When the BBC moved a significant part of its national operation to the banks of Salford Quays, the outcry was deafening. The BBC had “lost its marbles”; “it’s grim up North” screamed the headlines.

Six years later, with more than 3,000 staff generating more than 35,000 hours of content each year, as well as a plethora of BBC apps and websites, BBC North is a huge success.

At the last count the BBC was putting more than £420m a year into the regional economy. We play a significant role in the creative and digital economies in Greater Manchester, and across the North of England, and more importantly, the content we create for the whole BBC, better reflects the lives, passions and concerns of licence fee payers who live outside the South East.

The London-based Centre for Cities claims the BBC’s move to Salford has had a “negligible” impact on the region’s economy. Did they ask anyone in Greater Manchester about that? Did they come see first-hand the difference our move, and others like it, have on the region - the regeneration that it has kick started?

Here it is widely acknowledged the BBC was a significant catalyst in the regeneration and growth of Salford and Greater Manchester. MediaCityUK is home to the BBC, ITV, Dock10 Studios, University of Salford, the UTC and City College, as well as more than 250 creative and digital SMEs - today more than 7,000 people work here. And that figure continues to grow. Indeed, the BBC itself has grown by more than 700 jobs since we moved here six years ago.

Earlier this year Salford was ranked in the top five hot spots for start-up companies - with over 1300 new companies launching new businesses between January and March, outstripping even London. In Greater Manchester, the digital sector has doubled its worth since 2010 to £3.1bn. Does that sound "negligible" to you?

And don’t just take my word for it. Sean Anstee, leader of Trafford Council and the councillor leading on employment and skills for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, says: “The BBC’s move to Salford has benefited not just Salford, but Greater Manchester as a whole and indeed the entire North West. As well as the direct benefits of the thousands of people that are now employed across Greater Manchester as a result of the BBC’s relocation, the move North has been instrumental in sparking a creative and digital revolution in the city region”.

Business agree too. Mike Blackburn, Chair of the Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership, says: “Quite frankly a report that says the BBC has not had a positive impact on Greater Manchester is ridiculous. The BBC move to Manchester has been extraordinary, transformational and was the catalyst for a media and creative boom, creating the second largest cluster of digital and creative business in Europe.”

By any measure: economic, creative, cultural and more - our move has delivered benefits in spades. I’m proud to lead the BBC in the North I’m proud of what we’ve all achieved here.

Alice Webb Director of BBC North & BBC Children’s

Here's to the next five years

Alice Webb is Director BBC Children's and BBC North.

The BBC has been busy building something quite special in the north of England. The DIY SOS: Homes for Veterans project - the programme's biggest project in its 16 year history, watched by 10.9 million of you across both episodes - saw an entire street in Manchester transformed and homes for ex-service personnel and their families created out of empty houses, aided by our partners Manchester City Council, charity Walking with the Wounded and Haig Housing. Even Prince William and Prince Harry helped out, rebuilding a community in which the military veterans are now enjoying their new lives in their new homes.

It’s an amazing example of what the BBC can do. But it’s not the only thing we’ve been building in the north lately. It’s now more than four years since the BBC’s move to MediaCityUK. In that time, our north HQ, created in a corner of Salford close to the Ship Canal, has become an internationally significant media hub and a northern powerhouse.

BBC North is the BBC's second biggest creative hub, the biggest news centre outside of London, home to five of the BBC's flagship digital products and a base for some of the biggest BBC brands - including BBC Sport, Children's, Radio 5 live and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.

In total there are 24 BBC departments represented at MediaCityUK including drama, comedy and entertainment. Match of the Day, BBC Breakfast, Dragon’s Den, Songs of Praise, You & Yours, Blue Peter, Football Focus and Newsround are just some of the famous programmes made in Salford.

An independent report from KPMG, commissioned by the BBC Trust, has looked at the impact of the BBC’s move north. KPMG found the BBC’s move to Salford: “has had a positive contribution… in terms of employment, increased skill levels and spill-over effects.”

