MediaCityUK is celebrating the success of its partnership with BBC Children in Need 2025, which saw the Content Studio at MediaCity for the first time serve as the new home for all behind-the-scenes digital production during this year’s broadcast.
The collaboration marked a significant moment for the UK’s creative sector, uniting national television with cutting-edge digital storytelling in one of the country’s most advanced production spaces.
The Content Studio at MediaCity is a blank canvas creative facility offering a range of spaces including light, dark and podcast studios, as well as all the tools and on-site knowledge broadcast teams and content creators need to forge the future of digital entertainment.
Throughout the event, MediaCity’s Content Studio hosted and produced a full suite of backstage digital content, as well as exclusive interviews, talent interactions, live digital drops and real-time creative moments that supported the BBC’s on-air narrative and extended the show’s reach across online and social audiences.
Across the broadcast, Content Studio delivered all of the backstage digital content for the evening, with backstage hosts Ash Holme, Charley Marlowe, and Jack Remmington capturing all the behind-the-scenes fun from the celebrity ‘Yellow Room,’ live-streaming interviews with stars and fundraisers across BBC Children in Need’s digital channels.
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Notable talent filming in the Content Studio included BBC Children in Need presenters, Mel Giedroyc, Rochelle Humes, Vernon Kay, Paddy McGuinness, Lenny Rush and Big Zuu and many more.
Andy Waters, head of studios at MediaCity, said: “The Content Studio delivering the behind-the-scenes digital production for BBC Children in Need 2025, on top of the on the night show broadcast from dock10 at MediaCity, showcased not only the technical capabilities of our studios, but also the power of creative collaboration. We were honoured to help bring audiences closer to the magic, emotion and energy of this year’s appeal.”
Tommy Nagra, outgoing director of content, BBC Children in Need, added: “Partnering with MediaCity’s Content Studio added an innovative dimension to our big Friday night live show, firmly rooting our presence in Salford and extending our ambition to reach new audiences. Their world-class facilities and creative teams enabled us to extend the life, reach and impact of our broadcast across all digital platforms. We are super grateful for their contribution to a hugely successful 2025 Appeal.”
Across MediaCity’s wider studio facilities, dock10 once again served as the operational broadcast hub for BBC Children in Need, acting as the beating digital heart of the appeal, whilst enabling teams to capture, shape and distribute the night’s most powerful moments across the country.
Inside dock10, the post-production team delivered more than 40x VT films to the live show over the four weeks leading up to transmission. The post-production team scaled from four to fourteen edit suites, supported by five dubbing suites dedicated entirely to the appeal’s content.
Films were turned around at exceptional speed, with around 20 specialists including editors, dubbing mixers, post producers, edit assistants and technical operators, who delivered BBC Children in Need 2025 to the nation’s screens.
MediaCity’s studios also took centre stage during the 2025 broadcast with a series of light projections displayed on the exterior of the studio for the first time, including this year’s money-raised totaliser.
Across the Content Studio and dock10, more than 28,000 sq ft of space was utilised to deliver this year’s BBC Children in Need production.
This year’s appeal raised £45.5m, supporting projects that help children and young people across the UK who are facing disadvantage. Year-on-year, this represents an increase of over £6m from 2024, reflecting the ongoing generosity of the public as well as partnerships, fundraising activations, programming the increased role that digital content, including that produced at MediaCity, played in driving engagement.
