Sky News Launches Version 2 of Android App

More in depth coverage including new technology section and live blogging

Improved navigation to enable users to read all the top stories from the newsroom

LONDON, 15^th June 2012: Today Sky News launches Version 2 of its Android app. The app, which has been downloaded over 1 million times, now benefits from bespoke coverage and has been updated to encompass greater depth of breaking Sky News stories.

Bespoke content for the app includes the creation of image galleries, live blogs, graphs and interactive images; all optimised for the Android smartphone. A new Technology News section will also be available in addition to the standard tabs users will expect: UK News, World News, Politics, Business, Showbiz and Strange News.

The app will be supported by the channel’s new in-house content management system that powers all Sky News’ digital platforms, allowing for more synergy across multiple devices.

Andrew Hawken, Head of Editorial, Sky News Digital commented “We are very pleased to announce the launch of this much awaited app. We continuously seek to provide our customers with the best user experience possible across multiple platforms and the features this app delivers are another step towards achieving this.”

The Sky News app for Android is available on all handsets that support Android OS2.1 and above. The app can be downloaded from Google Play.

Over 5.5 million customers have now downloaded Sky News apps across multiple devices.

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Notes to editor

For further information and images, please contact:

Claire Morgan – claire.morgan@bskyb.com /020 7032 0173

About Sky News

Since its launch in 1989, Sky News has established itself as an unrivalled, world class breaking news service with a spirit of innovation and a fresh approach to news broadcasting.

As the UK's first dedicated 24-hour news channel, Sky News has built a deserved reputation for being the first to break major news, and is renowned for the speed of its coverage and flexibility of reporting news live across all its platforms - TV, mobile, online, radio and iPad.

Sky News has increased global reach to almost 103m homes, surpassing the 100m mark for the first time. This is the effect of acquiring FTA capacity on Thor, meaning an increased reach in Scandinavia and CEE, more homes now capable of receiving FTA channels on the Astra platform and encouraging operators to move Sky News to the basic packs.

In addition to its status as one of Europe's leading 24-hour news channels, viewers can access exclusive content on its award-winning website skynews.com and real-time updates, live video and rich graphics on the Sky News for iPad. A dedicated Twitter feed (@skynewsbreak) and Facebook fan page keeps web-users up-to-date with breaking news. Its custom-built iPhone app, named in Apple’s top ten free apps of all-time, delivers breaking news by text, picture and video, and has been downloaded over two and a half million times.

In 2009, Sky News Radio became the sole provider of national and international news to all commercial stations in the UK when it took over the contract to supply IRN stations, in addition to its existing clients. It now reaches 34 million listeners a week on over 300 commercial stations including Magic FM, Classic FM and Real Radio.

Sky News’ success and quality of coverage continues to be recognised by its viewers and the industry. The 2012 RTS awards saw Sky News awarded multiple accolades including Journalist of the Year for  Alex Crawford – for a record fourth time; Presenter of the Year for Anna Botting; and wins in the Home News category for Sky’s coverage of the UK riots and the International News category for their coverage in Libya. Sky News also scooped two Golden Nymph awards at the 51st Monte-Carlo Television Festival for its dramatic coverage of the Arab Spring.