"BBC Diversity and the Demonization of Netflix" by Simon Albury

The BBC Director General, Tony Hall and his senior BBC executives have been attacking Netflix regularly, for the past 18 months. Their consistent line of argument has been that viewers “want content that is relevant to their lives, and they want to see people like them on screen”. They assert that only the BBC and other public service broadcasters will provide it. The BBC ties this to a pitch for more funds.

Yet, new research for Ofcom[i]shows BAME viewers find they are much better served by Netflix and Channel 4 than by the BBC.

In October, Charlotte Moore, BBC Director of Content, delivered the Steve Hewlett Memorial Lecture.[ii]At this Royal Television Society and Media Society joint event, Moore told the audience,

“increasingly, the US-based giants want to invest in a narrow range of very expensive, very high-end content. Big bankers that they can rely on to have international appeal and attract large, global audiences. ….In this new, US-dominated media environment, we run the risk of seeing fewer and fewer distinctively British stories.”

Conveniently, Moore overlooked Netflix involvement in two distinctively British Channel 4 shows “Chewing Gum” and “Been So Long”. Both are set in low income, London housing estates with multi-ethnic and multi-faith populations. Both of them star Michaela Coel. As we shall see, the BBC’s Director of Content may not understand how Netflix works.

Michaela Coel

In 2016, Michaela Coel emerged, apparently from nowhere, to pick up a fistful of nominations and awards from the RTS and BAFTA for writing and performing in “Chewing Gum”, which was inspired by her one woman play “Chewing Gum Dreams”.  ”Chewing Gum” opened on E4 with an audience of less than 300,000 people and a share of 1.8%. It was the kind of distinctively British show you wouldn’t see on the BBC but “Chewing Gum” worked for Netflix.

Thanks to Netflix, Michaela Coel went from a modest 1.8% audience share in the UK to become an international star.

By 2017, Netflix reach had earned Coel a high profile feature, in the New York Times[iii]

“Being a clown is a sad business these days — instead of making ’em laugh, you’re often expected to make ’em cry or make ’em scream with fright. But Michaela Coel, the creator and writer of the British series “Chewing Gum,” is a clown in the best and most traditional sense: joyful, unfettered, unashamed, willing to go just about anywhere in search of laughter.” 

The New York Times concluded,

“As long as she keeps covering up her insecurities with bluster, fantastic lies and some of television’s funniest meltdowns, “Chewing Gum” will be worth a binge.”

When it was announced that after two series, there would be no more, the US Vanity Fair mourned the loss, saying: 

“the brilliant British comedy that quickly became a stateside favorite after hitting Netflix in 2016, is coming to an end. ….In the era of Too Much TV, “Chewing Gum” managed to be a unique thrill, largely because it’s the meticulously crafted work of one auteur. 

For those two seasons, “Chewing Gum” was one of the rare modern comedies to revolve around black women simply existing, instead of stuffing them into stereotypical extremes. It also operated as light, yet razor-sharp social commentary on class. Coel explicitly set the show in a London neighborhood that reminded her of the one she grew up in, but only filmed the show in the summer. The end result was sunny and light and warm, in direct opposition to the typically negative portrayals of low-income neighborhoods.”

Today, when Michaela Coel does an impromptu “instalive” on Instagram, the questions come from all over Africa, and North and South America as well as the UK. 

Despite Coel’s international success and being the youngest person ever, the only black person and only the fifth woman to be invited to deliver the Edinburgh Television Festival’s prestigious MacTaggart lecture – in a break with tradition, BBC radio and television chose not to cover it when it was delivered in August 2018.[iv] (Read the text and judge for yourself.[v])

Nevertheless, Michaela Coel’s creative power has been recognized, at last, by the BBC and she has been commissioned to write a drama on sexual consent. with the working title “Jan 22nd”. Coel will also be one of the Executive Producers.

Micro-aggregation of niche UK content

How a series like Chewing Gum works well for Netflix is explained in a recent paper by Paul Lee, Deloitte’s Global Head of Research, Technology, Media and Telecommunications. Lee says:

 “The national conversation, as driven by TV, is inevitably fragmenting. It may be that we are as much defined by our income group, stage of life, ethnic background as our nationality. A growing number of younger viewers may eschew soaps for other local content, or they may find that US reality shows or foreign YouTube vloggers better reflect their interests or aspirations. A programme that reflects life on a minimum wage may flourish across multiple countries, and not just one. A 12-year old viewer in the UK can relate equally well to a 12-year old character in a sitcom set in another developed country.” 

