BBC to invest an additional £11m in Northern Ireland over the next three years

BBC makes biggest investment in Northern Ireland in 20 years.

Published: 5 April 2017
This is great news for BBC Northern Ireland, but more importantly, great news for audiences. It is the biggest single investment the BBC has made in Northern Ireland in 20 years.
— Tony Hall, BBC Director-General

The BBC has today announced it will be investing more than £11m additional funding into services in BBC Northern Ireland over the next three years to benefit local audiences.

This investment will enable BBC Northern Ireland to transform its digital output across news, sport and other areas, produce more ambitious drama, factual and comedy content on BBC One Northern Ireland and boost its service to younger audiences.

The BBC wants to do even more to reflect Northern Ireland on screen and to recognise the need to spend more of the licence fee raised in Northern Ireland on content and services made in and for the region. This is why the BBC is making its biggest investment in Northern Ireland in 20 years.

Over the next three years, this additional £11m investment will facilitate:

  • An enhanced digital service from BBC News NI, with improved news coverage throughout the day and weekends.
  • Greater coverage of local sport online, including live streaming of events across a range of sports.
  • A 50 per cent increase in commissioning spend on local television content - meaning more drama, comedy and factual programmes and events on BBC One Northern Ireland.
  • New digital content and services for younger audiences and new digital investment in radio.
  • New content to mark major historical anniversaries in Northern Ireland

Tony Hall, BBC Director-General, says: “This is great news for BBC Northern Ireland, but more importantly, great news for audiences. It is the biggest single investment the BBC has made in Northern Ireland in 20 years. It will transform our digital output - for news and sport and more. It means more drama, factual and comedy content. All things we know the public love and want from the BBC.”

Today’s announcement in Northern Ireland follows similar announcements earlier this year in Scotland and Wales as part of the BBC’s commitment to reflect the whole of the UK and the people it serves as highlighted in the new Charter.

The BBC also today renewed its successful partnership agreement with Northern Ireland Screen, which sees them continue to work together to invest in developing an internationally competitive screen industry in Northern Ireland. Among the successes of the first agreement, which was signed in 2015, were dramas Line Of Duty and The Fall, children’s programming including Millie Inbetween and Pablo, an animated CBeebies series about a five-year-old boy on the autistic spectrum; and the trainee scheme Aim High which seeks to provide transformative opportunities for new talent in the industry.

JM4

Notes to Editors

  • In 2015/16 The BBC invested £53.3m in local BBC programmes and services (including indirect costs).
  • Locally produced programmes broadcast on BBC One Northern Ireland and BBC Two Northern Ireland regularly add significant share to these channels. For example the recent first programme of the new series of Keepin ‘Er Country received a local audience share of 34 per cent, compared to the network share at that time of 16 per cent.
  • In 2016 the BBC also established the Portrayal Fund to help ensure that people from all parts of the UK are reflected on screen.
  • In 2015/16 there were 350m UK page views to BBC News NI online.
  • Further detail on the different areas of investment will follow in due course.

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