Sky News

Sky News is a British 24-hour television news channel launched in 1989 as part of Rupert Murdoch's Sky broadcast empire, now owned by Comcast/NBCUniversal following the 2018 acquisition of the Sky group from Fox. Sky News operates as an editorially independent broadcaster under a licence condition and is one of the UK's two primary rolling news channels alongside BBC News. On 25 June 2026, Sky's parent Comcast agreed provisional terms for Sky to acquire ITV's Media and Entertainment Arm, including ITV's linear channels and the ITVX streaming service, for £1.6bn, pending Ofcom and CMA approval; Love Productions and ITV Studios remain outside the deal.

Sky News' security editor Deborah Haynes conducted the interview with Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, the UK's Chief of the Defence Staff, in April 2026, in which Knighton announced Britain was rebuilding its Government War Book, a Cold War-era civil mobilisation framework abandoned in the early 2000s. The interview was one of the most significant on-record statements about UK war preparedness to emerge from the conflict period. Sky News has maintained a substantial international reporting operation, available across Europe, the Middle East and Australia through both broadcast and digital platforms, with reach extended through Sky News Arabia to Arabic-language audiences.

Sky News has also been a platform for significant primary-source statements across other Lowdown topics: Treasury Secretary Bessent told Sky News that tanker convoy escorts through the Strait of Hormuz would happen 'as soon as militarily possible', directly contradicting Energy Secretary Wright's simultaneous claim that the US was 'simply not ready'. The Sky-ITV combination, if approved, would significantly reshape UK commercial broadcasting, giving Comcast ownership of both the dominant pay-TV platform and ITV's linear broadcast and streaming assets, and would represent the most significant consolidation of UK commercial broadcasting in two decades.