday kicked off with a news meeting to run through the sporting news of the day. I was able to sit in with some key people at Sky Sports News, including a prominent senior reporter who is often on the TV. I then sat at my own desk and helped to find some footage of Premier League players arriving back for pre-season training. It happened to be a slow news day that week, especially as it was still pre-season, so there was not as much football news to cover. That being said, it was still intriguing to hear the conversations around me and the calls in to the newsdesk. All of this happened behind the studio cameras.
By Tuesday the pace sped up as I spent the day with TV production. The best part was heading down to the gallery. This is where they manage the running order and main elements of the TV news show, including which cameras to cut to and which segments to play. Often these segments would change minutes before they were due to be shown if news broke suddenly. It was pretty chaotic but at least I was just shadowing!
Wednesday was a completely different day as I left the main studio and desks and went up another floor to the social team. This team was tasked with creating content for various social platforms like YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. There was a humorous moment when one of the content editors turned to me and said, ‘this makes me want to vomit, but it is good content.’ Such is the way for social team members!
My last day on campus was spent with the digital team, and this proved to be one of the most interesting days. The digital team manage the Sky Sports website and app, publishing articles and updating live blogs to be pushed to people’s computers and smartphones. I got to write an article myself with my own byline which was unexpected!
Finally, on Friday I had a short but great day as I took the train from Camden (where I was staying with a friend) to South East London, where Charlton Athletic’s training ground is. While the interview was only filmed for around 10 minutes, it took a good hour for the camera man to set up and another 45 minutes to pack up. It just shows how much work goes into features which may only be shown on TV for a couple of minutes! I didn’t have to do anything as I was just shadowing, but it was great to meet footballer Matty Godden, plus Sky Sports reporter Peter Smith, who offered invaluable advice for the next steps in my career.
This week was really about working out whether journalism was for me, so in that sense it could never have been a wasted week. It gave me plenty of food for thought on whether I want to pursue journalism and/or sports journalism in future, and also whether I’d want to work for a company like Sky. I would describe Sky as a machine, and so they are not fully representative of the whole industry. I’m not sure I could see myself working there, but that is why I am so glad I got to experience the week.