The Creative Diversity Network, the non-profit founded by the major UK broadcasters to drive the case for diversity and inclusion, released a report in Spring 2020 outlining the state of diversity across five major broadcasters, analysing 30 channels in the UK. The report found that broadcast TV is in fact highly representative of BAME communities in particular, noting that BAME people make up 12.9% of the working population of the UK yet make up 22.7% of on screen contributions. Why is the BBC now spending £100 million it doesn’t have on producing more diverse content?
The report concludes that:
“On-screen we find that many of the diversity groups – transgender, over-50s, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) and disabled people – are represented at a higher rate than they are off-screen. This is particularly so for those who identify as BAME (22.7% on-screen contributions, 12.3% off-screen), and those who identify as transgender (0.8% on-screen, 0.2% off-screen).”
“While those who identify as female, transgender, BAME and lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB) are all represented at levels comparable with (or above) national population estimates, those aged 50 or over (36% of population) are under-represented across nearly all genres (24.6%), with the exception of entertainment (38.1%) and leisure (35.3%).”
The real on-screen diversity broadcasters are seriously lacking is not ethnic minorities, it’s older people…
