''BBC News Now'', styled also as ''BBC News Now with Lucy Hockings'', is a news programme that premiered on both UK feed and international feed of

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

channel on 22 May 2023 as part of a refresh following the merger of the two news channels. The programme is mainly hosted by

Lucy Hockings Lucy Hockings is a New Zealand news presenter for the BBC, moderator, events host and media trainer. Her roles include anchoring ''Live with Lucy Hockings'' on BBC World News. Early life, education and early career Hockings was born on 7 Ap ...

. Its main focus is on fast-paced international

breaking news Breaking news, interchangeably termed late-breaking news and also known as a special report or special coverage or news flash, is a current issue that broadcasters feel warrants the interruption of scheduled programming or current news in orde ...

, covering as many stories with as much details as possible in each of its episodes. The format includes report packages, interviews, and live reactions, updates, and images from where each story breaks out. Like its predecessors (World News Today, GMT and Live with Lucy Hockings) its designed a morning programme for North America and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the souther ...

, a lunchtime/afternoon programme for

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

and

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, an evening programme for

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an ...

, and a late night/early morning programme for Australia and

Oceania Oceania (, , ) is a region, geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern Hemisphere, Eastern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of ...

History

On the course of

channel mergers, ''Live'' (also styled as ''Live with Lucy Hockings''), which has a similar background as ''BBC News Now'' and was also presented by

, aired for the last time on 3 March 2023 on the then BBC World News. However, BBC announced that

would stay as a presenter for the merged channel. The programme was announced by the BBC to begin broadcasting on 22 May 2023, with

as the main presenter. However, the first episode, which aired that day, was presented by Maryam Moshiri. It is thought that Maryam Moshiri was at the time the chief relief presenter for all newly launched programmes, including ''BBC News Now''. The programme puts the newest breaking news and stories as its priority to cover, while bringing live images, reactions, and updates to each story from the location where the story happens, like ''Live'' programme it spiritually replaces. On 6 December 2023, just before starting a newscast Moshiri was captured with her

middle finger The middle finger, long finger, second finger, third finger, toll finger or tall man is the third digit of the human hand, located between the index finger and the ring finger. It is typically the longest digit. In anatomy, it is also called ...

to the camera, for which she apologised saying it was a "private joke" with the staff. It was later revealed that Moshiri had been counting down with her fingers with the floor manager, representing "1" with the middle finger, and she expressed relief that the full video showing this has been released.

Schedule

''All time schedules are in UK time, which is either GMT or BST depending on the month.'' ''BBC News Now'' airs on weekdays and splits into six parts. The first five parts, broadcasting at 12:00, 12:30, 13:00, 13:30, and 14:00, air for 30 minutes each. The last part, which broadcasts at 14:45, airs for 15 minutes. All parts are shown on both UK and international feed of BBC News channel, except the 13:00 and 13:30 editions, when the UK feed opts out to show ''

BBC News at One The ''BBC News at One'' is the afternoon/lunchtime news bulletin from the BBC. Produced by BBC News, the programme is broadcast on BBC One and the BBC News channel (via British Sign Language) from Monday to Sunday at 1:00pm for 30 minutes, altho ...

'' and ''

Sportsday ''Sports Today'' is a long-running radio show on Melbourne, Australia radio station 3AW. It currently airs on Monday to Thursday from 6 pm to 8 pm and is hosted by Gerard Healy and Sam McClure. Previously, it was hosted by David Hookes and Gerar ...

'' respectively. The first 15 minutes also air on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream ...

on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday before breaking away for

Politics Live ''Politics Live'' is a BBC News political programme which launched on 3 September 2018. It is presented by Jo Coburn and features at least four guests debating the political stories of the day, as well as reports and other content. It is broadca ...

, during parliamentary recess and bank holidays the full first hour airs on BBC Two.

Presentation

The programme is usually broadcast from Studio C

Broadcasting House Broadcasting House is the headquarters of the BBC, in Portland Place and Langham Place, London. The first radio broadcast from the building was made on 15 March 1932, and the building was officially opened two months later, on 15 May. The m ...

in London, although it may sometimes use Studio E as a backup studio.

Presenters

When Lucy Hockings presents, the title sequence ends by stating ''BBC News Now with Lucy Hockings''. However, if other presenters present, the title sequence simply states ''BBC News Now'' regardless of the relief presenter. Moshiri left the programme in early 2024 after being appointed as the main presenter of The World Today.

Former

Former presenters

References

External links

* {{BBC News 2023 British television series debuts 2020s British television series BBC World News original programming British English-language television shows