The expanding world of TV has brought more opportunity overall, with streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu joining broadcast and cable platforms to push the combined number of TV series to 400-plus and counting. An all-time high of 225 first-time directors were hired last season by studios, networks and executive producers, a 42% increase over the previous season, a new study from the Directors Guild of America shows.
Minority Workforce In TV News Is Up, But …
The latest RTDNA-Hofstra University Annual Survey finds the minority workforce in TV news rose to 24.4%. That’s up more than a full point from a year ago… and is the second highest level ever in TV news. The minority workforce at non-Hispanic TV stations rose to the highest level ever. However, the bigger picture remains unchanged. In the last 27 years, the minority population in the U.S. has risen 12.1 points; but the minority workforce in TV news is up just over half that at 6.6.
Women directed 17% and minorities 19% of the more than 4,000 episodes produced last season for broadcast, cable and high-budget streaming series, the Directors Guild of America says in its annual survey.
Women, Minorities In TV Up From A Year Ago
The latest RTDNA/Hofstra University Annual Survey finds the minority workforce in TV news rose to 23.1%. That’s up almost a full point from a year ago and is the second highest level ever in TV news. The minority workforce at non-Hispanic TV stations also went up to the second highest level ever.
Exclusives
Minority, PTV Viewers Threatened By Auction
Audience data indicate that two segments of the U.S. population will be hit especially hard by the upcoming FCC auction selling off television airwaves to wireless carriers: minorities, especially Latinos, and public television viewers. Where these two large groups of Americans overlap will be “ground zero” of this government-engineered shift from free, over-the-air television to a data plan near you.
RTDNA: Minorities Slide, Women Make Gains
The latest RTDNA-Hofstra University Annual Survey finds the minority workforce in TV news slid 0.2 to 22.2%, still the third highest level ever. And the minority workforce at non-Hispanic TV stations rose this year to the third highest level ever as well. In TV, women news directors and women in the workforce both rose to the highest levels ever.
A column about pilot season’s “ethnic castings” from a trade publication caused a stir Tuesday night over claims that white actors are being short-changed by TV’s increasing diversity push. Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and How to Get Away With Murder executive producer Shonda Rhimes was among those who blasted the controversial Deadline column “Pilots 2015: The Year Of Ethnic Castings — About Time Or Too Much Of Good Thing?” and called the story “ignorant.”
TV executives have talked for years about the need for the airwaves to reflect the growing cultural diversity of America. But the 2014-15 television season has marked a turning point in the embrace of diversity as a business strategy.
An Associated Press analysis of regular cast members on primetime comedies and dramas on ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox found progress over the last 15 years in hiring black actors, but slighted other minorities. Casts at three of the four networks are still whiter than the nation as a whole.
Minorities Post TV News Empolyment Gains
The latest RTDNA/Hofstra University Annual Survey finds the percentage of minorities is up a full percent in television from a year ago — and even more in radio. The percentage of minority news directors also went up in both television and radio. And the percentage of minority news directors at non-Hispanic TV stations set a new high mark — for the
second year in a row.
