LONDON: Sky News is preparing to part ways with its UAE broadcasting venture, with a dispute over the channel’s coverage of the Sudan conflict at the heart of the split, The Daily Telegraph reported on Wednesday.
The newspaper, recently acquired by German publisher Axel Springer, said Sky News had effectively served notice that it would not renew Sky News Arabia’s license to use the Sky brand, which is due to expire next year.
Sky executives told IMI — a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Media Investment Corp., owned by UAE Vice President Mansour bin Zayed Al-Nahyan — of the decision late last year and had since completed the legal groundwork to allow the license to lapse.
Talks between the two sides are ongoing, however, and a deal to preserve the partnership has not been entirely ruled out.
Sky News Arabia stands accused of whitewashing atrocities carried out by the Rapid Support Forces, the Sudanese paramilitary group widely reported to receive UAE backing — an allegation Abu Dhabi has long denied.
In November, The Telegraph published an investigation accusing the broadcaster of dispatching a reporter — Tsabih Mubarak Khatir, who is married to a senior RSF official — to cover the RSF’s takeover of El Fasher in Darfur.
She was filmed embracing a female RSF commander who had called on fighters to assault Darfuri women and subsequently filed reports denying any basis for the atrocities that satellite imagery had already documented.
Sky News Arabia’s own website published articles describing that satellite evidence as “fake news,” even after a UN fact-finding mission concluded in February that it pointed to genocide.
IMI defended the channel’s coverage in a statement to The Telegraph, calling accusations of bias “outrageous and unfounded.”
IMI is aware of inaccurate reports regarding its partnership with Sky UK.
Discussions remain ongoing under an existing agreement, with no decisions taken. Editorial independence remains unchanged. pic.twitter.com/kVwwiZSi4w
— IMI (@imimediagroup) March 19, 2026
An IMI spokesperson pushed back on the reports on Wednesday, calling the reports “false” and saying “any suggestion that decisions have been taken on the future of this partnership is incorrect. Discussions are actively under way, and both sides remain fully and positively engaged in that process. These discussions are commercial in nature, strictly confidential, and have no connection to editorial matters or newsroom operations.”
Nadim Koteich, who stepped down as Sky News Arabia’s General Manager in December, also intervened. “What’s happening is a standard, ongoing commercial negotiation. No decision has been taken,” he said, adding that he had been party to the discussions before his departure.
“There is no link to editorial. None. IMI newsrooms operate independently. That’s not a line, it’s a condition. I’ve been in enough board meetings, with representatives of both sides, to attest to that.”
SKY. IMI. THE REAL STORY
I stepped down from the GM role of @skynewsarabia a few months ago. But I know enough about what's being reported, and misreported, to say something. So I will. @Telegraph
I was part of the conversations about @imimediagroup future…
— Nadim Koteich (@NadimKoteich) March 19, 2026
Several Sky News Arabia presenters also took to social media to dispute the Telegraph’s reporting.
Senior anchors Chantal Saliba, Michella Hadad and business presenter Lubna Bouza all described the claims as “inaccurate,” with Bouza stating that IMI is “currently conducting routine and customary commercial negotiations with Sky UK in order to renew the current agreement” and that “negotiations never address editorial policies or the work of newsroom.”
Former Sky executives in the UK, however, told the newspaper that the channel had become a propaganda outlet for the UAE’s leadership and that the editorial board established to oversee coverage held “no genuine authority,” given that the channel was owned by Mansour, who also owns Manchester City Football Club.
The episode underscores the scale of IMI’s ambitions. In recent years it has sought to build a major media conglomerate, pursuing a broad expansion into English-language and Western media.
Besides Sky News Arabia, its portfolio includes The National, CNN Business Arabic, Al-Ain News and a minority stake in Euronews.
In 2024, through a joint venture with former CNN president Jeff Zucker under the RedBird IMI banner, IMI also acquired All3Media, the UK production company behind “Fleabag” and “Squid Game: The Challenge,” for £1.15 billion ($1.53 billion).
In 2023, IMI attempted to take control of The Telegraph through a partnership with US private equity firm RedBird Capital Partners, a deal that was blocked by the UK government amid concerns over press freedom.
After protracted negotiations, the two parties agreed to sell the newspaper to Axel Springer, a surprise transaction completed earlier this month.
Sky’s decision to break with IMI will bring to an end a 50-50 partnership first struck in 2010, when the British broadcaster was under the control of News Corp and Rupert Murdoch.
In a parallel move, Sky — which was acquired by US company Comcast in 2018 — also announced it would terminate the license held by News Corp to use the Sky News brand in Australia.
Arab News contacted the Sky News press office for comment.
