ITV has published its 2025 Impact Report detailing progress across Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Climate Action, and ITV’s social purpose priorities, Mental Wellbeing and Better Futures. 

The report details progress in the UK commercial broadcaster’s mission to connect and reflect modern audiences, including stand-out commissions which have attracted wide audiences.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Building on a successful first round, the renewed £80 million Diversity Commissioning Spend had its first year of the next three year commitment in 2025, with £29.9 million of the fund spent. Commissions included the critically acclaimed Code of Silence (Broadcast and RTS Award nominated), starring Rose Ayling-Ellis, which placed the Deaf experience at the heart of both its narrative and production and The Assembly (Broadcast and RTS Award nominated), which saw celebrities opening up to  a collective of autistic, neurodivergent and/or learning-disabled interviewers.

Returning commissions benefitting from the fund included Romesh Rangananthan’s Parents’ Evening, and Sorry I Didn’t Know. 

ITV’s flagship Fresh Cuts initiative returned in 2025, with six new commissions across a mix of genres. Fresh Cuts commissions received a trio of nominations from The Edinburgh TV Foundation’s New Voice Awards, across the Debut Presenter (Jordan Myrie Taylor Re-Store, and Claire Sisk Blind Matchmakers) and Debut Director (Jessica Mitchell – Blind Matchmakers) categories. Alongside Fresh Cuts, The Diversity Development Fund also delivered EAST on Screen: ITV Writers’ Room, an initiative to address the industry-wide underrepresentation of British East and South East Asian creatives, with a series idea having now been put into formal development with the ITV Drama team.

ITV’s Diversity Commissioning Spend continues across 2026-27, including an extended run for the second season of The Assembly, with a line up of famous faces taking on the interview; and new drama series Saviour, with Anjli Mohindra, Shaun Parkes and Aidan Gillen leading the cast of the legal thriller. Fresh Cuts returns with a new 2026 incarnation, Outlier, with six, 46 minute sports documentary opportunities to complement what is a big year for the genre, on ITV. ITV Studios Disabled Writers in Development will also return in 2026, this year with four writers supported by ITV Studios labels/indies to develop a treatment and pilot script over 12 months.

The 2025 report detailed measurable improvements in ITV’s workforce representation:

• Deaf, Disabled, and Neurodivergent (DDN): Representation rose to 13.6 per cent, surpassing the 12 per cent, target.

• People of Colour: Increased to 15.3 per cent,, making progress toward the 20 per cent, all-colleague target.

• LGBTQ+: Representation reached 9.8 per cent,, exceeding the 7 per cent, target.

• Women: Representation stands at 53.3 per cent,, ahead of the 50 per cent, target.

• Class: 29 per cent, of ITV colleagues come from working class backgrounds, making progress toward the 33 per cent, target.

• In 2026 ITV became a Class Confident Organisation, signalling our commitment to the Class Confident Actions, a series of prompts to remove barriers for people from working class backgrounds to work in TV. The Actions were launched by The TV Foundation at the Edinburgh TV Festival 2025.

This year’s report also includes ITV’s annual Pay Gap data across gender, ethnicity, disability, LGBTQ+ and class.

Across 2025 ITV met and exceeded its Ofcom quotas on access provision, subtitling 99.7 per cent, of programmes on ITV1, with 26.6 per cent, carrying Audio Description, and 8.2 per cent, BSL, as well as the 24/7 BSL FAST channel on ITVX. ITV also provided pioneering live audio description service across the Six Nations rugby, Women’s Euros football, Britain’s Got Talent and the Pride Of Britain awards.

ITV remains an active member of the TV Access Project, the pan industry collaboration to create full inclusion for Disabled people by 2030. This work includes embedding the TV Access Project’s 5 A’s standards across its productions to improve equity for Disabled talent and having an in-house Access Coordinator within ITV Studios for scripted labels and Lifted Entertainment.

Internally, ITV has strengthened the strategic impact of its internal communities by adding the chairs of its five colleague networks—ITV Able, Balance, Embrace, Pride, and the Women’s Network—to the Cultural Advisory Council. Targeted initiatives like the ‘Rise’ programme for People of Colour and ‘Inspire’ for women have also been reinstated to support progression into senior leadership.

