BBC to double spending to £100m on programmes made in Scotland and other devolved nations

The broadcaster said it will increase spend on programmes made in the ”nations” from around £50m last year to over £100m million from 2027/28.

The increased investment, which the BBC said would come from within existing budgets, aims to ensure “more high-impact, quality programmes that tell authentic, homegrown stories from the devolved nations to UK-wide audiences”.

Only Child, starring Gregor Fisher and Gary Tank Commander star Greg McHugh, began filming a second series in the summer. The six part series, which was nominated for an RTS Scotland best comedy award, is filmed in Glasgow and locations in Paisley, Helensburgh and Dunlop.

The broadcaster said other programmes made in Northern Ireland and Wales, including Belfast-based police series Blue Light and Welsh-set cosy crime series Death Valley, starring Timothy Spall, had been a success in recent months.

The changes will include drama, comedy and unscripted shows such as reality programmes and documentaries,

The BBC said it will also continue to build its commissioning presence across the UK, with specialisms reflected across the nations and more commissioning roles in the Midlands and North of England, having almost doubled the number of network commissioners based outside of London since 2021.

This announcement builds on the BBC’s previous Across the UK commitment to increase the volume of portrayal in its output, which has also seen a range of programmes made representing communities in England, from This City Is Ours and Riot Women to Smoggie Queens and Ambulance.

Rhuanedd Richards, interim director of nations at the BBC, said: “It is widely recognised that in recent years the BBC has significantly improved how we authentically represent and portray the people, communities and nations of these isles - but we want to go further.

“By spending more of our budget on homegrown storytelling and ensuring that more decision-making happens closer to audiences, we believe we can become even more relevant, distinctive and loved by audiences everywhere.”

She added: “This is an important development for commissioning in the nations, but our ambition is to go even further. This approach will also lead to greater investment the creative economies across the UK.”

Kate Phillips, BBC chief content officer, said: “Ensuring accurate and authentic representation of audiences across the UK is fundamental to the BBC’s core purpose. Over recent years, we’ve worked hard to increase the impact of our portrayal content.

“Today’s announcement not only ensures more of our content budget is channelled towards this vital work, but also marks our intention to create an integrated commissioning team to shape a high-impact slate of content that reflects each nation’s distinctive voice.

“As well as making our content more relevant to audiences, we hope this new way of working will offer clearer entry points and decision-making for our external partners and producers. By collaborating more closely and investing more consistently, we can deliver a slate that captures life across the UK with scale and creative impact never seen before.”