BBC Press Office

One BIG story is the talk of Balamory, we've had a sneaky Peaky at the next generation of Blinders and Robson Green's back in the North East - here's your rundown of the past seven days...

There’s a striking new mural in Middlesbrough 👀 Celebrating the stars of Smoggie Queens, the artwork has officially been unveiled as the second series of the award-winning comedy lands on BBC iPlayer It’s part of our Made of Here campaign: spotlighting the stories and storytellers that are made of the very fabric of places right across the country. The mural comes during an exciting period for the BBC in the region… 🎬 A further £15m of investment committed by 2027 (taking total Network TV commissioning spend in the North East to at least £40m) 📻 Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Sunderland  📽️ The Northumbria Mysteries, a new drama starring Robson Green, will film on location in Northumberland 📽️ The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾ filming is underway in Hartlepool and Sunderland 📺 BBC Academy’s Production Unlocked event recently visited Newcastle. The BBC’s activity in the region overall contributed more than £133 million to the North East, supporting 2,314 full time equivalent jobs in 2024/25 according to BBC analysis supported by EY. Across the region’s audiovisual sector the BBC accounts for 27% of economic activity. The artwork was created by Middlesbrough artist Stephen Irving – working as Zero Gradient. Head to the comments to read the full story and find out more about what’s happening in Boro ⤵️ 

BBC World Service is expanding 🌍 New pilot services launch in Hungarian and Romanian this June.    BBC News Magyarul and BBC News Romania will deliver news and analysis to audiences across Hungary, Romania, Moldova and beyond.    Building on the World Service’s global commitment to reach more people with trusted news, the pilot services will offer independent and impartial coverage of key global and regional developments.    “In an age of shrinking press freedom, rising disinformation, and global uncertainty, delivering independent and impartial news has never been more important,” says Interim Global Director, BBC News, Fiona Crack. “Launching BBC News Magyarul and BBC News Romania is a milestone built on innovation, like AI-assisted translation tools used responsibly, in order to reach new audiences with trusted news.” “I’m excited to be leading a team of highly skilled and experienced colleagues as we launch BBC journalism in two more languages," BBC News Magyarul and BBC News Romania Editorial Lead, Kateryna Khinkulova, adds. "Our offer is tailored to share high-quality journalism on the subjects that are of special relevance to the audiences we serve. With these two languages, we are eager to expand our reach in the region, especially to women and younger audiences, with the best of the BBC’s journalism.”   BBC News Magyarul ➡️ Tuesday 16 June BBC News Romania ➡️ Tuesday 23 June   BBC News Magyarul and BBC News Romania follow the successful launch of BBC News Polska. In less than a year, it enjoys an average weekly reach of 537,000. In the most recent quarter, this grew substantially, with a weekly average of 808,000. The service’s reach among women is particularly high, making up nearly 60% of audiences on average since launch.   The new launches expand the BBC World Service’s global content offer to 45 languages including English. BBC News Magyarul and BBC News Romania will be available digitally around the world.   Find out more: https://bbc.in/4wFkO3j

“I can tell that we’ve got world class people here, and a world class mission." Go behind the scenes of Director-General Matt Brittin CBE's first week at the BBC.

From three new hosts for Strictly to the arrival of a new DG, it's been a week of new beginnings at the BBC. Here's your rundown of the past seven days...

Audiences - and therefore the media industry - are moving so fast, changing what they want and where they want it all the time.    We're having to do that too at BBC Sport, stopping some things that were previously successful and starting others.    For the past couple of years we've tried really hard to add more depth to our storytelling, focus on the How and Why rather than just the What and have put a big focus on telling people something they don't know about the things they care about.    It's meant some hard decisions and people willing to try new things - and there's so much we could have done better, of course.    But we've got some data this week that shows us that our shift in strategy is working. You'll struggle to find someone more cynical about the way data is used across our industry than me (you can always find a number to make your point!) so I've questioned these ones long and hard. But the key figures are here and they compare like-for-like periods, ie they're not skewed by Olympics or football tournaments:   • People using BBC Sport platforms each week are up 20% in the past two years (that's website, app, iPlayer, Sounds sport content). The previous two years saw 1% growth • Daily use of our app and site is up 10% in the same period • 34% more 16-34s are coming to us each month This is so good to see alongside our increases off-platform. Yes, linear audiences are always going to be challenging but if we increase elsewhere, we can keep the BBC relevant to sports fans - and not just for the hugely important big moments like Olympics, World Cups or Wimbledon. That's what we're trying to change - how do we matter every day. There's a long way to go - and we still need to make far better progress on 16-34s using us daily - but there's some progress there, a reward for everyone's hard work. There's some big changes coming for us - exciting ones - so hopefully we can keep up the momentum. And if not, we'll change again until we get it right.

