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C�鶹Լ��'s Marrying Mum and Dad wins Stonewall's 2013 Broadcast of the Year Award

2013-11-08T15:31:56+00:00

Last night, C�鶹Լ��'s Marrying Mum and Dad became the first children's show to be named Broadcast of the Year at the Stonewall Awards. It was recognised for its 'sensitive and moving portrayal' of three children planning the civil partnership of their adoptive parents.

Here at �鶹Լ�� Children's we always try to reflect what life is like for children across the UK. We know that many children live in families that aren't necessarily made up of a mum and dad and believe it's important to show a diverse range of families on screen to make sure our programmes are relevant to all children and their families.

Marrying Mum and Dad is about kids organising their parents weddings and the adults don't get any say in what goes on! The episode that won this award features three adopted children who wanted to say thank you to their two dads by organising the civil partnership they had put on hold to raise their kids. It was perfect for a series where all the kids want to have fun but also, more importantly, want to show their parents how much they appreciate and love them.

C�鶹Լ�� and CBeebies are both committed to producing programmes that empower children and celebrate families which is why I am so proud of this particular programme. No young person should have to suffer from homophobic bullying which is why I think we have an especially critical role to play in producing programmes such as this.

Joe Godwin is Director, �鶹Լ�� Children's

What do lesbian, gay and bisexual audiences really watch on TV?

2013-10-25T13:48:39+00:00

Many of us probably have a strong hunch on what LGB people watch on TV – fuelled by personal experience or broad assumptions. But there has never been any comprehensive research to support or disprove our hunches. Until now.

Why does it matter? Because LGB people are licence payers too, and the �鶹Լ��, as a national public service broadcaster, has a duty to serve all audiences.

Before we get into the research, I’ll explain how we got here. Three years ago, the �鶹Լ�� undertook a big project looking at how lesbians, gays and bisexuals are portrayed on TV and radio. Diversity is moving up the agenda in broadcasting, and as the leader of the �鶹Լ��’s LGBT staff network �鶹Լ�� Pride, I’m pleased to report that the �鶹Լ�� has been leading the way (in recent years, the �鶹Լ�� has carried out similar research on age).

As part of that project, we carried out a large survey asking what people thought of LGB portrayal on TV and radio. The scores we got back were the equivalent of a poor to middling school report – improving, but could still do a lot better. LGB audiences wanted not only more portrayal, but also for that portrayal to be more authentic.

The smart people in the �鶹Լ�� Audiences team realised that we’d have an even richer understanding of LGB audiences’ views if we could analyse actual viewing and listening habits, in addition to perceptions of representation and portrayal. So they made a small tweak to a standard �鶹Լ�� survey to ask people about their sexual orientation. This survey regularly captures the views of 20,000 people – and just over 1,000 of that sample have identified as LGB, spread across the UK.

As a result, we can capture and analyse every programme that this LGB sample have watched or listened to – and also ask how much they’ve enjoyed them.

The main headline isn’t going to set the world on fire – when it comes to the biggest shows, we are no different to the rest of the population. The big soaps dominate our consumption – Corrie, Emmerdale and EastEnders.

However, dig a little deeper and some interesting differences do emerge. LGB audiences seem to be a little bit happier with what they watch – when it comes to appreciation of all TV programmes, on average we tend to score them a little bit higher than straight audiences of the same age (this was true for all LGB groups except younger lesbians).

Compared to the population as a whole, we watch more arts, entertainment and music programmes – but are less enthralled by children’s, current affairs, news, religion and sport.

Having this scale of data means we can really dig down, letting us look at the differences between gay men and lesbians, and also segment it by age. This is really useful for making meaningful comparisons – for example, young gay men against young straight men – to see what difference being gay makes to consumption.

The results make for fascinating reading. They confirm that LGB audiences are drawn to LGB (or gay-friendly) talent and portrayal – whether as presenters or contestants (Great British Bake Off, Alan Carr, Celebrity Big Brother), subjects, actors or characters (Downton Abbey, Being Human, Modern Family, Vicious, Glee, Kenny Everett and the soaps). While we can all probably hazard a guess as to why ITV’s celebrity diving show Splash! proved such a hit with gay men of all ages, the reasons behind lesbians’ apparent fondness for panel shows such as Never Mind the Buzzcocks and QI may not be quite so obvious. The high percentages simply mean that these programmes appealed much more to lesbians than to straight women of a similar age. While the research can’t explain what drives people’s programming preferences, the beauty of using the panel for this research is that we will keep on accumulating examples, enabling us to gain over time an ever deeper understanding of LGB audience behaviours and tastes.

