[gottago]

Inevitably the next chapter in TV cost saving. Sky is slimming down the number of announcers it has from 35 to 19, though most of these are freelancers. Surprised they had as many as 35 to begin with to be honest.

The channels losing announcements altogether - except for 'dry' announcements warning about content - are Sky Max, Sky Cinema, Sky Documentaries, Sky Nature, Sky Comedy and Sky Sci-Fi. It says they already cut Sky Atlantic announcements a few years ago.

Meanwhile announcements remain on Sky Arts, Sky Crime, Sky Mix, Sky Showcase, Sky Witness and Challenge.

www.broadcastnow.co.uk 

Sky removes continuity announcers from six channels | News | Broadcast
Four staff roles and around eight freelance posts understood to have been lost
  Source: www.broadcastnow.co.uk

Can definitely see other broadcasters doing this with their smaller channels in the near future.

[Larry the Loafer]

The CAs on Sky Comedy do my head in, so every cloud... But seriously, almost every time I find myself watching a Sky channel, the CA is just plugging something that's on demand and completely unrelated to what's about to start. If that's all they're going to use their CAs for, then there's no love lost in my opinion.

[nwtv2003]

Let’s face it, the channels that are affected are the ones where they push on demand first anyway, I don’t think these are Sky’s big hitters. The On Demand always has the standard warning anyway, usually with Clare Sturgess if it’s Sky Comedy.

The only channels that do need them are the more prominently linear ones, so Showcase, Arts, Mix and Challenge.

Sky Sports I note that hasn’t had any continuity announcers for a very long time now. They long since ditched the ‘Coming Up’ menus and the like.

[eyeTV]

Not that I would advocate it, but given the way of automation in TV I'm surprised that this isn't a function now being done entirely by AI.

[JAS84]

I can see mistakes easily slipping in if they do that. Like a Challenge announcement mentioning Jeremy Clarkson when they're about to air a Chris Tarrant era Millionaire.

[WillPS]

I can see mistakes easily slipping in if they do that. Like a Challenge announcement mentioning Jeremy Clarkson when they're about to air a Chris Tarrant era Millionaire.

Yes, it'd be a huge shame for such errors to creep in to Challenge's continuity, as they are otherwise famously accurate and on-the-ball.

[Kunst]

Many channels have already dropped continuity announcements in the UK, e.g. many minor Discovery channels

These have dropped or are about to be dropped even in more conservative countries such as the Scandinavian ones

[Stooky Bill]

I'm surprised they have that many people involved in them. I wasn't particularly aware that their channels had announcers, though I don't watch them that often

I imagine it's partly to do with the lessening of importance of their linear channels, and partly a change in attitude from their now American owners. Apart from a few generic annos and station IDs they're not a thing in the US, or most places in the world

[dbl]

To be honest with you, the channels affected only seem to push to on-demand anyway, and not often pushing to the linear schedule. (Tonight/Tomorrow etc..) - I'm quite surprised they had 35 on their books!

I suspect maybe a Dutch style of short, direct 5-7 second intros might be common in future:
youtu.be 

[TVFan]

Think they are starting to make some changes, just heard an announcer on Challenge who’s different than the normal two (I believe she currently does Sky Max).