Sky Newsis launching a paywalled app specifically for defence and security content.
The Sky News Defence app is part of the news provider’s plan announced in January 2025 tobecome a “premium video-first newsroom built for the digital future”, with less of a focus on live, breaking TV news, by 2030. Paid podcasts are also in the pipeline to launch in the summer.
Comcast committed to continue funding Sky News at the rate of around £100m a year and protect editorial independence until 2028 when it bought Sky in 2018.
Sky News bosses have been considering how to introduce paid content for the first time since last year. A price has not yet been set for the new app.
Andy Thomson, executive director of business operations at Sky News, told Press Gazette: “We are looking at how we ultimately drive and create a long-term sustainable future for Sky News, underpinned by brilliant editorial, brilliant technology and great commercial outcomes.
“So when we think about that vision and how we show up for our audiences and our consumers, we’re quite excited about doing new, additive things that fit with the overall ethos of what we’re up to.
“This is an example of us starting to move into places where we think we’ve got a real authority and voice and distinction that ultimately consumers will engage with.”
Thomson added that the app is “playing to some of the themes that sit within 2030 about how do we move towards deeper, richer community building and starting to have a much more one-on-one relationship with the audiences, as opposed to that broad reach proposition”.
[Read more:Why The Economist has put its podcasts behind a paywall]
Sky News Defence, which will sit alongside the main Sky News free app, will feature deeper analysis, explainers and long-form journalism from security and defence editor Deborah Haynes, military analyst Michael Clarke and other contributors. It will be “very video-focused”, Thomson said, but not exclusively so.
Source: Press Gazette