The report found there are approximately 6,500 people employed at MediaCityUK, with 40 percent being BBC employees. That means the majority don’t work for us and are instead employed by companies that have moved to the Salford site since the BBC set up.

Our impact on the city is significant. The creative industries now account for five percent of total employment in Salford, up from two percent in 2010. KPMG also forecast an extra 1,700 jobs will be created in the creative industries in Salford by 2034.

The report says: “The BBC’s move to Salford can be seen as what Paul Krugman describes as a 'small historical accident' which has started a path of attracting investment in creative activities.”

It compared the effects of our move to those seen in other industry hubs. “These ‘agglomeration’ and ‘network’ effects are observed in many sectors: from scientific research in Cambridge, to Formula 1 teams in the M4 corridor, to financiers in the City of London. There are signs that the BBC’s relocation to Salford has triggered the beginnings of a similar network in the North West.”

As endorsements go, that’s pretty good.

The BBC faces extra scrutiny at the moment as our future size, shape and scope is debated. Our recent experience in the north proves what a strong BBC can build, from a media hub to homes built for heroes.

Helen Boaden, Director of BBC Radio and BBC England

Top Gear isn't the only media talking point across the land. I've been struck by how fast Digital - skills, training, content and platforms - has been dominating conversation where I've been this week. Since we launched Make it Digital I’ve been in Bristol, Bournemouth and London seeing new initiatives in action; talking to students at Bournemouth University (pictured) about careers, catching up with the work of The Bristol Partnership and taking part in a panel on the skills gap at the Guardian's Changing Media Summit.

Big challenges and a growth spurt in Britain’s digital economy are evenly distributed at least. Business is booming outside the capital - 74% of digital firms are now based beyond London and places such as Bournemouth, Liverpool and Brighton are emerging as the industry’s runaway success stories. 

In fact forget the West Coast of America, it's the sunny south coast of England - it was certainly bathed in sunshine when I visited - that's making the pace. Bournemouth has become the UK’s fastest-growing town in the digital economy, with digital start-ups rising 212% between 2010 and 2013. Astonishingly, 50% of all UK digital companies were launched after 2008, despite the challenge of the global recession.

That’s a testament to the sheer determination of a UK creative community who want to show the world what they can do. This isn't about 'Little Britain', to borrow a well-known TV title, it's a big global business - £17 billion in exports alone.

As I said to the students in Bournemouth - to keep ahead of those trends we need to be the best, and to attract the best people. We have to make our content brilliant, relevant, and available not just in the formats we all use now – but for the formats of the future that aren’t even invented yet.

There’ll be 40 million active tablet users in the UK alone by 2017, and there are already 130 mainstream TV apps on the market in Britain. The era of singular media is well and truly over and our ‘Always On’ society is spoilt for content choice.

It’s not always easy for the BBC to compete in this new world – we’re much smaller than some of global competition now – but we’re pretty good at it and trying to get better.

The BBC is now the top Twitter news publisher in the world; while BBC Sport builds huge digital communities around its authoritative website and national events - from the FA Cup to this week's Six Nations' climax; and our iPlayer has led the way in on-demand video.

But, without doubt one of our biggest challenges is keeping up with audiences and to better reflect and understand their lives across the whole of the UK.

If we’re to survive, then the right people, with the right skills, doing the right jobs must be at the heart of everything we do. My role includes directing the BBC's training arm, The Academy, and it’s one of the most important jobs I've ever done. The Guardian panel yesterday talked about the digital skills gap – it’s there, it’s growing and needs to be addressed urgently, and not just with current workforces. Our BBC duty to educate, inform and entertain has never been more important. In this new world, the BBC can act as a discover-inspirer for the next generation to open up the potential of the digital world and their place in it.

So what are we doing? As well as developing the skills of our own staff and freelancers, we want to inspire the next generation. Over 1,500 13-14 year olds from schools all over Bristol are currently taking part in photography, animation, journalism, presenting and production skills workshops in ‘Talent Ticket’ - a partnership between BBC Bristol and the University of the West of England. It was great to see it in action at our Whiteladies Road base.

