A year ago I found myself sitting at a table with several television execs and a few senior figures from Ofcom, the organisation that regulates the UK media industry.
The television execs were there to advise
Ofcom on how they might be able to regulate television diversity better.
During the course of the conversation it
quickly became apparent that Ofcom had no way of monitoring the diversity of
who makes UK television programmes.
To explain, Ofcom DO have the power to compel the Public Service
Broadcasters (that’s the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5) to provide data to
the public about the diversity of their workforce as a whole. However, in some
ways Ofcom’s powers are outdated - overseeing diversity is a new responsibility. Ofcom DON'T have the power to ask the PSBs to
provide data about the independent companies that make their programmes.
This means Ofcom has a very serious
problem.
For example the BBC’s workforce diversity figures include a lot of non-programme making departments so Ofcom are none the wiser of the make-up of who actually makes the programmes.
At the other end of the spectrum is Channel 4 who does not directly employ any programme makers (all their programmes are made by independent companies). Ofcom cannot compel the indies to report their diversity stats so are none-the-wiser of the diversity of C4’s programme makers.
For example the BBC’s workforce diversity figures include a lot of non-programme making departments so Ofcom are none the wiser of the make-up of who actually makes the programmes.
At the other end of the spectrum is Channel 4 who does not directly employ any programme makers (all their programmes are made by independent companies). Ofcom cannot compel the indies to report their diversity stats so are none-the-wiser of the diversity of C4’s programme makers.
Regulating what you can’t measure
So sitting round the table we asked Ofcom -
how can you do your job? How can you regulate something that you can’t even
measure?
It was not a confrontational meeting so
there was a little polite laughter by Ofcom’s officials, followed by responses
which amounted to “Yeah! I know! It’s an impossible job.”
With the way Ofcom currently tries to
measure diversity and the powers that it has, it is indeed an impossible job.
They have my sympathy.
Yesterday Ofcom published its annual diversity report.
Due to their outdated powers it was deeply
flawed.
Misleading statistics
They effectively published diversity
figures already published by the major broadcasters which do not reveal
the diversity of who is actually making the programmes.
They compared the diversity of different
broadcasters which is a little confusing - it is like comparing apples and
oranges - as each broadcaster is set up differently (as explained by the C4
versus BBC example above).
And they used statistics from the
broadcasters’ industry-wide monitoring scheme - “Diamond” - to measure freelance
diversity, despite the fact that they themselves acknowledge that the sample
size is so small that there is the risk of “sample bias”. Which means there’s a
hogh probability that only productions with good diversity figures will report,
while the majority of productions will not report giving a very skewed picture.
All this means that Diamond’s figures are effectively meaningless - with time
and with more productions reporting this might change, but right now they are
not a useful guide to the state of diversity in the industry.
To be fair to Ofcom they mention a lot of
these flaws in the report, they also used figures published by Directors UK and the Writers Guild which are extremely robust but only shed
light on a small part of the overall workforce, namely directors and writers.
And actor Adrian Lester has the best quote in the report saying;
What are we trying to achieve?
So why am I writing about the this and why
did I tweet about it in the hours after the report was published? That is the
question my wife asked me, and is the question she always asks me whenever I
tweet or write about a large powerful media organisation, “What are you trying
to achieve?”
What I am trying to achieve is very simple.
While I think Ofcom's report is welcome in principle, I am worried
it is premature, and ultimately misleading, because of its lack of reliable
data - irrespective of the caveats and small print it published.
Solutions
So what can Ofcom do?
Is Ofcom doomed forever to be made to do an
impossible job without the powers to fulfil its role?
Now people who read my blog regularly
should know by now that I always try and have positive solutions, so here are
two:
First, Ofcom could ask government to give
them more powers so they can adapt their role to the 21st century
realities of the media workforce. To get credible data and compare apples with
apples they need to either be able to in future a) directly compel third party
suppliers to give them diversity data or b) compel the Public Service
Broadcasters to collect diversity data from third parties and freelancers and
give that to Ofcom. Indeed, Ofcom could do both a) and b).
There is precedent for this. In the US
the state government in California have given their film
regulator similar powers. Any film production which takes state funding or
applies for tax relief must report their diversity figures. I would argue that
making a programme for a Public Service Broadcaster is similar in principle to
receiving state funding - at least in the case of the BBC.
The CEO of Ofcom, Sharon White, talking at
a conference suggested that Ofcom might seek such additional powers. The problem is Ofcom’s
official diversity report does not mention this, although it does mention
seeking new powers from government for other aspects of diversity.
Sharon White is also due to leave Ofcom and
so what is verbally said by an outgoing CEO at a conference versus what is
written in an official report might mean that it is not prioritised. And also
talking to politicians, giving any regulator the power to demand workforce
diversity of private companies would require new legislation and may take
years.
The second solution is Ofcom could measure
diversity in the same way it measures regional diversity.
Currently Ofcom defines what is an “Out of London production”, they do this
by looking at the percentage of workforce salary spent outside of London, where
the production company is based, and the percentage of total production spend
outside of London. It does not do a head count of how many people are employed
(like the first solution this would require new legislation) but having a
figure for how many productions qualify as “out -of London” gives Ofcom a very
good proxy measurement for regional diversity.
If Ofcom defined what was a “diverse
production” - using measurements such as salary spend on BAME/disabled/women,
diverse staff in certain key roles and who is the exec - it could then measure
how much broadcasters were spending on diverse productions.
It would not be a perfect measurement of
industry diversity, but just like regional diversity would be a pretty good
proxy. And most importantly would not require Ofcom to have any new powers.
We all want the same thing
So next time I am sitting around a table
with television execs and Ofcom officials I hope we are not talking again about
how impossible Ofcom’s job is. And instead we are talking about how to make the
impossible possible.
After all, as I tweeted yesterday everyone concerned in diversity in
the television industry is trying to achieve the same thing: “Idealy I want to
know the diversity of who is making UK TV programmes. It would be great to know
the diversity of specific productions and even better if we knew their roles.
With the @ofcom diversity
report we are none the wiser”.
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