How to Protect Freelancers and Stop Covid-19 Devastating TV Diversity

Living in China and working for Caixin, the country’s leading financial publication, I have been reporting on and grappling with the economic consequences of the Covid-19 outbreak since January. Now as the virus has become international it is clear that it is devastating the television industry globally and in the UK in particular, with may productions being indefinitely postponed or even cancelled in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus.

Some of the people being worst hit are freelancers who survive from one job to another. Canceled productions literally mean no money in the bank and no food on the table. 

And potentially it could be devastating for diversity.

In fact, Covid-19 threatens to be the nail in the coffin for Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) television freelancers and BAME-led independent television companies. Here is why.

Over the past 20 years, the television industry has moved to a more deregulated market where more programmes are produced by independent companies, as opposed to in-house production departments within broadcasters. Exact figures are difficult to come by but according to Creative SkillSet between 2006 - 2012 the number of freelancers working in broadcast television grew from 17% to 26% and in broadcast radio they more than doubled from 12% to 25%.

It has often been BAME professionals who have borne the brunt of this shift. 

Historically the freelance economy in television has not served BAME people well where jobs are often found through word of mouth and through informal contacts. This has been exacerbated by the shortening amount of time between projects being greenlit and going into production. According to a groundbreaking study by Prof. Irena Grugulis, this time has decreased dramatically over the last twenty years. Previously there could be several months between a commission and needing to fully staff it, now that time has been reduced to an average of just two weeks. That means TV executives have just two weeks to find a director, assistant producer, researcher, runner and any other staff that might be needed to bring the programme to our screens. Prof. Grugulis thinks that this pressure to staff up a project in a short period of time is having a devastating effect on BAME and disabled people working in television.

The few statistics looking at the diversity of freelancers in the television industry all support the idea that BAME people are disadvantaged but the current structure. According to BBC figures for example BBC Studios (the department that makes TV programmes) has a 9.6% BAME employment rate when it comes to its staff. This drops by almost 2 percentage points to 7.7% when it comes to the diversity of the freelancers it employs.

When it comes to small independent companies that often survive from commission to commission the situation for BAME people might be even worse.  Televisual magazine publishes a list of the top 100 independent television companies every year along with the names of people in key positions in those companies.

Of the roughly 300 names listed last year only 6 people of BAME backgrounds were in key positions. And only one of the indies listed could possibly be thought of as a “BAME-led” company - Voltage TV whose CEO and Managing Director are both Asian.

All of this means that anything that hurts the freelance sector could have an even more devastating effect on BAME people who are already struggling and could push small indies into bankruptcy.

So the question is what can be done to specifically help BAME freelancers during the Covid-19 outbreak?

Here are a few ideas:

1. Even though productions might be currently on hold due to the virus, that does not mean commissions need to be halted nor the prospective staffing up of those productions. Indeed, a longer time frame between commissioning a project and the start of the production might in fact create more space for indies to be more intentional with recruiting BAME freelancers. And having the certainty of working on a production in the future will enable people to borrow against future earnings and plan their lives.

2. In China several regional governments are issuing vouchers that can be spent on specific sectors that have been disproportionately hit by the virus - tourism, catering and entertainment. Similarly, the UK government could issue vouchers or offer tax rebates to all broadcasters that commission productions that meet certain diversity criteria, including employing BAME freelancers or using BAME indies.

3. BAME-led indies should be given a minimum production guarantee for the year after Covid-19 measures are lifted - in precisely the same way regionally based indies are given a minimum production spend guarantee. Again, this would enable BAME-led indies to borrow with some level of security and see them through this tough time.

Living and working in China if there is one thing I have learnt in the last few weeks is even if Covid-19 doesn’t affect your health directly we will all feel its economic consequences. And what is also clear is that without the right policies those economic consequences will hit some communities harder than others.

Looking at my fellow media professionals in the UK let’s make sure diversity does not suffer as a result.