Meet the BBC’s new Director-General, Matt Brittin, and spend 60-ish seconds getting to know him a little better ⬇️

Dear England (and beyond), it's all kicking off Two Doors Down in Amandaland ahead of the FA Cup Final, Big Break is back and Vienna's calling... here's your round up of the past seven days.

A record quarter for BBC Sounds! 🎙️🎉 It was an incredible start to 2026 as titles including The Archers (in its 75th anniversary year, no less), The Traitors: Uncloaked, In Our Time, Newscast and Americast helped contribute to 718 million plays of radio, podcasts and music between January and March. For audio plays from across the BBC including BBC Sport, BBC News, BBC Bitesize and visualised podcasts on iPlayer, there was an average weekly audience of 5.8 million, peaking at a record 7.2 million during the week of The Traitors: Uncloaked finale (w/c 19 January), an increase of a million plays on the previous quarter’s peak. Beyond BBC platforms, our podcasts and on demand radio programmes were downloaded 231 million times on third-party platforms last quarter. Audiences continued to discover our programmes on socials with a total of 1.1 billion social video views of BBC audio content between January and March, up 21% compared with the same period last year. “This has been another exceptional quarter for our speech audio output, with audiences continuing to seek out distinctive storytelling and shared cultural moments,” says Mohit Bakaya, Controller of BBC Radio 4 and Director of BBC Speech Audio. “From the enduring popularity of The Archers in its 75th anniversary year, to the continued strength of In Our Time and the immersive storytelling of Uncanny, it’s clear that our programmes remain at the heart of how audiences connect with BBC audio.” Jonathan Wall, Director, BBC Sounds says: “BBC Sounds has had a brilliant start to 2026. It’s great to see audiences coming in record numbers, and also finding our content through podcasts and socials off platform. I’m pleased to see younger listeners enjoying new titles like Game’s Gone: The Steve Bracknell Podcast and Audio Lab’s MF Doom: Long Island to Leeds, which show the value of backing fresh ideas and distinctive new voices. It’s also great to see some of our Tour de Force famous shows like The Archers, Desert Island Discs and In Our Time, in fine form.” Find out more and read the Q1 2026 report ➡️ https://lnkd.in/ew-Qv2vh

12 wins at the 2026 BAFTA Television Awards 🤩 The BBC was recognised across a broad range of categories, with more awards than any other broadcaster or streamer. “This year’s BAFTA winners span such a range of categories demonstrating the strength and breadth of the BBC’s content,” says Chief Content Officer Kate Phillips. “A big theme of the night was the value of bringing audiences together, the importance of shared viewing, and we do that by backing our outstanding creatives. They have created utterly brilliant shows and I couldn’t be more thrilled for all the winners.” 🏆 Actor in a Comedy – Steve Coogan (How Are You It’s Alan Partridge) 🏆 Actress in a Comedy – Katherine Parkinson (Here We Go) 🏆 Children’s: Scripted - Crongton 🏆 Daytime – Scam Interceptors 🏆 Leading Actress – Narges Rashidi - Prisoner 951 🏆 Live Event Coverage – Ve Day 80: A Celebration To Remember  🏆 Memorable Moment – The Celebrity Traitors 🏆 Reality – The Celebrity Traitors 🏆 Scripted Comedy – Amandaland  🏆 Soap – EastEnders 🏆 Specialist Factual – Simon Schama: The Road To Auschwitz 🏆 Sports Coverage – UEFA Women’s Euros 2025