As well as being available via all multi-channel outlets in Northern Ireland (including via Sky channel 101), the programme can be accessed by the rest of the United Kingdom (along with all other regional BBC news programmes) on the BBC iPlayer, or alternatively on Sky channel 973.

Up until the launch of Today in Northern Ireland, a networked topical magazine programme, Ulster Mirror, had been broadcast every fortnight since Friday 26 November 1954.

The new daily bulletins were later expanded to ten minutes and supplemented by a magazine programme called Studio Eight, first broadcast on Friday 20 February 1959 with Robert Coulter as its presenter.

[2] The new longer magazine programmes changed title to Six Five and Six Ten until Scene Around Six was introduced in January 1968.

The programme's first presenters were political editor Jim Dougal and reporter Yvette Shapiro.