BBC Radio provides £12 million funding boost to its diversity commitments

BBC Radio &Music has announced £12 million funding over the next three years to include more diverse stories, voices and experiences on air.

It has also set a clear goal to be the best organisation in the audio sector to work with and for, with an inclusive culture, diverse teams and representative programmes.

The new funding covers new programming commissioned by network radio and BBC Sounds from 2021-22. It is open to both in-house and independent production companies to compete for, said a statement.

Besides, the BBC Radio will demand to meet a 20 per cent diversity target in their teams from independent suppliers.

This autumn, BBC Sounds Lab-new initiative to give budding audio creators the support they need to turn a great idea of theirs into a podcast outside of the existing commissioning structure, will be launched.

Each of these creators will be aided by an experienced executive producer, and will have access to studios and equipment at the BBC as well as technical support so their podcast can be made available to listeners in the coming year, said the statement.

“Last month we signed up to the Equality in Audio Pact, an initiative which kick-started a hugely important discussion in the industry, and today we are putting forward our commitments which we hope will add to the overall ambition of the audio sector to change and become more representative," said James Purnell, director BBC Radio & education.

June Sarpong, Director of Creative Diversity, said: “I am proud that the BBC is accelerating the pace of change and boosting our commitment to diverse talent - with a specific focus on race, disability and class - ensuring that the creativity of some of our most underrepresented communities is unleashed and included. Building on our Creative Diversity Commitment for TV, these changes will make a huge difference to our Radio and Music teams, the wider audio industry, and what listeners can expect to hear on the BBC.”

BBC Radio & Music has set a divisional BAME workforce target of 15 per cent by 2021. Every part of the division will meet the target by end of 2023.

It is already committed to improve on-air representation and representation in contributors by rolling out the 50/50 project to include ethnicity and disability in 50 programmes by end of 2021.