Our huge Make it Digital initiative puts digital creativity firmly in the spotlight. It will help build the nation’s capabilities for an even younger group with an ambitious range of new programmes, partnerships and projects. We're creating up to 5,000 BBC digital trainees; giving one million coding devices (‘Micro bits’) to every child in year 7 across the UK; partnering with around 50 organisations from Teen Tech to BT, Code Club to Google; and launching a season of dedicated BBC programmes and online activity involving some of our biggest brands, including EastEnders, Radio 1 and Children in Need. 

Talking of our partners, a few days ago Creative Skillset launched ‘Hiive’ – a terrific online tool for matching creative industry needs with the right people with the right skills. BBC Birmingham has also joined Bristol in holding a Digital Week – a programme of events aimed at developing skills, sharing knowledge and creating networking opportunities for the city’s digital sector.  

Then there are the BBC’s graduate trainee schemes with a range of placements that take place across the whole of the BBC, including production, journalism, technology, business, legal, digital and journalism.

I know that both our apprenticeships and traineeships are incredibly popular and tough to get in to but we took on 72 apprentices last year and 177 this year, from a whole range of background and educational achievements. So, our appetite and capability is growing.

It's competitive for sure, but no one should be held back from pursuing their dreams - just go for it. If you want to write, blog.  If you want to make films, go out and make them. If you want to animate, the software has never been better. Go forth and create. In fact, go and try BBC Taster - our new experimental, digital launch pad. It’s good. 

I will end though, with a thought to ponder, a challenge to our more traditional industry networks. I attended the RTS Awards on Tuesday, which got me thinking. Adam Curtis has just made a haunting documentary Bitter Lake - all two hours and 18 minutes of it - available to watch on iPlayer, without being shown on a traditional telly channel.

Bitter Lake, in my books, is the first digital non-fiction masterpiece - but where will it be recognised by our industry?  It doesn't really fit our current telly dominated awards categories but as everything we watch, listen and consume changes shape, platforms and structure, and as we train people to make content however they want for wherever they want, we need to make sure we can celebrate that properly too. Or we will fall behind fast.

Peter Salmon is Director, England

• Read BBC Birmingham at Birmingham Digital Week: Let's 'Get' Digital
• Also BBC Make it Digital
• Read more blogs from Peter

 

Director of England Peter Salmon, highlights what the BBC will be doing in the north of England in 2015.

It may not get so many people out of bed, but soon the BBC will have delivered £1.5 billion in efficiencies, quite a bit of it driven by our property push out of London. All the more reason to crack on with our work in the North of England, raising our ambitions further. 

Take this week's news that Britain's most popular digital radio station, BBC Radio 6 Music is decanting to Tyneside for its annual festival, featuring rock bands like Mogwai and Royal Blood, The Fall and Maximo Park plus local legend Brian Ferry in conversation. It's a showcase for home-grown and international talent, much like the North East drama teams behind BBC Children's big hits The Dumping Ground and Wolfblood or new series Hattie's War and World's End, the latter making spectacular use of Northumberland's beautiful Bamburgh Castle.

Newer north east talent like Elliot Kerrigan are getting their breaks this spring with Boy Meets Girl, BBC Two's newest sitcom series, written and created by Elliot, being shot in east Manchester's new Space studios and on location in Newcastle about an unlikely but poignant romance. Next month on BBC Radio 4 it's series three of Home Front, ground-breaking First World War radio drama set in Tynemouth and North Shields, whose 40 episodes will feature many brilliant NE actors. Around Easter it's Inspector George Gently's turn, when Martin Shaw's Sixties cop show from Durham returns to BBC One for another series. The North East is really rocking.

Salford itself is working hard to become the hub for the whole region that we promised it could be. This year Salford staff numbers will pass the 3,000 mark with the arrival of BBC charity Children In Need and fresh technologists for our Future Media department, the people behind BBC iPlayer, a device that notched up a record-breaking 3.5 billion viewing and listening requests last year.

