BBC, All3Media and Banijay UK among 17 founding members

A total of 17 major broadcasters and indies have joined The TV Foundation’s push to improve working class representation in the TV industry.

Applying to join the Class Confident movement, which arose from James Graham’s 2024 MacTaggart lecture calling for better representation of the working classes, are: All3Media, Banijay UK, the BBC, BBC Studios, Channel 4, Fremantle UK, Hat Trick Productions, ITV, Multitude Media, Paramount, Purple Productions, South Shore, Studio Lambert, The Farm, The Garden, XXIV Communications and Zinc Media Group.

The TV Foundation launched the Class Confident plan last year, pledging incentives to broadcasters and indies if they implement the recommendations at their organisations.

The charity is inviting more companies to join by showing they are meeting its ‘Class Confident Actions’. These include putting class on the agenda of a company’s culture and leadership, bringing back job interviews in recruitment, paying the real living wage for at least entry-level roles, and supporting the next moves of staff with potentially longer contracts.

Successful applicants will join a network to share best practice and can benefit from discounted rates to the Edinburgh TV Festival 2026.

The TV Foundation impact director Gemma Bradshaw said: “When we first started talking about working class voices in the industry, it was a taboo topic. Now some of the biggest players in the industry are putting their hands up, ready to do more.

“We’re thrilled to see so many organisations already taking action to improve class representation and we’re keen to hear from more TV companies that want to join us. This is not a checklist or the end point; it’s the start of a movement to make the industry accessible to all.”  

The TV Foundation’s report, Let’s Talk About Class: Appealing to the UK’s Largest Audience, found that nearly a quarter of people in senior TV roles have the cultural and economic advantages of a private school education, over three times higher than the 7.5% of the general population who are privately educated.