ITV is ring-fencing a further £80m to diversity commissioning over the next three years and doubling its spend on diverse developments.
The broadcaster’s Diversity Commissioning Spend, launched in 2022 as the Diversity Commissioning Fund, invested £83.3m in 43 commissions – a mix of new shows, formats and returning series - over the past three years.
It doubled its average spend with diverse-led indies compared to 2021 to £64.1m of the total pot, working with 13 diverse-led indies, including Ranga Bee Productions, Big Productions, Douglas Road Productions, Gold Wala and Postcard Productions.
Alongside the Diversity Commissioning Spend, ITV is doubling investment in its Diversity Development Fund to £1 million over the next three years.
The fund, which sits outside of ITV’s programme budget, has supported the development over 30 projects since 2022, including the Fresh Cuts new director documentary strand and indie support programme Amplify: The Companies.
In terms of content, ITV has focused efforts on People of Colour (POC) and Deaf, Disabled or Neurodivergent (DDN) people.
Compared to other TV shows, programmes commissioned from the fund have featured 63% higher off-screen contributions from DDN people, while contributions from POC people were more than twice as high.
Shows funded through the scheme have included John and Joe Bishop: Life After Death, Romesh Ranganathan’s Parents’ Evening and panel show Sorry, I Didn’t Know.
Upcoming titles from the fund include two dramas: Code of Silence, starring Rose Ayling-Ellis in a lead role, and Saviour from first-time screenwriter Imran Mahmood and produced by Nisha Parti’s Parti Productions.
In factual, it has backed Flicker Productions doc Ellie Simmonds: Should I Have Children? and ITV has also taken Rockerdale Studios’ The Assembly, in which celebrities are interviewed by people who are autistic, neurodivergent and/or learning disabled, to a full series following a one-off edition on BBC1.