Accelerating Climate Action 

The commitment to sustainable production remains a priority, with 92 per cent, of ITV Studios productions and 91 per cent, of ITV commissions in 2025 achieving BAFTA albert certification. Clean power initiatives across ITV Studios productions are working to reduce environmental impact, from ITV Sport continuing their use of battery hybrid systems for outdoor broadcasts, to Lifted Entertainment introducing a solar array and battery system to the set of Love Island for the first time.

ITV said it is committed to using its reach to positively influence audience behaviour and further understanding of climate issues and sustainable practices through the Climate Content Pledge. Key commissions that demonstrate ITV’s commitment to the pledge range from Emmerdale, which won the Climate Storytelling award at the Edinburgh TV Festival for the soap’s commitment to normalising sustainable behaviours in every episode, to Shark! Celebrity Infested Waters, a reality format produced by Plimsoll Productions, part of ITV Studios, which challenged seven well-known celebrities to overcome their fear of sharks and recognise their vital role in ocean health, while directly addressing the real-world impact of climate change on marine ecosystems.

ITV also received the UK Grand Prix at the Campaign Ad Net Zero Awards for the Project Planet-branded heat pump campaign. Emmerdale partnered with the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero to demystify heat pumps – a move that successfully doubled public awareness of the government grant and significantly increased online searches for this sustainable heating solution.

This year, ITV also took viewers to the ends of the earth with ITV News reporting from Antarctica, while digital channels, Space Live on ITVX and the Our World YouTube channel, are giving audiences a front-row seat to the beauty of the natural world.

Forthcoming commissions that demonstrate ITV’s commitment to the Climate Content Pledge include the natural history series, Force of Nature. Filmed over three years and narrated by actor Andrew Lincoln, the series reveals how nature is fighting back against today’s extreme weather. The series shows the scale and ferocity of nature’s most powerful forces – from hurricanes and flash floods to droughts and bushfires – and discovers the ingenious ways nature endures, adapts and prevails against these new extremes. Through the eyes of heroic animal characters, this heartfelt, dramatic and inspiring series shows how the natural world is rising to the challenge.

Prioritising Mental Wellbeing and Better Futures

Promoting action to support mental wellbeing continues to be a priority with ITV’s campaigns, content and partnerships prompting over 37 million actions by the nation in 2025 to support mental wellbeing. ITV launched a new campaign with the Royal Voluntary Service encouraging people to volunteer, one of the NHS’ 5 Ways To Mental Wellbeing. Over 4 million people took action as a result of the Role of a Lifetime campaign.

ITV’s programming continued to help the nation understand and reflect. Coronation Street and Emmerdale explored anxiety and suicide through impactful storylines. Across Daytime, Lorraine’s “What Makes a Man?” campaign encouraged men to talk openly about their feelings, while Loose Women: The Musical highlighted the power of music to support mental health. Good Morning Britain’s tenth 1 Million Minutes campaign saw over 1 billion minutes pledged to date to end loneliness. Unwind with ITV, a daily mindfulness series, reached 4.6 million viewers in 2025.

ITV ran the second instalment of Mental Health in the Media, a series of panel events for individuals within the industry, with over 1,000 sign-ups.

Better Futures 

ITV is committed to creating a better future for the next generation, raising vital funds for children through Soccer Aid for UNICEF, which raised over £15 million in 2025, and opening pathways into the creative industries.

Since 2021, ITV has partnered on a mentoring scheme with Creative Access, an organisation that helps people from underrepresented communities to access careers in creative industries. In 2025, ITV hit their target of matching over 500 mentoring partnerships, achieving 504 in total.

ITV Academy continued to address current and future skills gaps by expanding access to entry-level opportunities across the UK. In 2025, the Academy created 65 new roles through traineeships, paid placements and work experience.

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Categories: Articles, Broadcast, Content

Tags: climate change, Emmerdale, itv, love island, mental health