𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Thursday’s development is part of the specific drive by the BBC to take its trusted news to audiences who aren’t tuning in to the news channel directly or via the iPlayer.

BBC News’s director of AI, innovation and growth, Anjali Kapoor, said in a statement that audiences “increasingly expect news to be available wherever they are, on the platforms they use throughout their day.

“Launching the BBC News channel on YouTube in the UK and US is an important step in bringing our trusted journalism to even more people.”

She added: “It will make it easier for audiences to access live coverage of the stories shaping our world, while helping us reach new audiences in the places and at the times that work best for them.”

The move is all part of the fight to combat the disinformation taking hold across social media and beyond.

But it also won’t hurt in the continuing negotiations over the BBC’s charter and its future funding after 2027.

This is another signal to the government that the BBC takes its mission seriously; that it is the place for trusted, impartial news and that it understands it must make that news available as widely as possible.

However, viewers in the UK, watching the channel live on YouTube, may not realise they still need a TV licence to do that.

But with no guardrails around who’s watching, no ability – for now anyway – for the BBC to insist you prove you’ve paid the fee before you can access its YouTube channels (or its own streaming channels), it’s going to be hard to enforce.