All credit to my colleagues in �鶹Լ�� Audiences – particularly David Bunker and Emily Fletcher, under the guidance of �鶹Լ�� Audiences head James Holden – for pursuing this pioneering research. I gather that the “T” of LGBT will also be covered in a major piece of work on gender being undertaken in 2014. We’re keen to share this insight with other broadcasters too, which is why we first revealed these findings at a cross-industry Intermedia event at the �鶹Լ�� last month. See for yourself some of the detailed analysis here and keep watching and listening to see how well we’re representing all of our lives on air.

Adrian Ruth is Chair, �鶹Լ�� Pride.

Read a blog about the 2010 Report about LGBT portrayal on TV by About the �鶹Լ�� Editor Jon Jacob
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Follow @�鶹Լ��Pride on Twitter

Portrayal of lesbian, gay and bisexual people in broadcasting

2012-12-14T16:03:33+00:00

Just over a year ago, I volunteered to chair the Lesbian, Gay & Bisexual Working Group at the �鶹Լ�� and shortly thereafter, we announced that the �鶹Լ�� had commissioned a study into the portrayal of LGB audiences across all of our services.

As the most comprehensive piece of research ever carried out in this area by the �鶹Լ�� and perhaps any other media organisation, it was not without trepidation that I took on this project. The portrayal of LGB audiences can be a polarising issue for many but I have a strong belief in the importance of fully understanding all of our audiences and in turn reflecting and celebrating that diversity in all the content that we make and broadcast. That is the reason why we commissioned this study and why in the past two years we have also commissioned studies and research on disability and how our audiences outside of London feel that are represented across �鶹Լ�� television, radio and online.

The �鶹Լ�� worked with research companies 2CV and Kanter Media to develop this study and we interviewed or surveyed 2,000 people from across the UK. To ensure that all voices and views were heard, we talked and listened not only to lesbian, gay and bisexual people - those who are already out, those who have just come out and those who were still dealing with the challenges and fears about their own sexual identity - but also heterosexual people. And again we subdivided - heterosexual people who were comfortable with portrayal; heterosexual people with children of various ages and people who were uncomfortable with any portrayal at all.

All of the participants of this nationally representative sample were given the same stimulus - both video and audio clips of content from a range of broadcasters - and were asked the same questions covering a broad range of topics. These included the level of portrayal, authenticity, humour and language, intimacy, talent and genre. We complemented this substantial study with a public consultation online, which took place online and yielded 9,400 responses. We published the full results of both the research and consultation online.

We've published the full results of the study on the 'About the �鶹Լ��' site, so I won't detail each and every finding here, but to paint a broad picture let me begin by saying that many of the people who participated were surprised with the level and quality of existing portrayal across both the �鶹Լ��'s services and that of other broadcasters. The �鶹Լ�� fares relatively well with its portrayal of LGB people, but there is certainly more to be done. We also found that the clear majority of the UK population are either comfortable with, or do not feel strongly either way about, the portrayal of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people.

Naturally, we found that lesbian, gay and bisexual audiences want to see more, and greater diversity within portrayal. We also learned that context is critical to how all audiences perceive the portrayal of LGB people and that intimacy, both emotional and physical, is the primary concern for people who are uncomfortable with LGB portrayal.

This project was not about creating a shopping list, or ticking boxes with our content but there are clear commitments we are taking from this study. First and foremost the �鶹Լ�� has a commitment to achieve accurate and authentic portrayal across all our services. To that end we have already begun to share this research with content teams across the �鶹Լ��. They need to be aware of the opportunities for both incidental portrayal that reflects LGB audiences in everyday life and more overt, landmark content and have the confidence to reflect the diverse audiences around them. What this research will do is provide the confidence, knowledge and foundation to ensure that creatively - and if it is appropriate in terms of the context and the genre - that LGB inclusion is considered and if it is included that it is authentic. We also commit to review progress following this research and consultation in two years. And finally, the �鶹Լ�� Working Group, of which I am Chair, will monitor on an ongoing basis the implementation of these recommendations on behalf of the �鶹Լ�� Diversity Board.

I want to thank each and every one of the participants across the UK for their time and candour and I look forward to updating you further on our progress in the portrayal of LGB audiences on the �鶹Լ��.

Tim Davie is the �鶹Լ��'s Director of Audio and Music

This year, as part of the �鶹Լ��'s diversity strategy, we carried out research and consultation on the portrayal of lesbian, gay and bisexual people across broadcast media including the �鶹Լ��. Read about the research.

See the �鶹Լ�� Archive's latest collection on the Gay Rights movement.

Read Tim Davie's previous blog post about portraying the LGB community on the �鶹Լ��.