Sky exceeds its diversity targets with 25% Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic talents
Sky in Britain has released its latest ‘Diamond’ diversity data, a system created by the TV industry’s Creative Diversity Network (CDN) to allow broadcasters to collect and use data to track representation, which revealed progress towards diversity targets for original UK productions.
The results, which come three months after that Sky committed £30 million to support the fight against racial injustice and invest more in diversity and inclusion, revealed promising future perspectives.
Specifically, updated numbers show that 25% of Sky’s on-screen talent now comes from Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, surpassing the broadcaster’s initial 20% target. The report has also recorded a better minority representation in senior production roles, reaching 10% for the first time.
Among writing positions, BAME representation in drama and comedy reached 17%, 9 points up from Sky’s full-year report shared earlier this year.
“We are encouraged by the most recent data, but we know we still have a lot of work to do in reaching and maintaining all our inclusion targets,” declared Gary Davey, appointed Chief Executive Officer for Sky Studios in June 2019.
“As more and more productions return to set, ensuring cast and crew fill out their Diamond data forms is a critical task alongside daily temperature checking and other safety measures.
“Diamond can only be as effective and useful to the industry as the data it can collect. As productions start back up again, I encourage all of us to redouble our efforts on gathering data that will help make a long-lasting change for the better,” he added.
Sky, which has closed a raft of sales for different upcoming series, is about to reveal some diversity productions very soon. “Trickster”, for instance, is one of them, spotlighting indigenous Canadian main characters and mythology, offering up new narratives to TV audiences.