New Creative Diversity Network report shows mixed picture

UK television diversity body, Creative Diversity Network (CDN), has published its seventh annual report analysing data gathered through the Diamond diversity monitoring system.

The report’s headlines reveal that as a whole, contributions by Black, Asian and other minority ethnic groups, women, lesbian, gay, and bisexual and people who are transgender are either at or above comparable national figures.

Contributions by disabled people and over-50s are showing year-on-year improvement but still fall below population and workforce estimates.

Diamond: The Seventh Cut contains analysis of the largest annual data sample to date, a combined 1.27 million contributions made on and off-screen and at different levels and role types across most genres, between August 2022 and July 2023.

CDN has also announced plans to enhance the data it collects, including adding new ethnicity, religious affiliation and socio-economic background questions to the existing Diamond questionnaire forms. The organisation also expressed concern that the current downturn could “disproportionally impact workers from lower socio-economic backgrounds, disabled people and those from ethnic minorities.”

The report says that there is still concern with the representation of disabled people which remains well below the population as a whole across almost every genre and role, on-screen and off-screen.

While representation of Black, Asian and other minority ethnic groups is above the census figure some minority groups are at much lower levels than their national workforce equivalents. For example, off-screen contributions by Asians (including East Asian, South Asian and other Asian) (3.2%) are half the comparable national workforce (6.4%). The gender split overall is broadly even, however in senior roles, women are far more likely to be in jobs such as heads of production and less visible in roles such as writers and directors, underpinning how the percentage of women in senior roles overall is continuing to fall.

Craft roles are often strikingly delineated. Some, such as sound and lighting are dominated by white men, with fewer than 8% of contributions to both made by individuals from an ethnic minority background, and fewer than 8% of contributions to lighting are made by women. Conversely, hair and make-up remains dominated by women (95.8% of contributions).

Paul Moore, Chair, CDN said: “Although for many in our industry change is frustratingly slow it’s encouraging that Diamond: The Seventh Cut shows that in general, diversity on and off-screen is either at or above the population as a whole or continuing to improve for most under-represented groups. However, when you drill down through the data it’s very concerning to see that there are still roles and genres where progress has stalled or even gone backward.

“Disabled people clearly continue to face barriers to employment at all levels, which should be a priority for the industry to address. Some crafts are almost entirely white, and male. Women are far less likely to be in influential roles such as writers or directors, and the over-50s who have much to offer in the way of experience are still represented at far lower levels than in the workforce more widely. We also need to examine more closely what the data reveals about the performance of individual ethnic minorities rather than viewing them as a homogenous group.

“More encouragingly, there has been a marked increase over the last four years in diversity among the writers of TV shows. This appears to reflect the impact of targeted industry initiatives, and the industry need to investigate further to see whether a similar approach should be taken to address imbalances in other roles.”

Miranda Wayland, who took up the role as CEO of CDN on 1 September added: “CDN’s role is to provide our partners with the most comprehensive set of diversity data and work with them to tackle barriers to inclusion and representation. I’m pleased to be able to announce that going forward, we will expand the data Diamond collects by adding new questions on ethnicity, religious affiliation and socio-economic background. Looking forward we will also focus on highlighting evidence showing whether freelancers and others from lower socio-economic backgrounds, with disabilities or from ethnic minority groups are disproportionately impacted by the current economic downturn in the industry.”

Diamond: The Seventh Cut headlines

Over-50s

There has been improved representation in over-50s contributions in many areas, however off-screen contributions (23.5%) remain below comparable workforce estimates (32.4%) in all genres apart from Comedy (45%) and Drama (37.3%).
On-screen representation (27.3%) falls below population estimates (38%, Census and 47.2%, APS) in most genres apart from Lifestyle (43.4%) and Comedy (41.8%) being the most comparable

Disability

There have been increases in representation in contributions by disabled people both off-screen (5.8% to 8%) and on-screen (8.2% to 8.7%) from 2019/20 to 2022/23.
However, this remains far lower than both national workforce (17%) and national population (17.8% Census, 24.9% APS) estimates. The smallest proportion of disabled contributions were made by those who identified as blind or visually impaired (1.9%) and those who identified as deaf or hard of hearing (8.7%).
Representation is higher across non-senior roles (8.7%) than senior (6.7%). This gap has increased by 1.1 percentage points since 2019/2020, and across most impairments apart from those who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Ethnicity

Off-screen contributions by people from Black, Asian and other minority groups have increased from 11.9% to 13.4% from 2019/20 to 2022/23. This improvement has largely been driven by the Entertainment, Drama, and Comedy genres.
Asian (including East Asian, South Asian and other Asian background) representation in off-screen roles (3.2%) is less than half the national population estimates (6.4%).
Contributions by people from Black, Asian and other minority ethnic groups was higher among non-senior roles (14.0%) compared to senior (12.2%). Both figures fall below national workforce estimates (15.2%)
Contributions by Writers from Black, Asian and other minority ethnic groups have more than doubled – from 6.5% of contributions in 2019/20 to 13.2% in 2022/23.

