The BBC has tasked a pair of media industry veterans—former BAFTA chair and ex-BBC staffer Anne Morrison and independent media consultant Chris Banatvala—to look at its TV, radio and online content (including iPlayer and BBC Sounds) from April 2023 to March 2024 and analyze how well it reflects the UK’s many diverse communities.

Previous content reviews conducted by the pubcaster have focused more on news, current affairs and factual content, but this one will look at all genres, including kids, comedy and drama. Morrison and Banatvala plan to compare the BBC’s programming with the 2021/2022 census to see if what’s on screen is actually reflecting the country’s demographic composition. Their review begins in the coming days with a completion date that is open-ended for now.

Morrison and Banatvala will also explore internal stakeholder perspectives and review complaints received from the public, and they have clearance—if needed—to commission research looking at how to improve representation. The Beeb is especially interested in finding out whether it’s under-representing certain groups or portraying them one-dimensionally. It’s also keen to identify examples of best practices for representation and then explore how they might be replicated in other content. 

Despite several years of concerted effort, including kids content callouts for pitches that represent a variety of perspectives and groups in the UK, media watchdog Ofcom has critiqued the pubcaster as recently as November for not producing enough content that speaks to viewers in a lower socio-economic bracket that makes up about 25% of the UK’s population.