The BBC and and diversity: creativity and audiences

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The BBC and and diversity creativity and
audiences
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The BBC has 6 public purposes

• Sustaining citizenship civil society
• Promoting education learning
• Stimulating creative cultural excellence
• Representing the UK, its nations, regions
  communities
• Bringing the UK to the world the world to the
  UK
• Delivering to the public the benefit of emerging
  communications technologies services

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The Demographics (2001 census)

• UK population 59 million people
• Black and Minority Ethnic population 8

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2001 Census

• Indian people made up 1.8, or just over 1
  million, of the population of England and Wales.
• There were 1.3 Pakistanis
• 1 Black Caribbeans
• 0.8 Black Africans
• 0.5 Bangladeshis
• 0.4 Chinese.

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2001 Census

• A further 1.2 of people defined themselves as
  being from a mixed ethnic background.
• More recent estimates for England suggest that
  the mixed race group is growing the fastest,
  accounting for 1.7 of the population. (The
  largest category within this group is White and
  Black Caribbean)

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2001 Census

• Religion 70 Christian,
• 1.6million follow Islam
• Over 55s 19.8million (34)
• Disability 1 in 5 people

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More Demographics

• One in 5 children in the UK under the age of 5 is
  of mixed race
• 22 of babies born in the UK have a mother born
  overseas
• Approximately 30 of Londons population 15 in
  the West Midlands are from an ethnic minority

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Demographics

• Within 8 years one in 6 of all UK citizens will
  come from an ethnic minority background

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Why?

• Diversity for the BBC is a creative
  opportunity to engage the totality of the UK
  audience.

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Why diversity is important to the BBC

• The BBC is a PSB, funded by a unique licence fee
  payable by all sections of UK society.
• The BBCs future depends on being able to reflect
  the reality of modern Britain in an authentic
  way.
• The audiences that we serve are increasingly
  diverse.

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Why diversity is important to the BBC

• Our competitors are also investing significantly
  in reaching out to connect with diverse
  audiences.
• The BBC aims to be the most creative organisation
  in the world. Diversity is one way of accessing
  new ideas and perspectives

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Why Diversity is Important to the BBC

• The BBC has to remain compliant with current
  legislation, eg around providing access for
  disabled service users under the Disability
  Discrimination Act (DDA).

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Diversity Strategy Priorities

• To make programmes which reflect the reality of
  diverse audiences, and which deliver on the BBCs
  responsibility to inform, educate and entertain
• mainstream diversity into how the BBC operates by
  for example, building Diversity assessments into
  strategic and business planning, major projects
  and policy development (eg. BBC North, Digital
  Switchover and key partnerships).

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Diversity Strategy Priorities

• To develop a pipeline of diverse senior talent
  for decision-making roles.
• To ensure that the BBC remains compliant with
  current equality legislation
• To meet the BBCs workforce diversity targets by
  2012
• To communicate and share examples of good
  practice on diversity across the organisation and
  beyond via partnership and collaborative working.

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A Clear Vision

• Specific short to medium term diversity outcomes
• Longer term cultural change
• Able to demonstrate clear and measurable progress
  both internally and externally.

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Progress at Corporate level includes

• Performance measurement framework enabling us to
  measure progress and capture good practice
• Identify gaps and to inform management planning.

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Progress at Divisional Level

• Development of Diversity Action Plans (DAPs) for
  2009-10
• Outcome focused and linked to local objectives
• Diversity Champions and Diversity Action Groups
  in place across all divisions

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Progress at Divisional Level

• Executive director leads are accountable for
  delivery
• Progress reported to the Diversity Board on a
  quarterly basis.
• All DAPs published on the BBC intranet

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Equality and Diversity ActivityStrategy and
Public Purposes

• Diversity screening of major funding bids
• Integration of ED through out all large scale
  BBC Projects
• Working in partnership with other UK broadcasters
  through the CDN (Cultural Diversity Network)
• Working in partnership with the BCIDN (Broadcast
  Creative Industries Disability Network)

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Strategy and Public Purposes contd

• Working with the Broadcast Training Skills
  regulator to shape an industry wide approach to
  monitoring and reporting on equal opps
• Community Engagement through a range of well
  established, nationwide initiatives such as BBC
  Blast, School Report and Your Game
• International Diversity Initiatives, assisting
  NPS (Dutch PBS) to produce and deliver the
  Diversity Show in November 2008

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Audiences

• Talking Disability audience research carried out
  in partnership with Channel 4
• BBC News diverse audiences feedback sessions

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Audiences

• BBC Working Group on Portrayal inclusion of
  Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual audiences
• BBC 3 Live Insight
• Gypsy and Traveller Project

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Output and Contentbehind the scenes

• Disabled Talent Alert Directory
• BBC iplayer content now audio described as well
  as sub-titled

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Workforce Diversity Targets

• Black Minority Ethnic all staff target of 12.5
  - currently at 12
• BME Senior Management target of 7 - currently at
  5.6

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Workforce Diversity Targets

• Disability all staff target of 5.5 - currently
  4.4
• Disability Senior Management target of 4.5 -
  currently 3.5

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Gender statistics

• 49.2 of ALL BBC staff are female
• 36.6 of Senior Managers at the BBC are female

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Female Staff - of female staff by division
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Female Senior Management - of SM staff by
division
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Examples of Good Practice from Diversity Action
Plans

• Audio Music
• Every network is committed to forming a
  partnership with a community or training
  organisation.
• Involving the audience U Take Over Day at Radio
  1Xtra

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News

• Disability Confidence - All managers have
  completed the News-specific Disability Confidence
  training course
• Project Excellence News, MCA and College of
  Journalism are looking at the Economy as a story
  which has attracted new audiences, including
  people from diverse backgrounds.

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Vision

• Taking the Pledge - Vision Productions have
  formally signed up to the Cultural Diversity
  Network (CDN) Diversity Pledge
• A PACT Diversity Adviser has been co-funded by
  BBC and C4
• www.culturaldiversitynetwork.co.uk

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Examples of on-line output

• For Ramadan 2009, BBC Birmingham produced a
  brilliant website to educate, entertain and
  inform audiences about Ramadan
• http//www.bbc.co.uk/birmingham/ramadan_2009_index
  .shtml

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Cbeebies BBC content for 0 6 year olds

• http//www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/drilldown/fun/3/4/1/
  
• Cbeebies have worked closely with young children
  with motor disorders such as Cerebral Palsy to
  design a dozen fun and inclusive games for
  children 6 years old and under

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Online Accessibility

• BBC iPlayer now includes SignZone
• 90 of iPlayer content was subtitled by end 2008.
  
• the first broadcaster in the world to include
  audio described TV programmes for blind and
  visually impaired audiences in its
  video-on-demand

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• Headroom is a cross-platform campaign from BBC
  Learning to raise awareness of the simple steps
  that people can take to help look after their own
  mental health and improve their lives
• the Headroom team took their practical advice on
  a tour of some of the UKs summer festivals in
  the Headroom Tent