Introducing CBC News Explore, our free channel for streaming audiences

We use this editor's blog to explain our journalism and what's happening at CBC News. You can find more blogs here.

Each week, about 4.2 million people will watch our flagship newscast The National by doing what viewers have been doing for many years: they will tune in on CBC-TV at 10 p.m. (Or on CBC News Network beginning at 9 p.m. ET.)

However, you might be surprised to learn that millions more watch The National, or individual items produced by The National, elsewhere every week.

These viewers are streaming live and on demand via the CBC News App, our website, CBC Gem, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Apple TV, Roku TV and other internet-connected televisions. They are watching what they want, when they want it, and where they want it.

While some critics focus on traditional TV audience numbers as the only measure of our success, the real story of how an organization like the CBC reaches and grows its audience in today's multiplatform media landscape is much bigger and infinitely more complex.

Streaming audiences, though fragmented, are sizable and growing, hungry for high-quality, fact-based Canadian video journalism just not in the places we've traditionally offered TV news.

We won't treat them as an afterthought.

CBC News Explore

That's why we've launched a free streaming channel and new streaming brand. It is called CBC News Explore a place where Canadians can step back from the fast pace of breaking news for a deeper dive into the stories and conversations that shape our lives.

We invite you to explore it.

CBC News Explore

Started 3 months ago

Live

CBC News Explore takes you beyond the headlines to explain and experience the news with our journalists in Canada and the world.

CBC News Explore brings together the very best of our CBC News video, current affairs and long-form programming, in addition to some original shows, including a new daily program hosted by Andrew Chang.

About That aims to expand our understanding of the stories everyone's talking about, with openness and genuine curiosity. As the show's team puts it, Chang finds "the awesome in daily news," and digs deep into stories with a clear focus and a sense of wonder. It airs live on CBC News Explore at 11 a.m. ET, repeats later in the day and can be watched any time on demand.

More original shows featured on CBC News Explore:

• This Week In Canada: A weekly program that explores and explains news playing out in the heart of local communities across the country.

• BIG: A monthly documentary special that exposes how the planet's biggest industries quietly impact our daily lives. Launching this month is BIG True Crime, which explores how the entertainment industry's embrace of real crime stories affects decisions made by police, courts and the news media.

• Planet Wonder with host Johanna Wagstaffe: In this original six-episode series, Wagstaffe seeks answers to unusual climate questions, introduces us to the smart people chasing solutions to climate change, and takes us on a journey through forests, across oceans, up mountains and into laboratories.

• Playlists, featuring the best of CBC News's daily journalism and features, including curated segments on the cost of living, climate change and our changing planet, and stories found only In Canada.

The core offer of the streaming channel showcases compelling video journalism produced across our national and local networks, including our flagship news and investigative programs such as The National, The Fifth Estate and Marketplace. You'll also find the "At Issue" panel hosted by chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton in regular rotation.

We are especially excited to showcase on CBC News Explore more of the incredible local journalism and award-winning regional stories the CBC does each week from coast to coast to coast, as part of our mandate to connect and reflect this country. Today, so many of our regional news features and current affairs videos are seen by local audiences, but they don't always fit into a national TV news program due to the time constraints of the broadcast schedule even though they're personally relevant, no matter where you live.

CBC News Explore is different from CBC News Network, which remains our premium live-and-breaking, 24-hour news channel, available through your cable and satellite TV service or on CBC Gem.

To be clear, CBC News Network continues to be a top destination for breaking news, having served standout audiences this past year alone, on major news events such as the convoy protests and the ongoing Emergencies Act inquiry, the war in Ukraine, the death of the Queen and Fiona's impact on Atlantic Canada, to name just a few examples.

Where to watch

The free CBC News Explore stream will run continuously on a growing number of platforms, beginning with CBC Gem, the CBC News App, CBCNews.ca and The Roku Channel (channel 105 in Canada). We intend for people to find it on more connected TVs in the months ahead.

Meanwhile, many of the programs and segments on CBC News Explore are also available on demand in all the places you already find our on-demand video: CBC Gem, our news website and app, our YouTube pages and social media channels.

We are excited to offer Canadians a new way to explore the very best of CBC News. It is an important part of our mandate as a public broadcaster. It is also an important part of our future to serve Canadians on the platform of their choice.

Stream CBC News Explore now free and fully launched as of this week.