HETV producers set out diversity needs

High-end TV (HETV) producers require “more support, more resources and more tools” to improve off-screen diversity, according to ScreenSkills’ annual survey, which set out the impact of coronavirus on the sector.

Of the 70 respondents to the ‘HETV in the UK 2020 workforce research’, the number citing diversity and inclusion as being most in need of investment doubled to 68% from 39% year-on-year, with the next-highest issue – ‘specific grade shortages’ – dropping from 72% to 53%.

Qualitative interviews found “practical difficulties” in HETV producers taking up the push for greater off-screen diversity, with filling mid-level roles and HoDs identified as particularly tricky.

Interviewees also criticised the “piecemeal” nature of industry attempts to promote inclusion and said there is a “marketing challenge” around convincing individuals from under-represented groups to join an industry “they might not feel is for them”.

“Productions say they need more support, more resources and tools and more time to prep and crew up in order to deliver a more inclusive crew,” concluded the report.

“It seems likely that crew from under-represented groups face many more challenges than their industry peers to rising through the ranks.”

The BBC is soon to introduce mandatory 20% off-screen diversity targets on all shows, requiring one-in-five of each production’s crew to be BAME, disabled or from a lower socio-economic background. UKTV is introducing similar targets in July.

‘Biggest impact ever’

The research was released almost a year to the day since the first lockdown, with one respondent describing the pandemic as “the biggest impact there’s ever really been” on the HETV sector.

“Our day is now run by Covid”, said one head of production, while another surmised: “It’s Covid from morning until when you go to bed.”

Interviewees raised concerns that new roles such as Covid supervisor are being taken up by existing staff, leading to further skills shortages and “placing more pressure on finding crew to fill [their] roles”.

Posts such as production coordinator and production manager are keen to become Covid supervisors as pay rates for the latter are higher.

More positively, the report flagged people from the theatre and live events industries, whose sectors have been decimated, moving across to fill these roles.

On the whole, participants ranked skills shortages as less of an issue than last year, with 72% believing it to be a “very serious or serious problem” compared to 81%.

This may have been impacted by the production freeze – the vast majority of shoots shut down during the three-month first lockdown period and prior to the introduction of the government’s £500m insurance scheme.

HETV shows with lower budgets are suffering more, with a “lack of availability [of crew] compounded by this type of production not being able to offer the same rates of pay as those with much higher budgets”.

The pandemic has also led more HETV production to locate in the UK due to travel restrictions, according to the report, citing an example of a shoot shifting from Eastern Europe to an English region.

The ScreenSkills High-end TV Skills Fund will use the findings of the survey to inform decisions on how to invest industry contributions.