BBC Scotland to launch Scotcast and News at Seven in January

BBC Scotland has announced its Reporting Scotland: News at Seven TV programme and current affairs podcast Scotcast will launch in January.

Laura Maciver and Amy Irons will present News at Seven, which will broadcast for 30 minutes every weeknight from 6 January on the BBC Scotland channel.

The BBC said it would complement Reporting Scotland, which will continue to air at 18:30 on BBC One and provide the corporation’s primary coverage of Scotland’s national news.

Scotcast will be hosted by Martin Geissler and will be available from 13 January on BBC Sounds, BBC Scotland, BBC One Scotland, BBC iPlayer and BBC Radio Scotland.

The launch of News at Seven follows BBC Scotland’s decision to scrap its hour-long TV news programme The Nine, five years after its launch.

The corporation is also cancelling two other programmes on the BBC Scotland channel – entertainment news show The Edit and weekly news review Seven Days.

BBC Scotland said the News at Seven programme would have a conversational and informal tone and bring stories “focusing on the people at the heart of communities from Shetland to Selkirk”.

The corporation said Scotcast would “go behind the headlines, bringing insight, analysis, conversation and a bit of humour to the stories that audiences are talking about”.

Other BBC Scotland plans to reshape its news services include:

Gary Smith, Head of News & Current affairs at BBC Scotland, said: “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.”