Gender

Between 2019/20 and 2022/23 the proportion of off-screen contributions by women fell in half of the senior roles reported by Diamond. The biggest drop was among Series Producers where women made only 41.2% of contributions in 2022/23 compared to 55.4% in 2019/20.
Representation is continuing to fall in senior roles, from 47.1 in 2019/20 to 46.7% in 2022/3.
Many craft roles remain highly gendered.The highest proportion of contributions by women is in Hair and Make-Up (95.8%) and Costume and Wardrobe (90.7%) roles. Lighting (90%), Sound (85.6%) and Camera (83.6%) are dominated by men.
Women are most strongly represented in Head of Production roles, where they made 87.8% of contributions. However, they make far fewer contributions as writers (36.9%) and directors (29%).

Transgender

Compared to 2019/20, transgender contributions in non-senior roles have increased by 0.5 percentage points in 2022/23 and are above the national population estimate (0.5%) at 0.7% contributions.
Transgender representation among senior roles is below the national population estimate at 0.3% in 2022/23.

Sexual orientation

From 2019/20 to 2022/23, representation by those that identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual in contributions to senior (19.3%) and non-senior roles (16.3%) are well above the national workforce estimate of 3.8% (Labour Market, ONS). However, this is mainly attributable to the high proportion of contributions made in senior roles by gay men.

Tim Davie, BBC Director General: “Diversity is a priority for the BBC. Diamond provides a clear indication of where the whole industry must focus its efforts to improve representation. Just last week, we strengthened our commitments to diverse contributions off-screen and authentic representation on-screen. We will be unrelenting in seeking and delivering change. It is something we must all get right.”

Alex Mahon, CEO, Channel 4: “While we have seen good progress since Diamond reporting started, the latest report has shown that for some groups of people, representation remains short of the reality of the world around us. At Channel 4, we are committed to creating opportunities for anyone, regardless of background, to see themselves represented or forge a career in the industry. We work to represent our audiences across all platforms, reflecting our accelerated shift towards digital, and we are proud that new generations of talent are developing their careers with Channel 4.”

Carolyn McCall, CEO ITV: “The Seventh Cut provides a vital snapshot of our industry’s progress on diversity, equity and inclusion. While we celebrate the positive steps taken, it’s clear that there’s still significant work to be done, particularly in areas like representation of Deaf, Disabled and Neurodivergent people and Asian people. At ITV, we are committed to driving meaningful change. We will continue our work to create a more inclusive industry and workplace and ensure our content reflects the diversity of the UK. The Diamond report is an essential tool in holding us to account and guiding our efforts. Together with the industry, we can build a television sector that truly represents the audiences we serve.”

Sarah Rose, President of Channel 5 and UK Regional Lead at Paramount: “Diamond highlights critical areas where the industry needs to concentrate its ongoing efforts, and it is really encouraging to see improvements in representation both on and off screen. At Paramount, we believe that to be the best, creators and storytellers, our people and partners must reflect, celebrate and elevate the diversity of our audiences and in the UK our ‘No Diversity, No Commission’ policy continues to effect change in front of and behind the camera. However, we know that we all have much more work to do to ensure further progress for all those who are under-represented and we remain fully committed to playing our part.”

Cécile Frot-Coutaz, CEO of Sky Studios and Chief Content Officer for Sky: “As Diamond continues to grow the data it is able to analyse it gives us a great insight into both the progress being made in the industry, as well as the challenges we all still face. At Sky we make sure everyone has an active role to play in improving diversity both on and off screen. We remain committed to working closely with our colleagues across the industry to ensure there is enduring energy to be better.”

Richard Watsham, Chief Creative Officer, UKTV and Global Director of Acquisitions, BBC Studios/UKTV: “The importance of this report cannot be underestimated as it holds us all to account in creating a fair and equal industry. I’m pleased to see that progress has been made and that UKTV continues to lead the way in deaf, disabled, and neurodiverse representation both on and off-screen. We clearly have much more to do though, and this report illustrates where increased focus is urgently needed. As highlighted at this year’s Edinburgh TV Festival, we must deliver better class representation throughout the industry. UKTV welcomes CDN’s plans to enhance data collection, and we recognise the importance of speeding up the release of detailed data, so that progress can be monitored and new areas of focus identified more quickly.”

John McVay, CEO Pact: “The latest Diamond data gives us a valuable indicator of cross sectoral representation and helps us all to understand where we need to focus attention. Whilst it’s positive to see that improvements have been made in certain areas, there is clearly work to do in others. Pact is committed to working in collaboration with its members and the wider sector to build inclusive cultures and tackle the areas of under-representation highlighted in this report.”