Spotlight on digital innovation as five Welsh companies receive funding for research and development

Five Welsh companies have benefitted from £80,000 to research and develop innovative digital content for YouTube audiences.

Media Cymru, led by the Centre for the Creative Economy at Cardiff University has partnered with BBC Cymru Wales to launch the joint Digital Innovation Fund.

The Wales-based production companies - each awarded £16,000 - will creatively reimagine existing content for the online platform, thinking about how their returning series for BBC Cymru Wales can be changed or revamped, to expand the reach of a well-loved brand while building a bridge back to BBC iPlayer.

The fund, which targets digital innovation, is the first of its kind for BBC Cymru Wales. It follows the news about BBC’s recent YouTube partnership, announced last month.

Digital Innovation Fund companies include: Beastly Media, Cadno, Cwmni Da, Darlun Cyf. and One Tribe TV.

Beastly Media’s project will focus on their award-winning comedy The Golden Cobra and Cadno will work with Iolo Williams and his crew to reveal the real wild side of filming nature. Cwmni Da will develop videos using AI tools to target a digital-first, bilingual, YouTube audience whilst Darlun Cyf. will explore immersive storytelling for SOS: Extreme Rescues. One Tribe TV’s project aims to connect a digital native audience to platforms more familiar with traditional linear TV.

Sara Pepper, Co-Director at Media Cymru and Director of Creative Economy at Cardiff University, said: “Our previous partnerships with BBC Cymru Wales, through the Content Innovation Fund in 2023 and the Climate Content Fund in 2025, have sparked a strong pipeline of new ideas, approaches and engagement with emerging technologies. As our collaboration continues to grow, we’re really pleased to be working together once again on this new fund focused on digital innovation.”

Nick Andrews, Head of Commissioning for BBC Cymru Wales, said: “The new strategic partnership with YouTube is part of the BBC’s value for all strategy, ensuring more BBC content is accessible to all audiences wherever they are, delivering more for audiences and supporting Creators across the whole of the UK. This new fund, in partnership with Media Cymru, will help enable us to deliver this strategy, developing key BBC Cymru Wales programme brands for those hard-to-reach audiences and bringing more people to the BBC.”

Media Cymru is a collaboration aimed to turn Cardiff and the surrounding capital region’s media sector into a global hub for media innovation with a focus on green and fair economic growth.

Since 2022, this strategic investment programme has brought together 22 media production, broadcast, technology, university and local leadership partners to supercharge media innovation.