Our Salford based teams cover the region, the UK and the world, so it's not surprising the NAO recently reported they could only count 1,600 of us actually working on site one day (when we were still a smaller compliment of 2,300). Some of us in Salford work from our desks, others are out covering sports events from Rio to Wimbledon or news reporting from Paris to the Middle East, or making cracking programmes from Hull to Carlisle.

In 2014 drama exploded across the North, with strong shows for adults and kids alike. 2015 looks like building on that. If you need proof that British fiction feeds the economy as well as the soul, look no further than Screen Yorkshire's recent report that its support for film-makers – linked to the launch of their BBC Film Testament of Youth – had generated more than £20m for the county's economy; see the Radio Times' travel feature linked to locations used in filming BBC One's Last Tango in Halifax; or simply go along to the Bradford Film Summit at the start of March, which the BBC aims to cover as widely with the likes of Radio 5 live and CBBC, aimed at boosting the North of England's burgeoning movie sector. Many of the best dramas in peak time and daytime in recent times – from Happy Valley to Michael Palin's Remember Me, Kay Mellor's hit The Syndicate to Jimmy McGovern's Common, David Morrissey's The Driver to Liverpool LA Productions’ Moving On were all made by teams up here plus kids' favourites Rockets Island, Hank Zipzer and new Bury comedy So Awkward. That's an outstanding drama roster powered by the BBC licence fee and rich in Northern talent, locations and stories.

So what's around the corner, beyond the dark northern winter? Beyond Bolton marvel Peter Kay's marathon run of fund-raising comedy nights in Manchester ahead of Comic Relief on the BBC in March? Beyond our CBeebies Elves and The Shoemaker ballet partnership with Northern Ballet in Leeds?

The General Election is number one for our BBC Breakfast, Radio 5 live, regional, local and CBBC Newsround teams, many of them covering key marginals throughout the North in one of the most closely fought and dramatic political contests in years. But there's entertainment, music, arts, factual and sport to come too.

The early summer looks massive in particular – the Yorkshire team (who were behind last year's stunning tribute to York Minster) are marking the 50th anniversary of the Pennine Way with a four-part series for BBC Two that pays homage to the legendary Pennine route; in Liverpool we want to get behind the city's big welcome for The Three Queens, those great cruise liners that will come together to celebrate Cunard's 175th anniversary in the city; over in Sheffield there are a major events planned to support the Snooker World Championship, 30 years after Dennis Taylor's famous battle with Steve Davis; in Trafford, Greater Manchester, it's the culmination of our People's Cup Final, linked to the BBC's FA Cup coverage – the climax of 100,000 footballers playing five-a-side matches from women to veterans to families, who then get the chance to go to Wembley for this season's final – which sadly won't feature Burnley FC.

By the time we get deeper into the summer the world-renowned Manchester International Festival will be upon us, the city hosting CBeebies' icon Justin Fletcher with The Story of Mr Tumble; BBC and Manchester University scientist Brian Cox hoping to deliver an innovative Age of Starlight; plus new Damon Albarn musical wonder.land, among the many treats, collaborations and surprises to mark MiF's 10th birthday.

Television, radio and online – the new rock and roll? I like to think so.

Peter Salmon is Director, England

Scan the TV schedules this week and you will understand what I mean.

Flick through the BAFTA and Radio Academy nominations too and it will underline our range and quality in drama.

Red Productions, based at MediaCity, have bragging rights on both ITV and BBC One: Prey, made in Manchester, plays on Monday nights on ITV with John Simm and is already a big mainstream hit; over on BBC ONE Happy Valley – from the Last Tango in Halifax combo, writer Sally Wainwright and actor Sarah Lancashire – both also BAFTA nominated – is winning its slot strongly on Tuesdays, telling stories of West Yorkshire's drugs underbelly.

Drama North, the BBC's in-house TV drama makers, are behind In The Flesh, the Lancashire zombie series on BBC Three which just started its second season on Sundays – a strong piece of telly, but also a great story of talent discovery and development. Dominic Mitchell is a first time writer from the Lancaster area and just won the BAFTA TV national drama writer award for the series – developed by the BBC writers' room new talent initiative and brought to the screen by Drama North. It is imaginative stuff – catch it on BBC iPlayer, if you missed the start of series two.