The key to global success for unique niche British content can be micro-profiling, micro-targeting and micro-aggregation on a global scale – something in which Netflix has unique expertise.

The BBC’s Moore pours scorn on all this. She says;

“I worry that the insatiable greed for data-gathering is actually serving the wrong master. That entire businesses are focused on what they can take from audiences, instead of what they can give back.

The BBC is different.

Sure, audience data and algorithms are incredibly useful. We can learn so much from what’s working for audiences and what’s not. We can understand how to tailor our services uniquely to them.

But I don’t believe any amount of data can tell you what to commission next.”

Moore has a lot to learn from Netflix on what to commission. As far as BAME audiences are concerned Netflix data and algorithms are delivering better than the BBC’s Director of Content.

Ofcom Research

The Ofcom research shows that Channel 4 and Netflix were held up as good providers of wide representation and authentic portrayal, by BAME viewers, while the BBC was widely considered to have a white, middle class, South East bias. The BBC was also regarded as being establishment and risk-averse compared to other providers such as Channel 4 and Netflix.

Many participants complained about BBC portrayal that perpetuated outdated stereotypes, which can be detrimental both to self-identity and to how minority ethnic people are perceived by wider society.

Many Black African and Black African Caribbean participants were critical of portrayal falling into distinct negative types: the drug-dealing criminal; dysfunctional families with absent fathers and struggling single mums; and the joker masking shortcomings. Participants were less inclined to complain about shows on Netflix focusing, for example, on a Black man as a drug dealer because they felt there is a wide range of portrayal of Black men on Netflix. 

Been So Long

Channel 4 continues do well with Netflix. Through Film 4, it backed the Michaela Coel musical “Been So Long” which takes place in a multi-racial Camden housing estate. Screen Daily reported Netflix pre-bought worldwide rights in “Been so Long” in what was “understood to be the largest single acquisition of a UK film by the streaming giant.”[vii]

Scoring 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, reviews suggest the film is strong where the BBC is weak:

“This London may be punctuated with dashes of neon and flashes of magic, but it also feels real because it's reflecting the true-to-life multicultural community.”

“Crucially, underneath the music and the soft-focus romance Been So Long makes some poignant observations about community, family and the importance of connection.”

Ian Katz, Channel 4’s Director of Programmes, view stands in stark contrast the BBC’s. Katz told this week’s Voice of the Listener and Viewer Conference, 

“We work with Netflix on a ton of things. It is a wonderful thing about Netflix that they can take a show which maybe a quite niche interest in any individual country and aggregate those niche hits into a meaningful audience. I celebrate that and I think it is great and it makes them a very good partner for certain type of shows.”

BBC Charter

In the BBC Charter, one of the BBC’s core public purposes is to reflect and serve the UK’s diverse communities. It is clear from the Ofcom research that Netflix is having more success in meeting this purpose than the BBC. 

Ofcom has also revealed that the BBC has dropped a place, this year, in the Ofcom rankings for BAME employment. The BBC now comes fourth with only 13% - far behind Viacom (Channel 5) 19%, Channel 4 18%, and Sky 15%.

The new Charter sets out that government will undertake a mid-term review and issues relating to BBC diversity will be considered as part of that review process.

The BBC needs to stop demonizing Netflix and put its begging bowl away until it has got its house in order.

Sources

[i]https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/124252/kantar-bbc-qualitative-research.pdf

[ii]https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/speeches/2018/charlotte-moore-steve-hewlett

[iii]https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/07/arts/television/netflix-chewing-gum-season-2-review.html

[iv]https://cbesite.wordpress.com/2018/11/26/why-did-the-bbc-ignore-michaela-coels-mactaggart-by-simon-albury/

[v]https://www.bectu.org.uk/advice-resources/library/2507

[vi]https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/technology-media-and-telecommunications/articles/atomisation-of-television-audience.html#

[vii]https://www.screendaily.com/news/netflix-strikes-biggest-uk-deal-on-michaela-coel-musical-been-so-long-exclusive/5122009.article