In what could be the biggest financial investment in diverse programming in the history of the UK Television industry, national broadcaster BBC has announced a $124 million pledge to increase diverse and inclusive programming on their network over a period of three years, reports IndieWire.

Variety reports that the fund will also be crucial in supporting the “BBC’s Diversity Code of Practice, and commit the corporation to create content with at least two of the following three priorities: diverse stories and portrayal on-screen; diverse production teams and talent; and diverse-led production companies. Progress will be reported in the BBC’s Annual Report.”

That’s not all – the UK broadcaster has also instated “a mandatory 20 percent diverse-talent target across all new network commissions from April 2021.” This means that starting April 2021, all new shows commissioned by the BBC will need to show at least 20 percent of “talent” that comes from “a black, Asian, or minority ethnic background.”

“With this commitment, the BBC is throwing open its doors more widely than ever to diverse stories and diverse storytellers,” the broadcaster said in a statement, according to Indiewire. “The media industry is not changing fast enough. The BBC has been committed to creative diversity and inclusion for 100 years; but we now want to go further.”

(Header credits: BBC)