NBC has announced that it will begin offering free video podcasts of NBC Nightly News and Meet The Press. The downloads will be made available in iTunes after the nightly showings on the west coast. These are not excerpts or a special shortened versions, the entire show will be made available for download. It is unsure at this point if the downloads will be ad free.

This marks the first time that an entire nightly newscast will be made available for free download. Shows are currently available in an on demand ad supported format at a number of places, and MSNBC’s deputy editor Randy Stearns still believes this is what viewers really want.

It will be interesting to see how this pans out. If viewers like it, we may see more full video content made available for free over iTunes.

Source: Ars Technica.