Centre spearheaded by Sir Lenny Henry helps shape ITV's £80m diversity drive
A research centre at a university spearheaded by Sir Lenny Henry has helped shaped ITV's £80 million drive to improve diversity in its programmes.
Birmingham City University's Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity had a say in the plans for the broadcaster's content commissioning budget.
A total of £80m will be spent over the next three years on the diversity drive, with at least £20m of the cash pot earmarked for content made by Black, Asian and minority ethnic-led and disabled-led production companies.
And ITV has also created a new £500k development fund to develop ideas that will qualify for the Diversity Commissioning Fund.
Marcus Ryder, from the Birmingham City University’s Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity, said: "ITV dedicating programme finance for television productions that meet set criteria to positively increase diversity and inclusion is an important development.
"The Lenny Henry Centre is happy to have been consulted in the process, and if implemented fully we see this as a vital policy tool in any broadcaster’s efforts to increase representation of underrepresented groups in production."
To qualify for the £500k fund, productions must meet either the first criteria or the two remaining criteria: it must be a diverse company ownership or have diverse leadership, have diverse creative leadership, have diverse stories and portrayal on-screen and have a diverse salary spend.
Ade Rawcliffe, ITV’s Group Director of Diversity and Inclusion, added: "ITV is committed to creating content by, with, and for everyone, connecting and reflecting modern audiences. We want more people of colour and disabled people to be able to tell their stories and get opportunities in senior production roles. With this reserve fund, we’re working to speed up progress in a sustainable way and play our part to change the structure of the industry.”
