I'm a commercial broadcaster. The new Commissioning Clause will make diversity one of the standard criteria against which new programme proposals are judged. Members of the CDN have pledged to work together to increase numbers of ethnic minorities working in the industry, and look at everything from content creation and development, casting and portrayal, programme production, distribution, promotion and financing. The Cultural Diversity Network was launched on 12 October 2000. The initiative was supported by Chris Smith, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.
Ethnic minorities make up seven per cent of the UK population.
In the Midlands it will be 12 per cent. Eighty per cent of those potential TV viewers are between 16-35 years old, with a disposable wealth that contributes 32 billion to our economy. Black and Asian viewers are deserting terrestrial television in record numbers. With the fastest growing section of the audience rapidly turning away from terrestrial television, broadcasters realised they had to adapt, or risk becoming increasingly irrelevant. The Cultural Diversity Network was set up to tackle those issues.