The long-awaited update from the BBC on the progress of the 2020 fund set up to improve diverse content on the public broadcaster has been met with skepticism from some UK industry leaders who have dubbed it ‘smoke and mirrors’.
The BBC’s Creative Diversity Commitment – made in the wake of the renewed Black Lives Matter movement in June 2020 – has pledged £100 million ($124 million) from the current commissioning budget over three years (April 2021 to March 2024) on diverse and inclusive content, which includes racial representation as well as social mobility and disability. That breaks down to roughly £33m a year. (The BBC’s total television spending in 2020/2021 was £1.4 billion.)
The fund aims to apply to a range of genres, obligating the company to create content using At least two of the following three priorities: various stories and depictions on the screen; diverse production and talent teams; And diversified production companies led by the United States. (Since April 2021, all new BBC commissions have also required at least 20% of off-screen talent to come from under-represented groups.)
The BBC revealed on Thursday that it has invested £44m in supporting a total of 67 TV shows across all genres, following the first year of the initiative, to increase diversity and inclusion on and off air. The company is now on track to invest by 2023/24 totaling £112m, of which £100m will go to television and £12m to radio.
In the fund’s first year, programs were set up by 48 different independent production companies, 73% of those companies had diverse leadership. The BBC says 10% has not been commissioned by the broadcaster before 2022. In addition, £4m has been invested to support 90 diverse broadcasting committees.
Programs commissioned through the initiative include BBC Three’s “Tonight With Target,” the drama “Then Barbara Met Alan,” “Glow Up: Britain’s Next Make-Up Star,” the documentary “This Girl’s Changed,” and Young, Welsh and … and Bossin’ It and “Krept and Konan: We Are England”. Other programs highlighted include live coverage of “Woman’s Super League”, “Magic Hands – Black History Songs”, Snaps – Listen, Dad, “The Bhangra Boss – The Story of DJ Vips” and BBC Arts. “Salt” and the comedy “Dreaming Whilst Black”.
diverse He understands that the BBC will not release an exhaustive list of all programs commissioned under the fund, as independent production companies have been required to provide personal data of individuals and protected properties in order to qualify for the investment, which cannot legally be shared. (The programs mentioned were only included after the producers gave permission to the BBC.)
The BBC said its three main criteria (two of which are required to secure a commission) were discussed at the Program Committee Point and then measured on dispatch. This means that bids counted in the first year of the initiative could have been commissioned before April 2021, but are included retroactively as part of the initiative.
Some UK industry leaders say the fund’s BBC methods and standards do not do what is needed to accurately judge the true progress of diverse products.
Simon Albury, president of the Campaign for Equality of Broadcasting, criticized the fund as “smoke and mirrors” for not providing a baseline against which to measure spending on various production parameters. In fact, sources indicate that this initiative is the first time a figure has been applied to spending on various BBC productions.
Albury books in a July 2020 OpenDemocracy Post That the criteria’s “pick and mix” approach also makes it difficult to focus on specific areas, such as racial representation, within committees.
“The fund is not just about raising [Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic] “BAME employment – also aimed at improving inclusion for those from a low socioeconomic background and those with disabilities – are all underrepresented in the media and deserve support,” Albury wrote. “But with such a broad rating and goals, combined with no baseline against which to measure progress, a commitment of £100m may not make any difference at all.”
Elsewhere, Marcus Ryder, president of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and head of external consulting for the Lenny Henry Center for Media Diversity, discussed similar concerns in a lengthy Twitter thread.
Ryder wrote: “The real question is; £44m advance? The short answer is; we have no idea. We don’t know if that’s more or less than the number of variety productions aired in 2021, 2020 or even 2019. And I have good authority not to The BBC does it.”
Ryder also points out that because some of the included programs were commissioned prior to April 2021, the BBC was not necessarily using the funds earmarked for the fund. “The fact that they prepare commissioned programs before the fund is announced means that they are not ‘loose’ money, and they don’t even measure incremental. But it is more of an accounting tool for measuring the diversity of the programs they broadcast,” said Ryder.
a diverse An inquiry in November 2021 detailed cases related to the blatant shortage of diverse color producers in the UK. When asked how many shows from various production companies have been ordered since April 2021, a BBC spokesperson said at the time that public broadcasting was still “selecting programs” that met the criteria and would provide an update in April 2022.
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