Channel 4 Gender & Diversity Pay Gap Hit By Acquisition Of The Box Plus Network

Peter White

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Channel 4’s gender and diversity pay gap has been hit by its acquisition of music broadcaster The Box Plus Network.

The British broadcaster has published its 2019 Pay Report and has extended its reporting so that as well as the gender gap, now includes data on diverse staff, disability and LGBT+ groups.

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C4’s gender pay gap increased from 22.6% last year to 23.3% in 2019, although the company noted that this was largely down to the fact that Box, which includes music stations such as 4Music and Kerrang, had a larger gender pay gap. Without the Box figures, it notes that its pay gap decreased from 22.6% to 21.5%.

Similarly, its diverse pay gap was hit by the Box purchase – C4 bought the remaining 50% of the company that it did not own from Bauer Media Group in January 2019. Its BAME gap decreased from 19.1% in 2018 to 19% in 2019, but C4 added that it would have decreased to 17.7% without the acquisition.

Separately, C4 reported disability pay gap data for the first time, which showed that there was no “meaningful” pay gap, a mean pay gap of -0.4%. However, in terms of LGBT+ pay gap data, which C4 is also reporting for the first time, shows that Channel 4 has a mean pay gap of 17.7%, though this reduces to 8.1% by median.

Channel 4 CEO Alex Mahon (below) previously put in place a strategy to boost the progression of women at senior levels at Channel 4 with a target of 50:50 gender balance amongst the top 100 earners by 2023.

Alex Mahon Channel 4
Alex Mahon Channel 4

She said, “When we look on a comparable, like-for-like basis between 2018 and 2019, Channel 4’s gender pay gap and BAME pay gap has decreased. This indicates that, as an organization, we have continued to reduce our pay gaps and are moving in the right direction. We are also confident that we continue to have no equal pay issues at Channel 4. However, our acquisition of Box in January 2019 has impacted the formal pay gap calculations that we must report given that the business has a larger gender and BAME pay gap. Our final reportable gender pay gap has therefore increased by 0.7 percentage points, to a mean average of 23.3% and our BAME pay gap has decreased more slowly than otherwise, by 0.1 percentage point, to 19.0%. These are clearly disappointing results.”

“We are proud to employ significant numbers of diverse staff but recognize that we need to rebalance the distribution of diverse staff between the upper and lower quartiles. While there are no quick fixes, and it will take time to address the pay gaps on a long-term and sustainable basis, our focus – across all groups – remains on ensuring the progression of diverse staff into more senior roles. This report shows that we still need to do much more to become the truly inclusive organization that we aspire to be. Alongside our ambitious Inclusion and Diversity Strategy, the action plan in this report will help us to deliver this,” she added.

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