BBC, the world’s largest broadcasting company by number of employees, is striving to have a workforce where one in six is gay, lesbian or disabled by 2020.
Half the workforce, both on- and off-screen, have to be women. The number of blacks, Asians and other ethnic minorities will be 15 percent, and one in six — 16.7 percent — will be gay, lesbian or disabled. This could theoretically leave just 18.3 percent for straight, white males to be on air.
A person who falls into multiple categories, such as an Asian lesbian, would of course increase the window further.
“We are making good progress in our work to make the BBC a truly diverse organization, but there’s more to do and we’re always keen to improve,” a BBC representative said Saturday.
BBC employs more than 20,000 people and can be seen world-wide. It has a mix of news, entertainment and sports with a global audience of 265 million.
Tony Hall, BBC’s director general, promised reforms to incorporate more minorities during an address in 2014. The House of Commons chamber of the parliament has also pushed for more diversity on air.
The broadcaster is already just two percentage points shy of fulfilling the criteria for women and minorities, with 48.5 percent and 13.1 percent respectively. The issue has instead been among gays and disabled people.
A BBC survey from 2010 suggests 1.5 percent of Brits identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual. Sixteen percent of working-age adults are considered disabled, according to a 2014 government report. The 16.7 percent quota is therefore representative of the general population, but it doesn’t account for the fact that less than half of disabled individuals are employed.
The broadcaster will be able to commission exceptions for shows where the main characters are more likely to be male.
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