The Northern Star Project - a partnership between five Northern European public service broadcasters – launches its first call today at The Children’s Media Conference in Sheffield. VRT, BBC, DR (Denmark), NPO (Netherlands) and NRK (Norway) join forces in realising new scripted live-action projects for children aged 7+.

Over the past three years, VRT Sandbox, VRT’s startup accelerator, has brought startups, creative entrepreneurs and media companies together through Seeds & Growth for Media to test, refine and, where possible, scale new ideas more quickly. The result? Dozens of entrepreneurs who found their way directly into the Flemish media sector and a stronger media ecosystem in which innovation is given the opportunity to flourish more quickly.

How would you prefer to access the news: by reading or by asking questions? Within the Flemish research project Narrate, VRT is exploring how artificial intelligence can enable more interactive, conversational forms of journalism. The project was presented to the broader media and innovation sector at the World Imec Technology Forum in Leuven.

On a modern smart TV, reaching Netflix takes a single click. Finding your public broadcaster can take seventeen. That difference is no accident. It is the result of design choices that are quietly reshaping what people watch, hear and ultimately trust.

Production on the second season of The girl in my diary (translation of the original title Hawa & Adam) is currently underway, with the new episodes set to air on Ketnet in 2027. The first season, which premiered on Ketnet in 2024 and won an Ensor Award for Best Youth Fiction, is meanwhile enjoying a strong international run. The girl in my diary is now available in no fewer than four countries: Norway, France, Canada and Germany.