Sky News direct to customer streaming app launches – jumps up the News Charts and steals customers from Flash

For the news junkies a $5 per month subscription to News Corp’s 24/7 news channel Sky News as well as Sky News Weather, Fox Sports News and Sky News Extra is a pretty good deal and available now direct via the new Sky News Australia app or website.

Announced just recently, the launch gives Sky a kick start to their digital strategy at the start of 2024, importantly it opens up a direct to consumer revenue strategy they’ve not previously had as a business.

Sky News operates independently from Foxtel despite their studios being in the Foxtel building, as such this revenue source is a potential starting point to a more independent future, and at the same time likely takes directly from the Foxtel Group revenue as users cancel the Flash News service ($8 per month) to opt for Sky News at the lesser price.

That’s exactly what I did today, and while I’m not sure my new Digital subscription purchased via the Apple App Store is actually linked to my News Corp account – these are little early teething bugs I suspect.

the Sky News Australia app doesn’t restrict you to on-device use either, with Chromecast options allowing you to watch on a larger screen.

Earlier today the Sky News App was outside the Top Ten News apps on iPhone, but as of this afternoon it’s jumped up to be #5, and sits as the number two Media Organisation in Australia for downloads today behind the ABC and ahead of 9News.

This isn’t going to rival Kayo or Stan any time soon, but for the 70,000 or so Flash News subscribers, it might be I’m not the only one getting this email after cancelling Flash:

The overall measure of success for Sky News will be hard to judge from the outside, but their app is slick, fast and the stream instant, well worth a look.