ITV Focuses on Working With Diverse Production Companies in New Commissioning Fund

variety.com:

Manori Ravindran International EditorITV is setting aside £80 million ($105 million) of its commissioning budget over the next three years for a Diversity Commissioning Fund.Of the £80 million fund, at least £20 million will be reserved for shows made by Black, Asian and minority ethnic-led and disabled-led production companies.

ITV has also created a new £500,000  development fund to develop ideas that will qualify for its Diversity Commissioning Fund.While at least 25% of the fund is only for productions made by Black, Asian and minority ethnic-led and disabled-led production companies, the remaining 75% of the fund can be accessed as long as productions are overseen by companies with either diverse ownership or leadership.

They must also have diverse salary spend or diverse on-screen stories/portrayals. The full wording of the criteria is below:ITV consulted on the fund with the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity.According to the latest figures from the Diamond report — an industry-wide data collection system for monitoring and reporting diversity in broadcasting — the “Love Island” broadcaster has 14.2% off-screen and 17.5% on-screen representation of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic creatives, and 4.5% off-screen and 9.6% on-screen representation of disabled creatives.Variety put a spotlight on the lack of producers of color working in the U.K.

film and TV industry in November.Carolyn McCall, CEO of ITV, said the new fund further builds on ITV’s Diversity Acceleration Plan. “We want to keep up the momentum and drive more progress at ITV and across the industry, so that our audiences can see their broad range of experiences and perspectives reflected in our content,” she said.Ade Rawcliffe, group director of.