Netflix vows inclusion, diversity following audit of its films and series

Netflix has vowed to invest USD $100 million in its mission to improve inclusion in its productions.

In a blog post, the streaming giant announced the creation of the Netflix Fund for Creative Equity, which will go to a combination of external organizations "with a strong track record of setting underrepresented communities up for success in the TV and film industries."

The fund will also be allocated to Netflix programs that will help the company "identify, train and provide job placement for up-and-coming talent globally."

"Doing better means establishing even more opportunities for people from underrepresented communities to have their voices heard, and purposefully closing capacity and skill gaps with training programs where they are needed," Netflix said.

The announcement comes with the release of a study conducted by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative of Netflix's US commissioned films and series from 2018 to 2019.

Study results

The study shows that Netflix has actually outpaced the film industry when it comes to certain indicators, and that its productions are more diverse than studio films.

From 2018 to 2019, 48.4 percent of its films and 54.5 percent of its series had girls or women as leads or co-leads.

In comparison, only 41 percent of top-grossing studio films in that same time period had female representation.

Meanwhile, 15.2 percent of Netflix's stories featured Black identified leads or co-leads. 21.4 percent of leads or co-leads were Black, with no significant increase over time. Black led or co-led series more than doubled from 2018 (6.3 percent) to 2019 (14.4 percent).

However, not all racial and ethnic groups saw much improvement during that period.

According to the study, only 7 films or series were led or co-led by Middle Eastern/North African (MENA), American Indian/Alaskan Native (AIAN), or Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander (NHPI) actors. Fewer than 1 percent of main cast roles cast AIAN or NHPI actors, and 1.4 percent cast MENA talent.

Only 4 percent of all stories were led or co-led by Asian protagonists and only 7 percent of the main cast were Asian, with no significant differences over time. Fourteen Asian communities were represented in these films and series — the highest is Indian, with 25.3 percent presence in films and 28.4 percent in series.

Janapese actors were found to make up 20.3 percent of the films and 5.3 percent series; Chinese actors make up 16.5 percent in films and 27.4 percent in series.

The study said 13.9 percent actors who identify as Filipinos were featured in films, and 9.5 percent in series.

There was no Malaysian, Laotian, Nepalese, and Tibetan representation in films, and only had a tiny percentage in series.

Additionally, only 2.3 percent of Netflix's stories had LGBTQ leads and co-leads, with no differences by year. In sharp contrast, 12 percent of the US population is LGBTQ, which reveals that Netflix substantially underrepresented this community in its storytelling.

Leads and co-leads with a disability also featured in Netflix stories. This figure was far below the 27.2 percent of the US population who live with a disability, the report said. —JCB, GMA News