Popular shows such as Silent Witness, Call the Midwife and Happy Valley are not appealing to minority audiences, according to research that has extensively compared black and Asian television viewing habits with white ones for the first time.
In the week that Strictly Come Dancing came under scrutiny after its viewers were accused of racism, analysis of official audience figures across all television has revealed that “minorities find, proportionately, less to get excited about on the big mainstream channels, especially BBC1 and ITV”.
Despite drawing big audiences, dramas such as Call the Midwife and Grantchester are not watched by as many black and Asian viewers, nor are many popular sitcoms.
Television analysts Attentional measured which programmes and channels were popular with different ethnic groups and found that almost 14% of the white group watched Silent Witness compared with 4.5% of the black British audience and 7.5% of Asians.
“Many of the shows that are most popular with the white majority significantly underperform with minorities,” said the chief executive of Attentional, David Graham. “This applies particularly to the primetime drama and situation comedy on the largest channels; many of these clearly do not resonate with minority groups.
“Members of minority ethnic groups do not identify themselves in many of our most-watched narratives. British Asians were the most disengaged group in this respect. This is important: because these are programmes that get huge audiences, take up a lot of the primetime schedule and are very expensive to produce.”
Attentional found that while black viewers show “a modest preference for C5” and its programmes such as Big Brother and Millionaires’ Mansions, minorities are still watching big channels such as ITV and BBC1. However “there are relatively fewer of them doing so” than white audiences.
By analysing ethnicity data from official ratings company the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board between January and June, researchers have found that black audiences like watching Gareth Malone’s Big Choir, ITV’s gameshow The Cube, political broadcasts, poker, Sky News and Sky Living and US shows with “prominent black performers” like Rush Hour more than average.
Asian and black audiences also favour the BBC News Channel and ITVBe – the home of The Only Way Is Essex – more than other groups, while white Europeans prefer BBC4, Film4, the arts, popular music, technology and opera more than other kinds of audiences.
Asian audiences have a preference for Sky Sports 2, which shows a lot cricket, plus programmes such as Channel 4’s Dispatches, American Football, BBC1’s Eat Well For Less and Channel 4’s Indian Summers.
Attentional also found that both Asian and black audiences seem “to be more interested in religion than the white majority.”
White viewers “are keener than others, apparently, on the hilarious or horrific things caught on private cameras and smart phones – How Not to DIY, Car Crash Britain, Unbelievable Moments”, plus shows about the 1970s, darts, rugby and canal boating.
However, different audiences do share some interests, including football, science and medical shows, factual dramas (such as Royal Wives at War), cookery shows and US films such as Iron Man 3.
Although mainstream broadcasters may not appeal as much to minorities, with hundreds of channels, including specialist niches, Graham said: “We appear to have a versatile broadcasting system able to offer opportunities for different groups to follow their special interests.”
Ofcom’s chief executive, Sharon White, said recently that the TV industry could face tougher diversity targets and, after Lenny Henry shone the spotlight on the industry’s shortcomings two years ago, broadcasters are trying to improve minority representation on and off-screen.
This week ITV2 announced four new comedy and entertainment shows featuring black and minority ethnic talent including Sorry, I Didn’t Know – a comedy panel show with a historic twist hosted by Jimmy Akingbola, the actor from Ballot Monkeys and Rev, and made by the production company TriForce Productions.
