BBC to turn Newscast into daily podcast after success of Brexitcast

The BBC will turn Brexitcast-replacement Newscast into a daily podcast from this spring, and continue to broadcast it on TV once a week.

Newscast aired its first episode on 6 February, having transformed from Brexitcast after the UK officially left the EU at the end of January. It currently broadcasts on a weekly basis.

The show was originally created as Electioncast to cover last December’s general election that returned Boris Johnson to Number 10, during which time it was broadcast on a daily basis.

Newscast will be available to download daily on the BBC Sounds app and will air on BBC One and the BBC News Channel every Thursday evening.

Brexitcast was the first podcast to air on TV at the BBC. It topped the BBC Sounds download charts last year with 18m downloads and plays.

The show continues to be presented by BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg, Europe editor Katya Adler and political correspondents Chris Mason and Adam Fleming.

It is understood no decisions have been made on a regular host once it transforms into a daily offering, but the intention is the show will continue to have a political focus on Thursdays.

Elsewhere at the BBC, Beyond Today will move from a daily podcast to publishing episodes twice-weekly, also from spring. It recorded nearly 11m downloads and plays across all platforms last year after launching in October 2018.

Americast, presented by Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis and BBC North America editor Jon Sopel, will continue to air weekly with ad-hoc episodes for big breaking news.

The Next Episode podcast will continue to cover stories outside of the main news agenda and will showcase new music from BBC Introducing.

The BBC has said its news podcast offerings complement each other and will “work closely together” to “cover the main news agenda, explain big issues and shine a light on under-reported stories”.

Last week BBC political correspondent Jon Pienaar announced he was leaving the BBC to take up the role of drivetime host at Times Radio, a new station launching at Rupert Murdoch’s News UK.

Picture: BBC