Sky Television has announced that the Sky News Ireland service is to be dropped with small news bureaux being maintained in Dublin and Belfast.

The 25 staff in Dublin were told this morning that a proposal was in place with broadcasts ceasing on November 30th. The workplace will be reduced from 25 to four in the Dublin office and from five to one in the Belfast office.

Sky News Ireland was launched in May 2004. Two Irish based half hour programmes were broadcast daily at 6.30pm and at 10pm. It initially featured a weekly summary programme. However, it only attracted a very small audience.

The average audience figure from January to September 2006 was 8,000 for the 6.30pm bulletin and 17,000 for the 10pm bulletin.

In 1992, News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch lambasted his Fox affiliates for their lackluster local newscasts--or at least the affiliates that bothered to do news. "I honestly cannot distinguish one program from another," Murdoch said.

Murdoch said that so many local stations relied on the same CNN coverage reports for national and international news. "Forget about what the competition is doing," the media mogul said, calling for a unique look and feel to break from the pack.