CALL TO ACTION FOR STAKEHOLDERS

This study profiles the perspectives, experiences, and expectations of Black, Indigenous and People of Colour audiences who, until now, have never been appropriately represented in audience data. These insights offer new direction for the creation of representative content by injecting new, fresh, and unique perspectives into what all audiences seek from Canadian entertainment content and are currently finding elsewhere.

For the first time, this study provides sector stakeholders with an informed path toward reaching these audiences, guided by the following calls to action:

Refresh audience measurement methods

    • Recalibrate the distribution of audience measurement instruments to capture urban centres where 50+% of Black, Indigenous and People of Colour Canadians live.
    • Audience measurement instruments must be updated to include Black, Indigenous and People of Colour audience members. These audiences are watching Canadian content, but their viewership is not being captured.

Prioritize and accelerate authentic, representative content creation

    • Canadian content is under pressure: Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour Canadians are lukewarm about Canadian content. Some audiences are supportive of Canadian content creation – a motivation that was highest among Black participants.
    • There is an urgent need for representative content that has complex, well-developed characters to hold these audiences, especially as the plethora of diverse entertainment content available on other platforms continues to increase. A delayed response by Canada’s screen media sector will render it obsolete.
    • Equally, this research highlights the significant opportunities for creativity and innovation in entertainment that remain insufficiently explored.
    • Prioritizing and accelerating the development of authentic, representative content means:
        • Making significant investments in content produced by Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour creators.
        • Increasing the size of budgets allocated to authentic and representative content to match the production quality of other high-value entertainment content.
        • Making representative Canadian kids’ content rather than relying on US content. There is an urgent need for children to see themselves onscreen and to have role models who look like them.
        • Use the profiles of Black, Indigenous and People of Colour audiences to optimize the purchase of advertising airtime during TV shows that centre around authentic, representative content.

Implement structural interventions and measure impact

    • Authentic, representative content is an outcome of a diverse, representative sector ecosystem. To create sustainable change, sector stakeholders are encouraged to collaborate with Black, Indigenous and People of Colour-led sector organizations to implement structural interventions that address the lack of representation in critical decision-making roles and processes, and in all creator and crew roles in the sector.
      Structural interventions should include:
        • Evidence-based protocols such as Being Seen: Directives for Creating Authentic and Inclusive Content, and Onscreen Pathways and Protocols: A Media Production Guide to Working with First Nations, Métis and Inuit Communities, Cultures, Concepts and Stories.
        • Strategies, frameworks and tools that enable practical system-level change and accountability at all levels (individual, employer, sector).