BBC World Service has partnered with BBC Studios to launch a new daily news podcast which deep dives into one story per episode, with input from the BBC’s global journalists and experts around the world.
The Global Story is hosted by Katya Adler, editor of BBC Europe since 2014 and host of BBC Radio 4 podcast Understand. The podcast is a spin-off from BBC World Service’s Global News Podcast, which brings twice-daily updates about the latest stories in international news, while The Global Story offers more context and analysis on specific stories.
“I’m excited to launch The Global Story to challenge, inform and stimulate audiences around the world,” said Adler. “We promise our listeners to strip away all those screaming headlines we’re bombarded with, to peel back lazy assumptions and to provide you with fresh global perspectives on the stories that matter. I can’t wait to get started.”
BBC World Service’s Global News Podcast was the number one most popular podcast in terms of downloads across third-party platforms for the latest quarter, according to BBC Sounds’ Q3 2023 report. The second most popular podcast in that category was BBC World Service’s The Documentary Podcast, which investigates and explores stories from around the world.
The Global Story podcast is produced by the BBC Long Form Audio News Podcast team, which is behind award-winning news podcasts from the broadcasting corporation including Americast, Ukrainecast, and Newscast. The podcast will be available from 27 November and will be released on BBC Sounds and other major podcast platforms.
As part of the broadcasting corporation’s growing audio strategy, the BBC has confirmed its plans to move a significant part of its speech audio production to BBC Studios by April 2024, which will allow BBC Studios the ability to undertake commercial audio production work for other platforms such as Spotify and Amazon. BBC Studios also recently appointed Wondery head of UK podcast content Richard Knight as its new director of audio as it prepares for the move.
“We’re truly excited to bring listeners to this new podcast with the best of the BBC’s global analysis from our teams right around the world,” said BBC World Service controller Jon Zilkha. “We know how much audiences value trusted news and information from the BBC World Service and I look forward to them hearing the podcast.”
“I’m delighted that BBC Studios and BBC World Service are launching The Global Story,” said BBC Studios content creation and acquisition senior vice president Cassian Harrison. “I look forward to bringing our world class journalism and expert analysis from our global news teams, offering listeners a unique insight into the most pressing global stories.”
