Key Points
- Sky News is launching a premium, subscription-based podcast offering that will unlock early access to new episodes and allow news consumers to stream content without commercials.
- The subscription supports Sky News’ broader shift toward a digital-first business under its Sky News 2030 initiative.
- The bundle adds exclusive content, live event access and community features to deepen audience engagement.
Comcast’s international news channel Sky News is launching a subscription-based premium podcast offering that includes three of its on-demand shows.
The subscription, called Sky News Insider: Podcasts, will cost £3 a month (around U.S. $4) and launch on June 15. It will offer ad-free listening, bonus episodes, early access to new shows and other subscriber-only features across participating Sky News podcasts.
Subscribers of Sky News Insider will receive bonus episodes from shows including “Electoral Dysfunction” and “Trump 100,” along with early access to new series and episodes before they are released more widely. The bundle will also include a weekly newsletter with exclusive insights from Sky News hosts and correspondents, including Beth Rigby, Harriet Harman, Ruth Davidson, Martha Kelner, James Matthews and Mark Stone.
Sky News said subscribers will also receive first access to tickets for live shows, following sold-out “Electoral Dysfunction” events last year, as well as access to a community forum where listeners can communicate directly with podcast hosts.
The subscription will include early access and bonus episodes tied to “Stuff Matters,” a new six-part series hosted by Economics and Data Editor Ed Conway. The program will examine the global economic forces behind everyday objects, using consumer products and common items as a way to explain broader market, political and geopolitical trends.
David Rhodes, the Executive Chairman of Sky News, said the subscription is intended to serve the outlet’s most-engaged listeners while creating a new commercial opportunity around its podcast talent.
“Around our most-popular and trusted voices we see pent-up demand: people who want a bonus episode, the chance to interact with us and with each other, to attend an event, even to buy merch,” Rhodes said in a statement. “This subscription lets us bring all of that together, giving listeners greater access to the journalism and talent they trust.”
Rigby, Sky News’ Political Editor and one of the hosts of “Electoral Dysfunction,” said the product builds on the audience that has formed around the show since its 2024 launch.
“Since we launched in 2024, we’ve built an amazing audience of listeners — our incredible band of Dysfunctioners — and now we want to open up things more for all of you that love the pod,” Rigby said.
The move comes as Sky News says demand for its podcast slate has grown sharply over the past year. The company said podcast listens across Apple Podcasts, YouTube and Spotify increased 102 percent year over year from 2024 to 2025, while followers rose more than 70 percent between April 2025 and April 2026.
The offering is part of an ongoing initiative called Sky News 2030, which aims to evolve the news organization into a digital-first operation over the next few years. Its traditional 24-hour news channel is already available on free streaming platforms around the world, including YouTube, and the Sky News 2030 initiative aims to put more of its products, like podcasts, in front of additional news consumers while finding ways to generate revenue from those services.
Sky News said the subscription will be powered by Supporting Cast, a platform that helps media brands sell and deliver podcast subscriptions, newsletters and other members-only benefits.