There are many other big BBC drama projects to look out for soon too. This week we screened From There to Here (pictured) at an event at the National Football Museum in Manchester, a series for BBC One whose triggers are the 1996 Manchester City Centre bomb and that year's Euro football tournament, penned by acclaimed Stockport-born writer Pete Bowker.  Just around the corner are Kay Mellor's In The Club from her prolific Rollem Productions Leeds company; Jimmy McGovern's Common from Liverpool's LA Productions;Our Zoo, a drama series about the birth of Cheshire Zoo, being shot from Warrington to the Wirral; and Derbyshire's chronicle of 20th century life The Village – series two currently in production – starring Maxine Peake.

Radio production plays an important part in the drama ecology here too. Ian Kershaw penned Lost and Found about his wife Julie Hesmondhalgh's relationship with her father. It starred Hull's finest Sir Tom Courtenay and is up for a Radio Academy Award soon.

Why is it the North of England spawns such drama, writing, production and acting talent?

I don't know of another UK region that has quite so much happening at both established and breakthrough levels. We know that Northern soaps like Coronation Street play a huge part in developing on and off air talent and the BBC's training schemes can certainly make a difference too. In June Manchester City Council's Space Project in the east of the city adds another 55,000 square feet of shooting stage studios to our drama economy, capitalising on tax breaks that result in more and more home-grown and international drama being made in the UK and the North. It's great for skills development, jobs and investment.

Spring sees big events landing across the region too – not just BBC Sport's annual foray to the Sheffield Crucible for the World Snooker Championships and that stunning comeback win for Mark Selby.

At Easter, 5,000 worshippers and visitors came to our South Shields collaboration with The Cultural Spring in the first of their big arts projects The Great North Passion. Regional TV audiences for the programme were triple the national average for the broadcast. Next up for the North East is our Newcastle-Gateshead half term holiday visit from CBBC Channel for several days of live output that should make wonderful free entertainment for thousands of the region's school kids. The event builds on the growing reputation of the North East for children's drama production, with hit titles Wolfblood, The Dumping Ground and Hatty's War shooting in the NE too.

All of that just ahead of Liverpool's spectacular World War One Royal de Luxe parades in July and Match of the Day's 50th anniversary celebrations in Salford later this summer.  More on those anon.

It has all the makings of a dramatic BBC year across the North.

Peter Salmon is Director, BBC North

• Read more of Peter’s blogs on About the BBC

When I got the call to say I had won the attachment I was delighted, but beyond a general idea that I would be helping school kids produce their own reports, I was unsure what was required. I just knew that I wanted to inspire at least one person to pursue a path that they would not have otherwise considered. Part of my brief was to engage with schools in hard-to-reach areas, and we have plenty of those in the North-East and Cumbria. Getting them to enrol in School Report proved to be the hardest part of my job; most headteachers would not even return my emails and calls.

But I did spend a great deal of time visiting schools, talking to the pupils about life as a broadcast journalist, and helping them produce some excellent work. We got a lot of material on air: I ended up filming three School Report pieces that made it onto Look North, BBC Tees and BBC Newcastle ran radio packages and radio car lives, and we had a fantastic television outside broadcast from Marden High School on News Day.

My attachment was a hugely rewarding experience, and I know that I succeeded in my aim of inspiring some of the kids, because both they and their teachers told me. I left with a new-found respect for schoolteachers, and a much greater understanding of the challenges they face every day. I hope that this experience with School Report will not have been my last.

Damian O'Neil is a video journalist for BBC Look North.

 

• Read Helen Shreeve's blog BBC School Report: "BBC School Report: "We expect the best and that's what they give us".
• Find out more about the project at the BBC News School Report website.
• To find out more about how you can get involved in School Report, please contact laura.macdonald@bbc.co.uk.

 

This week is Comedy Week for the BBC in the North.  In fact the BBC is so keen on comedy we've even made a sitcom about ourselves: W1A is on BBC Two starring Hugh Bonneville.

