{"id":15428,"date":"2025-07-22T12:49:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T12:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/15428\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T12:49:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T12:49:07","slug":"bbc-smashes-creative-diversity-targets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/15428\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC Smashes Creative Diversity Targets"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEXCLUSIVE: The BBC<\/a> smashed its creative diversity<\/a> targets by \u00a360M ($80M) last year, as the person responsible for ensuring the corporation works with under-represented voices tells us her team is now completely embedded in the commissioning process.<\/p>\n

\n\tRevealed in its BBC Commissioning Report for the year to March 31 2025, the broadcaster said it spent \u00a3140M on shows that qualify for its creative diversity commitment, when its target was to spend around \u00a380M. This figure bested the previous year\u2019s spend by \u00a335M and means the BBC is on its way to comfortably beating its target of spending \u00a3240M on both TV and radio across the three years to 2027.<\/p>\n

\n\tJessica Schibli, the BBC\u2019s Head of Creative Diversity, told us the \u201cwhopping increase\u201d is the result of a shift in \u201cmindset perspective\u201d that has seen her team become \u201cintegrated and fully woven through every ounce\u201d of the TV commissioning process.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe are now involved in greenlight meetings that traditionally took place between the commissioner and the indie,\u201d she said. \u201cThat makes us all accessible. It means we\u2019re not just setting targets for indies but the conversation is happening at the point of commission.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tThe BBC\u2019s creative diversity commitment was forged during the summer of the Black Lives Matter protests nearly five years back. To qualify, shows must meet two of these three criteria: \u2018Diverse stories and on-screen portrayal\u2019, \u2018diverse production leadership\u2019 and \u2018diverse company leadership\u2019. At that point, the BBC committed to spending \u00a3112M across three years on this content, a figure that ended up being way higher at \u00a3243M.<\/p>\n

\n\tSchibli said her six-strong team including genre-specific creative diversity partners have been aggressive these past 12 months, working closely with producers via a series of webinars and Q&As while updating their commissioning specification document with more detail.<\/p>\n

\n\tThey are more closely advising producers who struggle to find under-represented talent and spent \u00a32.3M on development via a diverse development fund for indies. \u201cWe are starting to build a network we want to share with producers,\u201d added Schibli. \u201cIf someone comes to us and says they can\u2019t find a disabled director for a production, we can now say, \u2018Actually, have you met this person who\u2019s just directed their first block on [BBC soap] EastEnders?\u2019. This is about acknowledging the nuances of various genres.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tElsewhere, the BBC for the first time revealed its spend on making TV sets more accessible for disabled people, which totalled \u00a31.3M last year. This satisfies one of the key demands of the Jack Thorne-backed TV Access Project<\/a>, which sprung up at the Edinburgh TV Festival 2021 and is aiming to make television a more accessible industry. \u201cWe are making it clear that finance is not a barrier,\u201d said Schibli.<\/p>\n

\n\tProgress is still required <\/a>to commission more shows from criteria three, \u2018diverse company leadership,\u2019 Schibli added, describing this as \u201cmore static but an absolute focus area for us.\u201d On-screen, the team is far more advanced. Schibli tells us the BBC spent a whopping \u00a3358M last year on content that solely reaches the criteria around on-screen portrayal.<\/p>\n

\n\tBest in class examples she floated include double-BAFTA winning drama Mr Loverman<\/a>, which has just sold to BritBox in the States<\/a>, A A Dhand adaptation Virdee and comedy series We Might Regret This, which is created by and stars Kyla Harris. She is also enthused by the \u201cincidental portrayal\u201d in shows like The Traitors and Strictly Come Dancing, the latter of which was won by blind comedian Chris McCausland, who is now piloting his own BBC primetime quiz show<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tSchibli said she has the full-throated backing of new BBC Chief Content Officer Kate Phillips, who she speaks to on an almost daily basis and who \u201cabsolutely without a doubt\u201d is as committed to the cause as her predecessor Charlotte Moore. Moore was frequently lavished with praise by indies for her work in the space.<\/p>\n

\n\tFurther progress is expected in the coming years as a separate target for 25%<\/a> (previously 20%) of people working on each BBC production to be either ethnically diverse, disabled or from a lower socioeconomic background comes into force. Last year, around three-quarters of productions met the previous 20% requirement, although that still leaves room for improvement as the BBC tries to get the figure as close to 100% as possible. \u201cThere is an escalation process in place when targets are not met without a clear and evidenced reason,\u201d said a BBC spokeswoman. \u201cFor returning commissions, persistent underperformance may lead to escalation measures.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe BBC is meanwhile facing blowback from staffers on both sides of the Israel-Hamas War debate who have been frustrated with its news output and recent scandals involving the Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone documentary and Bob Vylan\u2019s controversial Glastonbury set. But Schibli said her team shuts out the noise and \u201cthe commitment to making sure [diversity] is a priority\u201d is sacrosanct.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cReflecting and serving all audiences is part of our absolute existential role,\u201d she added. \u201cThat is unchanged.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: The BBC smashed its creative diversity targets by \u00a360M ($80M) last year, as the person responsible for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15429,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[13698,49,48,13699,75,13700,348],"class_list":["post-15428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-bbc","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-diversity","tag-entertainment","tag-mr-loverman","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}