A look back at all the key events of the last month.
By Bunmi Akintonwa
Where to begin… So much has happened since Nick’s last Newsletter. 2020 has already proved one that will fill history books and (Zoomed) TV archives. Our grandchildren will be asking us what it was like living in the Age of COVID, the Time When Everything Stopped and (some of us) Stayed Home. We’ll tell them it was awful. Or that it was the time our families reconnected. Or we finally cleared the garden, threw out all those useless things we realised they’d never want to inherit, and built a shelf or two. We’ll also say that May 25th 2020 was the day that the 8 minutes and 46 seconds that ended a man’s life – changed our black lives forever.
When George Floyd was murdered, we marched and shouted, pulled down statues – and broke down barriers. The BLM movement gathered pace and despite COVID tens of thousands of people protested not just in the US and the UK but in countries all over the world – the end result for us in the TV industry? We suddenly are visible. People are asking questions and listening to the answers – and some are offering possibilities for real change.
This newsletter contains some of the initiatives that have happened as a direct result of this – but you need to stay on your social media and keep up to date. We’ll keep posting on our Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter Pages – so please make sure you’re there. So many new initiatives. Literally millions being offered in funds. Invites to panels, talks, podcasts. Deals pushed through that had been in discussion for months or years or decades. What’s your opinion? Will the interest last? Or are we experiencing a year-long Black History Month? Only time will tell – but this is the time to revisit or re-tweak those proposals and seize the opportunities you missed before.
Here is a quick round-up of just some of what has happened in the TV Industry in the last 4 weeks.