Ofcom Unhappy With TV Broadcasters

Ofcom which is a communications regulator for TV, Radio, Videos on demand, etc. is not happy with the TV broadcasters as they do not stand for the society. The presenters are not representing the women or other minority communities accurately and have become a cause for worry in the industry. It also said that channels like BBC, Channel 5, Sky, etc. have many areas where they are a need for improvement, and it concerns for Ofcom to see such results.

Lack of diversity: There is lack of opportunities for people from ethnic and minority groups, and it is a concerning thing that broadcasters are not keeping a tab of this state of affairs. By not having employees from such groups the programmes aired by these broadcasters will be more targeted to majority excluding the millions of minority, and hence there will be a disconnect between creators and viewers.
The report also states that there is also a gender mismatch as only 48% women were part of the makeup of these top broadcasters in comparison with the 51% of female population. Minority, blacks, and Asian people constituted to 12% of the 14% population. There is an impression that older women are not shown in a positive light in TV programmes, and women workers are less at the age of 50 and above when compared to men of the same age. People of the ethnic groups are also of the opinion that there are not many programmes which reliably represents their groups and their livelihood.

BBC refutes the claims: Meanwhile BBC states that the reports of Ofcom are outdated and they have already made a lot of changes in their employee make up. They have published reports in 2017 that shows the woman, ethnic groups, disabled, etc. are represented better than before. The spokesperson also said that they are committed to bringing in diversity in their workforce and have set targets for the year 2020.