The third Salford Comedy Festival is taking place – the event where we first discovered sitcoms Citizen Khan and Hebburn – and where we are looking for the next Royle Family or Last of the Summer Wine, Victoria Wood or Peter Kay.  Top producers from the UK and across the globe are gathering.  The region isn't just world famous for sport and music, after all.

Other key events have a more spiritual theme, especially as Easter approaches, with many strong programmes from our Salford based Religion & Ethics teams.

First up though, The Minster, a trio of films about York Minster, produced by BBC teams based in Leeds and broadcast in the Yorkshire region on BBC Two followed by a pan UK transmission.  It's lovingly made with tiny cameras helping us get inside every nook and cranny of this ancient cathedral.

Songs of Praise is coming from Bradford Cathedral on Palm Sunday and features Hull's finest Tom Courtenay reading the story of Christ's passion in the city where he made the iconic British film Billy Liar.

On Good Friday BBC North's most daring creative partnership yet comes live from South Shields, the culmination of a relationship with the North East's Cultural Spring group.  Twelve different communities from Woodhorn to Middlesbrough, a 1,000 strong choir plus more than 60 shipping containers –  many of them converted into unique artistic commissions – will be brought together at noon for the remarkable Great North Passion programme live on BBC One, presented by Fern Britton.

Finally on Easter Sunday itself, Yorkshire is very much God's Own Country, as BBC Breakfast host Bill Turnbull explores Greek Orthodox, Moravian and Polish Catholic traditions and music from Whitby Abbey through Leeds to Huddersfield.

The creative spirit of the North is at the heart of events and content made in the North West too. 

The first ever Manchester BBC Radio 6 Music Festival, also filmed for TV on the red button, filled the Victoria Warehouse in Trafford for two days, rocking to the sounds of Jake Bugg, Damon Albarn and The National; from Halifax the Northern Ballet company and CBeebies channel have combined to make The Three Little Pigs, a ballet for tiny kids and yet another strong partnership; Liverpool previewed Jimmy McGovern's latest powerful film Common, starring Nico Mirallegro and Jodhi May, produced for a BBC One broadcast later this year by the city's LA Productions; while Chester Zoo's early years will be at the heart of a BBC One drama series set just after World War One which starts filming shortly.

If you miss anything in the packed BBC schedules over the next few weeks, then there's always a catch up on the revamped BBC iPlayer, much of which is developed and operated by Future Media technologists at MediaCity.  The new BBC iPlayer will underpin our approach to BBC Three – a way of saving money and trying to keep up with young audiences' fast-changing viewing habits.

The 40p a day the BBC licence fee costs is very much part of Parliament's Culture Media and Sport review of the Corporation.  MPs from the committee were in Bradford and Salford talking to BBC teams and partners and producers from as far apart as Newcastle, Leeds and Liverpool.  Radio 5 live, just about to celebrate 20 remarkable years, met MPs as did BBC Sport teams working on our Six Nations Rugby coverage.  The star attraction for visiting MPs were Cookie Monster and Elmo, currently filming the new Sesame Street / BBC Children's co-production The Furchester Hotel.  Enough to melt even the toughest parliamentary heart.

Finally, it's Sport Relief 2014 and spare a thought for our intrepid presenters.  Harry Gration and Amy Garcia from Look North in Leeds have been cycling the Yorkshire stages of the Tour De France – 400 kilometres.  Match of the Day pundits Alan Shearer and Robbie Savage with their Battle of the Backsides, were racing to sit on all 90,000 Wembley seats over five days to raise money.  A big TV weekend of Sport Relief programmes is looming but I doubt if Harry or Amy, Robbie or Alan will be sitting particularly comfortably through it.

Peter Salmon is Director, BBC North

•  Read our blog Reflecting on the first BBC 6 Music Festival
  
• Read more of Peter’s blogs on About the BBC

The title of a pan industry event we just held at Media City – Share and Inspire – is as good a clarion call for the BBC in the North of England as I can think of.  Colleagues from the Bank of England to Marketing Cheshire, Virgin Trains to Liverpool Vision joined us in Media City.

