Tony Hall Is Leaving The BBC But Increasing Diversity Is Not A Simple Matter Of Changing The Gatekeepers

The BBC needs to worry less about changing its gatekeepers, and more about changing the structures behind them.

On Monday 20^th the BBC’s Director General, Tony Hall, announced he would be stepping down.

WHO SHOULD REPLACE TONY HALL?

Following the announcement I have received the usual messages from people asking me who I think should replace him. As I write so much about diversity people have asked me if I think there are any suitable women, disabled or ethnic minority candidates. And of course there are several; from Sharon White and Alex Mahon who are being touted by the trade papers, to Paula Kerger (the current CEO of PBS in the US) to Channing Dungey (the President of ABC) if we wanted to cast our net a little wider.

But implicit in these questions is the argument one often hears, that if we were only able to change the gatekeepers then we could solve diversity.

In many ways when it comes to British broadcasting there is no more powerful gatekeeper than the Director General of the BBC, and so we just need to find the right gatekeeper.

This is not an argument I subscribe to, and it doesn’t standup to scrutiny.

GATEKEEPERS MATTER LESS THAN YOU THINK

Gatekeepers do matter but to extend the metaphor the structures the gatekeepers are guarding matter more.

Take for example the various commissioners at ITV, Channel 5, BBC, Channel 4, Sky and Netflix. All very important gatekeepers deciding which programmes are made and broadcast.

The different broadcasters have very different rates of diversity, both behind and in front of the camera. However the pool of commissioners that all the broadcasters draw from is very small.

It is common for a gatekeeper to move from BBC to ITV to Sky to Channel 4 and back again.

If gatekeepers really mattered as much as people seem to think, then diversity rates of the programmes would follow the commissioners who are good at diversity and fall accordingly. But this doesn’t seem to happen.

Instead the gatekeepers commission according to the structures and demands of the broadcasters they find themselves working in. ITV is poor at diversity and the gatekeepers commission accordingly. Channel 4 and Netflix are better at diversity (relatively speaking) and the gatekeepers act accordingly. What is interesting is the gatekeepers are the same set of people moving between the different organisations.

To underline this point Mark Thompson was the head gatekeeper at Channel 4 as CEO from 2002 – 2004 and was then the head gatekeeper of the BBC as the Director General from 2004-2012.

STRUCTURES MATTER MORE

In my experience at the BBC gatekeepers did not commission more programmes out of London because they were more enlightened about regional diversity. Channel controllers did not broadcast more high-end drama in prime-time because they had a particular love of drama.

The gatekeepers were fulfilling their duties within the parameters of the organisations they were guarding (excuse the extended use of this metaphor). And those parameters are set up by negotiations (directly and indirectly) between Ofcom, the broadcasters, government departments, trade bodies and unions. They also take into account the commercial realities and models the broadcasters are operating under.

It is precisely this argument Sir Lenny Henry, Simon Albury MBE and I made at the House of Lords select committee when giving evidence about diversity and streaming services like Netflix and Amazon. We did not concentrate on the individual gatekeepers but how the organisations differed. (One quick example; Anne Mensah is the Vice President of Original Series at Netflix, but has also been an important gatekeeper at Sky and the BBC. Her ability to champion diversity seems to have grown now she is at Netflix compared to her time at the other two broadcasters - I doubt her views on diversity have changed).

DO GATEKEEPERS MATTER AT ALL?

Gatekeepers matter.

Everyone who works in television has stories of good and bad exec producers, good and bad commissioners, and even good and bad director generals.

And working within the confines of the organization good gatekeepers can deliver better results than bad gatekeepers.

For this reason I will be cheering on the people I genuinely hope would make great director generals of the BBC - and my list is replete with great women and people of colour. 

But I will be dedicating more of my efforts to creating structures that will enable good gatekeepers to make positive change and limit the bad gatekeepers from messing up too badly.