BBC Cymru Wales has launched a new development fund aimed at creating bold, original factual entertainment content for younger digital audiences.

The Format Fund will support five independent production companies, with each receiving £7,000 to develop an original pilot designed specifically for YouTube-first viewers aged 16 to 24.

The initiative is intended to encourage creative risk-taking and explore what the next generation of factual entertainment could look like in a digital-first media landscape.

BBC Cymru Wales says it is looking for ideas that move away from traditional television production models and instead embrace YouTube-native storytelling, with clear concepts, strong pacing, repeatable formats and striking visuals that quickly capture attention.

Nick Andrews, Head of Commissioning for BBC Cymru Wales said: “As part of a busy summer of piloting and commissioning YouTube content of all shapes and sizes across scripted and unscripted we’re delighted to be heading into this super fun genre.

“We’d love to be in a world where we can scale up these fact-ent pilots into something for the whole of the BBC to enjoy – wishing everyone all the best as they get stuck into it.”

Successful ideas could be developed further with BBC Cymru Wales, with the potential to become returning digital series.

The deadline for applications is midnight on Friday, July 3.

WELSH singer Duffy is set to make her live UK comeback with a secret London show, more than 15 years after her last concert appearance in Britain.

The Grammy-winning artist, whose real name is Aimee Anne Duffy, revealed the news to fans in an Instagram story, confirming that the intimate performance will take place on July 5.

Duffy wrote: “I’m doing a secret intimate gig in London on the 5th July, next month, and I would love nothing more than for some of you to attend.

“It’s only small capacity so we can only select a few, but really looking forward to it, I will sing some new songs.

“All my love, Duffy x.”

The performance will include new material and marks her first UK live show since December 2010, when she appeared at Capital FM’s Jingle Bell Ball at the O2 Arena in London.

Duffy became one of Wales’ biggest music stars following the release of her debut album Rockferry, which was powered by the hit single Mercy. The song topped the UK charts for five weeks and helped establish her internationally.

Her second album, Endlessly, followed in 2010, but she later withdrew from public life.

Years later, Duffy revealed that she had been drugged, raped and held captive, explaining her long absence from the music industry.

Her return to the stage comes shortly after confirmation that she will feature in a new Disney+ documentary, which will explore her rise to fame, her life in Wales, her career, and the traumatic events that led to her stepping away from the spotlight.

Duffy also has strong links to Pembrokeshire. After her parents divorced, she moved with her mother and two sisters to Letterston, near Fishguard.

She later attended Sir Thomas Picton School in Haverfordwest, where she completed her GCSEs before returning to North Wales to live with her father.

A BBC WALES investigation has uncovered an unregulated online market where women desperate to become parents are being harassed for sex and offered cheap, illegal sperm samples through social media.

Swipe Right for Sperm, a new BBC Cymru Wales programme, has found that people unable to access fertility treatment are turning to online groups, informal donor websites and so-called “Tinder for sperm” platforms.

The investigation found some men advertising sperm donations online and charging for samples outside licensed fertility clinics.

In one case, the programme team paid £100 for a next-day delivery sample from a man advertising his “baby batter” online. The sample was posted chilled beside a frozen carton of tomato passata.

The advert told women they could “rely” on a man calling himself Joe Donor, who claims to have fathered 180 children around the world through both sex and artificial insemination.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority said unregulated donation, outside an HFEA-licensed clinic, can be a criminal offence in the UK.

Joe Donor disputed the authority’s position and said he understood private donation, including charging for it, to be legal.

Tianna and her wife Nikki, from south Wales, told the programme they turned to unregulated donation after finding they were not eligible for NHS funding and could not afford private fertility treatment.

Tianna said: “I always knew I wanted to be a mum. We knew that there was something missing from our family.”

She said women using such websites were often placed in a vulnerable position.

She added: “You do get weirdos who are in it for the complete wrong reasons. There’s a website, it’s kind of like a mixture between a catalogue and Tinder. You can filter eye colour, hair colour, so you can look for exactly what it is you’re looking for.”

The couple wanted artificial insemination, but said some men repeatedly pushed sex as the best option.

Tianna said: “I think it was really helpful that me and my wife had each other, so there was no way that anyone could really pressure us into doing something we didn’t want to do.

“When all you want to have is a baby, you’re in a really vulnerable position.”

Tianna and Nikki eventually found a donor they felt safe with through a co-parenting website. They drew up an agreement setting out plans for contact and parental rights, but such arrangements are not legally binding.

Tianna said: “There is still a chance that in the future, he could come and try and start claiming parental rights and take us through a court case.”

Clare Ettinghausen, from the HFEA, said: “Some of these donors are advertising as natural insemination only, which is essentially in some cases coercing women to have sex when they possibly wouldn’t want to.”

Presented by Gemma Dunstan, BBC Wales Investigates: Swipe Right for Sperm airs tonight, Monday (June 8), at 8:30pm on BBC One Wales, and on Thursday, June 18, at 10:00pm on BBC Two.

The programme is also available on BBC iPlayer.