Less than one in five television presenters at major channels in Britain above the age of 50 are women, a new study has found.
The study compiled from figures taken from the main UK broadcasters found that just 18 percent of presenters over 50 are women.
According to the Guardian, BBC television and radio, Sky, ITN and Channel 5 combined have just 26 women over 50 working as regular on-air presenters out of a total of 481 presenters.
Overall, women above 50 made up to just five percent of on-screen presenters of all ages and both sexes and seven percent of the workforce, both on and off screen.
Harriet Harman, Labour's deputy and the shadow culture secretary, accused the TV industry of ageism and sexism.
According to the study, there are 188 women working as regular presenters overall, or 39 percent of the total, but the vast majority of these are under 50.
Harman said that the figures provided by broadcasters show clearly that once female presenters turned 50, their days on screen are numbered.