![\"Calum](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ed13c528ff29429d0a4267821595c52ca2cdc4cc.png\")
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February 23, 2026 \u2014 7:30pm<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n Save this article for later<\/p>\n Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime.<\/p>\n Got it<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n An ABC trademark left over from its news channel could stop Sky News Australia from taking up its new name of News24, which a foreign broadcaster has already claimed on major social media platforms.<\/p>\n One intellectual property barrister said the public broadcaster had grounds to challenge Sky\u2019s planned new name because it owned the \u201cABC News 24\u201d trademark associated with its own 24-hour news channel.<\/p>\n And a major South African news outlet called News24 has a logo in the same colours that it uses on social media accounts with that handle on major platforms such as Facebook and X.<\/p>\n Sky News Australia, the News Corp-owned broadcaster, launched its new branding and name on Friday, which will come into effect later this year, at an event in Sydney where Prime Minister Anthony Albanese opened the station\u2019s new studios. It had been forced to rebrand<\/a> after Sky UK opted out of extending its current licensing arrangement with the Australian news network.<\/p>\n But the name, which leans on News Corp\u2019s branding, resembles the name which the ABC\u2019s News Channel was launched as in 2010. While the channel rebranded as ABC News Channel in 2017, it is often still colloquially referred to by its original name. The public broadcaster owns the trademark rights to the term \u201cABC News 24\u201d, according to IP Australia, the federal government agency responsible for registering intellectual property.<\/p>\n The announcement \u201craised eyebrows\u201d with senior ABC executives over the weekend, a source with knowledge of the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity said.<\/p>\n Australian News Channel, the company currently trading as Sky News Australia has tried and failed to trademark the term \u201cNews24\u201d several times over the past two decades, IP Australia records show.<\/p>\n There is no current application by the company to trademark its new name, which intellectual property barrister Jane Rawlings said would be difficult because it uses generic terms and is similar to the ABC\u2019s mark.<\/p>\n \u201cRepresenting yourself as News24 where the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for many years has put up News 24, it\u2019s likely to be a problem for them,\u201d said Rawlings, a barrister and senior lecturer in trademark and copyright law at the University of Technology Sydney.<\/p>\n Rawlings said that any existing trademark owner could oppose a new mark, whether it is officially lodged with IP Australia or not, because of its potential to cause confusion with the public.<\/p>\n \u201cNews 24 is certainly something that the ABC has used in the past \u2026 [and] because of that reputation, the new mark might cause deception or confusion in the public,\u201d Rawlings said.<\/p>\n Rawlings said the use of descriptive terms like \u201cnews\u201d and \u201c24\u201d give some grounds for flexibility, but issues such as logos could cause further complications.<\/p>\n The ABC and Sky have competed directly as the two 24-hour news channels in Australia since the launch of ABC News 24 in 2010.<\/p>\n The ABC declined to comment. Sky did not respond a request for comment.<\/p>\n Related Article Sky\u2019s new name is also very similar to News24, South Africa\u2019s largest subscription-led news website which has more than 7 million Facebook followers, 6.5 million X followers and 1 million YouTube subscribers.<\/p>\n Its logo shares the same three colours, blue, red and white, and in the same colour progression, despite the word colour being inverted. It also uses the domain news24.com, which is similar to Sky\u2019s newly listed news24.com.au.<\/p>\n The South African company was approached for comment.<\/p>\n On Friday, Sky News Australia boss Paul Whittaker signalled the company\u2019s intentions to continue growing its international digital footprint.<\/p>\n A Google search of News24 also shows the South African broadcaster as the first result. There is also a 24-hour Hindi news channel located in India trading as News24, which has 27 million subscribers on YouTube, as well as News24 Nepal, which has almost 4 million subscribers.<\/p>\n The use of generic terms in Sky\u2019s new name could also pose difficulty in trademarking the terms themselves, which it appears the News Corp company is yet to do.<\/p>\n \u201cI presume they will apply for trademark protection for that and that\u2019s where other objectors to the use of News24 may well surface,\u201d Rawlings said. \u201cCertainly, if I were running a news service like that, I\u2019d be keeping a very close eye on the trademark registers.\u201d<\/p>\n The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/5f2c265be3736701b7aa1c16f02fa174643bd95f990924fbb3d974e2c6bde159.png\")
The ABC has the trademark rights to \u201cABC News 24\u201d, the former name of its news channel.ABC<\/p>\n![\"South](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/9caccae4e5266ce66979508a911eeff557ff45e1d87aaa6ea73d9d08db5a8dd3.jpeg\")
South African news provider News24\u2019s logo [top] and the new, News24 logo proposed by News Corp [bottom].<\/p>\n![\"Attendees](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771847711_215_e778e3c73cdee7e607adc1b8023f784aeb2c7b2d075fcce8d36fb04da3c4b75a.gif\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Calum](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768870210_233_ed13c528ff29429d0a4267821595c52ca2cdc4cc.png\")
Calum Jaspan<\/a> is a media writer for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, based in Melbourne. Reach him securely on Signal @calumjaspan.10Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"February 23, 2026 \u2014 7:30pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,427],"class_list":["post-498778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}