We also received a letter from Mrs Ashworth, Year Six Teacher at Bradford's St Cuthbert's Primary School and she probably summed up sharing and inspiring better than anybody at the industry event.  She wrote that her class of 11-year-olds had been watching the BBC marketing trail for The Winter Olympics for a literacy lesson.  Mrs Ashworth wrote: ‘We were so inspired by the sound and the poem and the video effects that we wanted to have a go at writing. You might be interested to know how much you have inspired us and have included a selection of the poems for you to read.'  I can't tell you how brilliant Sami, Michael, Shannon, Ibrahim and classmate's poems were and how they inspired us in turn.  MCUK based BBC Sport, who are covering the Sochi Games, have a campaign called Get Inspired to motivate kids.  Though I'm not sure poetry was exactly what they had in mind.

Yorkshire is fast becoming one of Britain's production hotspots.

It's not just the Tour de France opening stages that will put the region on the media map this year.  There's an unprecedented number of big television projects being made there.  Sheffield boy Michael Palin returns to serious drama with  BBC One’s Remember Me series, currently filming in Huddersfield.  This summer Toby Jones and Mackenzie Crook series The Detectorists for BBC Four also films in that Pennine town too, just down the road from the Hebden Bridge based Happy Valley, a new series from the pen of Last Tango in Halifax writer Sally Wainwright, made by Manchester's in-form Red Productions. 

Over in Leeds prolific writer Kay Mellor's Rollem Productions is finishing filming the BBC One pregnancy drama series In The Club.  In that same city thriving independent company True North have added China to their growing list of television markets.  All that plus BBC Children's Scarborough comedy All at Sea and Staithes seaside CBeebies delight Old Jack's Boat.  So what's driving Yorkshire's television renaissance?  Terrific cities, villages, countryside and coastline of course, but also sustained investment by a North focussed BBC, ITV's strong regional presence, welcome investment from Yorkshire Screen – York's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell is a BBC and international co-production backed by them for instance – and top skills and production teams.  How long until we see one of those Hollywood style signs in the hills above Ilkley Moor?

Talking of drama investment, a visit to East Manchester's new Drama Village – five filming stages, 26 dressing rooms, the City Council's £10m new investment in television – is enough to convince you the whole region is gearing up for media expansion.  CEO Sue Woodward showed us the 11,000 square feet studios which will create 450 jobs – from apprentices upwards – opening at the end of May.  Victoria Wood's BBC film – first developed for the Manchester International Festival – Tubby and Enid, has just finished shooting at the council's Sharp digital complex a mile away.  New drama tax breaks plus renewed BBC investment, the region's brilliant writers, experienced production teams and independent companies make this a crucial moment for the creative sector.  Most importantly we need to make sure continued skills training follows or these new opportunities won't be sustained: BBC North Students' Conference, Vision 2022, in early April, will focus on cutting-edge technologies and journalism – hopefully a welcome addition.

It's not always straight-forward of course.  Not everything we make will fly series after series.  That's why development of new ideas is crucial.  In the North East we now have one of our most varied BBC slates: great crews and technicians there support our two strongest CBBC drama series, The Dumping Ground and Wolfblood, in Newcastle and Gateshead respectively.  And now we have added a third NE kids' drama commission, WW1 based Harriet's Army.  All that plus a handful of big live events coming up, like Easter's massive BBC One religion centrepiece, The Great North Passion, where art installations in shipping containers from all over the North East come together for a live Good Friday event in Sunderland – a hugely innovative partnership.  Whatever we can land on our patch has to be successful with UK audiences too or our big investments can't be justified, so The Paradise BBC One's shop-based costume drama, won't be coming back despite two series filming at Chester Le Street.  Durham's Inspector George Gently series and Newcastle BBC Two comedy Hebburn also have to pass a tough test with audiences and commissioners to get another green light.  Whatever the outcome, our determination to land new BBC projects is unwavering – we will keep searching out great stories, talent and locations.

