BAME

BBC launches new diversity strategy

Targets of the campaign include increasing on screen representation of the LGBT community and reserving more internship placements for disabled people.

The aim is to set new standards for the television industry and better reflect the diversity represented in the general British public.

“The BBC has a breadth and scale that is unique in the UK’s media, and that means what we do has real impact," said Director-General, Tony Hall.

Breaking the mould

Back in the late 1990s, Ade Rawcliffe was working on Ainsley Harriott’s show, Party of a Lifetime. They were in Teesside, filming with children from a housing estate. They all had a question: was Rawcliffe Harriott’s wife or was she his “girlfriend”?

Ade (pronounced Addy) thinks that they were not used to seeing two black people in the same place at once. They might, it occurs to me, have been equally puzzled by the spectacle of two black people working on the same television programme.

Channel 4 launches Year of Disability

China, Beijing, Paralympics, 2008

The focus on disability coincides with the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and aims to build upon the ongoing initiatives outlined in last year's 360° Diversity Charter which aimed to improve access for all under-represented groups such as BAME, LGBT and women.

In 2017, Channel 4 will focus on a different diversity theme.

Diversity: job done? Don’t get me started...

All TV industry watchers know that, thanks largely to Lenny Henry, diversity remains high on television’s agenda. In the past year or so, the BBC, Channel 4 and Sky have each made big announcements, pledging to improve their on-screen representation of minorities and to do more to nurture and encourage multi-ethnic and diverse workforces.

But has genuine change finally kicked in? That was the question that Sky News reporter Afua Hirsch wanted answering as she chaired a packed and often emotional RTS event provocatively entitled "Diversity: job done?".

ITV’s big drama: Television speaks to drama boss Steve November

On 18 September 2016, Steve November has a problem. At 9:00pm that night, the slot arrives in ITV’s schedule that would normally be filled by the season premiere of Downton Abbey.

As Director of Drama for the ITV network, November has to find a replacement – Downton is ending, with the last ever episode to air this coming Christmas Day. And, given Downton’s blockbuster ratings performance, it’s going to be a fiendishly difficult act to follow.

Why diversity makes business sense for TV

Making Diversity Pay

The economic arguments for diversity came under the microscope at a lively joint RTS/BBC session held at New Broadcasting House last month. The panellists agreed that, following years of inaction, broadcasters are finally making an effort to boost black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) represen­tation in television.

Disabled people still under-represented in TV

The Creative Diversity Network (CDN) and Creative Skillset have called for the TV industry to improve the representation of disabled people in television.

According to Creative Skillset's workforce survey, released in May, the proportion of disabled people in television is still much lower than in the economy as a whole and has not improved for 10 years.

Just 5% of those who work in TV consider themselves to be disabled, compared with 11% of the wider working population.