BBC Scotland Set to Introduce Scotcast and News at Seven

BBC Scotland has revealed that its new television program, Reporting Scotland: News at Seven, and the current affairs podcast, Scotcast, are scheduled to debut in January. The News at Seven broadcast will be anchored by Laura Maciver and Amy Irons. It is set to air for 30 minutes each weeknight, commencing on January 6, exclusively on the BBC Scotland channel. According to the BBC, this program is intended to supplement Reporting Scotland, which will maintain its 18:30 broadcast slot on BBC One and remain the corporation’s principal source for national news coverage in Scotland. Martin Geissler will host Scotcast, which will become accessible starting January 13 across multiple platforms including BBC Sounds, BBC Scotland, BBC One Scotland, BBC iPlayer, and BBC Radio Scotland. The introduction of News at Seven comes after BBC Scotland’s decision to discontinue its hour-long television news program, The Nine, five years subsequent to its initial launch. Additionally, the corporation is discontinuing two other shows broadcast on the BBC Scotland channel: The Edit, an entertainment news program, and Seven Days, a weekly news review. BBC Scotland stated that the News at Seven program is designed to adopt a conversational and informal style, presenting stories “focusing on the people at the heart of communities from Shetland to Selkirk”. The corporation also indicated that Scotcast aims to “go behind the headlines, bringing insight, analysis, conversation and a bit of humour to the stories that audiences are talking about”. Additional plans by BBC Scotland to reconfigure its news services have been outlined. Gary Smith, Head of News & Current affairs at BBC Scotland, stated: “We need to make sure we keep changing our output as audience habits evolve so that we provide the best possible service in the formats and on the platforms they want. Scotcast and News at Seven will help do that, and we’re looking forward to bringing them to audiences at the start of 2025.” Copyright 2024 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC does not assume responsibility for the content of external sites. Further information on its approach to external linking can be found.