Sky News Signs New Multi-Year Deal with IRN Boosting Long-Term Collaboration with Commercial Radio Stations Across the UK

Sky News has agreed a deal with IRN (Independent Radio News) to continue providing national and international news, sport, business and showbusiness content to commercial radio stations across the UK.

Effective from today (10^th March), the renewal features an expanded agreement allowing IRN radio stations – including LBC, Absolute Radio, talkSPORT, Smooth Radio, Heart, Magic and Times Radio – to use Sky News video content on their digital platforms. This move aligns with the evolving nature of radio brands and Sky News’ heritage for high-quality video-first journalism and storytelling.

Video content includes access to Sky News’ award-winning breaking & live television news channel for social clips, as well as the use of judges’ sentencing remarks from the ‘cameras in courts’ feed which Sky News campaigned for.

David Rhodes, Executive Chairman of Sky News Group, said: “We’re delighted to continue our collaboration with IRN, and expand our service to commercial radio stations across the UK with video access. Sky News’ reputation for breaking news, and video-first journalism provides our partners with an unparalleled service of accurate and fast reporting that gives audiences the full story, first.” 

Tim Molloy, Managing Director of IRN, said: “IRN is very happy to continue our successful partnership with Sky News. In an uncertain world commercial radio news teams rely on IRN for coverage of the biggest stories at home and abroad, which will now include video for the first time. Sky News’ radio team of journalists remain ideally positioned to produce the IRN service, sitting within a world class multi-award winning 24/7 newsroom, with access to a network of the best correspondents globally.”

Commercial radio remains highly popular, with the latest RAJAR figures showing a weekly listenership of 39.9 million per week (Q4 2024). The radio service provided by Sky News for IRN is 24 hours a day, producing scripts, audio clips, and live and recorded bulletins, along with match reporting rights for the Premier League and Wimbledon tennis coverage.

Radio partners benefit from access to Sky News’ award-winning UK and international newsgathering resources, delivering breaking news updates, eyewitness reporting, and in-depth analysis to their listeners.

The IRN agreement is part of a broader audio portfolio that includes Sky News’ award-winning podcasts and smart speaker offerings. Sky News continues to invest in its newsgathering and audio services, with a dedicated podcast team and growing visualised episodes.

Sky News’ latest podcast, Trump 100, achieved over two million listens before reaching the halfway mark of its release, demonstrating strong week-on-week growth and significant engagement with the complementary video content.

Trump 100 builds on Sky News’ podcast successes in 2024, which saw the launch of four new podcasts in 12 months, with Electoral Dysfunction, Unreliable Witness, and Patient 11 each topping the podcast charts. Total downloads in 2024 grew 12% year-on-year, with total listens from third party platforms (Spotify and Apple) were up 35% year-on-year.

Listen to and follow Sky News podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and on the Sky News App and website. 

For further information, please contact:

Tatiana Alderson, Communications Manager, Sky News – tatiana.alderson@sky.uk

Sian Parry, Head of Communications, Sky News – sian.parry@sky.uk

At Sky News, our mission is to bring you the full story, first. We take you there, 24:7, reporting from the heart of the events changing our world. We ask the big questions of everyone, revealing what you want to know. And our style is bold and independent, giving you a fresh perspective. 

IRN provides news services to commercial radio in the UK and to English speaking stations globally. In addition to a ready to air hourly bulletin 24/7 the service also includes regular audio and scripts on entertainment news, finance, technology and sport, including match reporting rights on the Premier League. Whatever a station’s format the IRN service enables local radio journalists to create a bulletin that suits their audience and gives them peace of mind that if a major story breaks they can, if they choose, rely on the IRN bulletin to be there every hour.