BBC To Blow Millions On More On-Air Diversity & New "Diversity Creative Talent Fund"

21st June 2014

The BBC plans to spend £2.1million of licence fee money on fast-tracking ethnic minority talent onto the screen with a new ‘diversity’ committee.

Director-general Tony Hall said the corporation had ‘to do more’ to increase ethnic minority representation both on and off camera.

He said the ‘diversity creative talent fund’ would help ‘fast-track’ certain shows onto the screen and create a series of development programmes aimed at encouraging future commissioners and executives from ethnic minority backgrounds.

The director-general said he wanted to see ethnic minorities account for 15% of air talent in the next three years and said he would also set ‘local targets’ in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leicester to reflect the population of those cities.

He also said he wanted those from ethnic minority backgrounds to account for 15% of senior staff by 2020.

Actor Lenny Henry, who has criticised the TV and film industry in the past for not providing a ‘fair and honest reflection of our society’, has signed up to the committee to help advise the corporation on its representation of ethnic minorities.

The star joins other names including Paralympian Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, former footballer Jason Roberts and TV presenter and Liberal Democrat peer Floella Benjamin.

The BBC said they would ‘advise and support the BBC on diversity’.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2663651/BBC-spend-2-1million-licence-fee-money-fast-tracking-ethnic-minority-talent-screen-new-diversity-committee.html#ixzz35GN9XSRK