Next up for Liverpool is the world's biggest sales conference organised by a single broadcaster, BBC Worldwide's Annual Showcase where 800 of the world's television buyers – from Colombia to China, America to Australia – gather by the Mersey for a week of trading, talking and socialising.  It's the third year in a row that Liverpool has played host to a BBC sales event that is worth millions of pounds in programme investments, plus hotels, taxis, hospitality and the like.  Great to bring talent from Top Gear, Natural History and The Musketeers to our region again.  This summer Liverpool also hosts The International Festival of Business building on its great facilities along the famous Atlantic waterfront.

Finally, planning for Hull UK City of Culture 2017 is getting underway.  Ann-Marie Tasker has just been appointed Hull's Culture Correspondent, the BBC's first outside London.  Helen Thomas, our BBC Yorkshire and Humberside boss, plus colleague Pat Connor, BBC North's Development & Events head, will jointly lead the thinking and planning for the BBC: a formidable, creative duo for this once in a lifetime East Yorkshire opportunity.

Whether it's poetry, business, sport, drama, programme sales or culture, the BBC is learning a few lessons in the North right now.  Not just from Mrs Ashworth's class either.

Peter Salmon is Director, BBC North

•  Read more of Peter’s blogs on About the BBC

In my first post for 2014, I wanted to look back on what has been a strong festive period here – and look forward to a packed and challenging 2014 for the BBC across the North of England.

We produced the most watched show over Christmas – Doncaster and MediaCity's Still Open All Hours, Sir David Jason joyfully reviving the classic sitcom for more than 12m BBC One viewers; Last Tango in Halifax recorded the highest audience appreciation score of any Christmas show – 92 out of a possible 100; and A CBeebies Christmas Carol from The Sheffield Crucible was a UK kids' festive favourite – with a third of a million views on the BBC iPlayer alone.

What I was particularly proud of was our journalism, sports and religion over the period. In foul weather our teams provided a vital service for towns, cities, football clubs and churches in a hugely busy period. From local radio to regional telly, websites to BBC Breakfast, Radio 5 live to Songs of Praise, the BBC's north based programme teams were stretched hard but rose to the challenge.

Now we have set out our stall for 2014 with some strong new year resolutions.

We want to work with partners to produce a series of big events across our towns and cities from Liverpool to Wearside, Yorkshire to the North West that range from World War One commemoration to worship, BBC Children's gatherings to documentary celebration. A real highlight will be September's millionth runner taking place in Newcastle-Gateshead's Great North Run – live on BBC One.

North-based writers and drama producers have got a strong portfolio lined up including Kay Mellor's In The Club series from Leeds; Dominic Mitchell's zombie thriller In The Flesh for BBC Three made in Lancashire; Pete Bowker's From There to Here serial and Victoria Wood's Tubby and Enid film both from Manchester; Jimmy McGovern's Common, set in Liverpool; Sally Wainwright's Happy Valleys from the old West Yorkshire mill towns; and Our Zoo, BBC One's account of the early years of Chester Zoo.

Our children's output will once again be key, dominated by our two biggest series – both made in the North East – The Dumping Ground and Wolfblood; Salford based BBC Sport will be working across the globe on some massive events – the Winter Olympics from Russia, Football World Cup from Brazil, and Glasgow's Commonwealth Games included; and Radio 5 live celebrates its 20th birthday with several treats in store.

Though there is always something of a spotlight on goings on in around our MediaCity base – this week was a 'house price bubble' in Manchester that some of the press pinned on the BBC move. What we do take full responsibility for is the 'content bubble' we have definitely helped create across the region: putting more of the North's talent, skills, towns, cities and countryside on air supported by latest digital technologies – from apps to mobile devices.

With plans already in the pipeline to support the International Business Festival and the Liverpool Biennale later this year, Yorkshire's opening stages of the Tour De France, Hull's winning 2017 City of Culture bid plus the BBC Salford Comedy Showcase, it's great to be open all hours again in 2014 – for the whole of the North of England.

Peter Salmon is Director, BBC North