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Cultural Trends Report

Cultural Trends Report

Britain spends a total of £1.4bn a year on watching films but less than £300m of this is spent at the cinema, according to the latest Cultural Trends report published today. The remaining £1.1bn is spent on video hire and subscriptions to television film channels.

The estimated total cinema audience last year was 101m with more than 60% of the population aged 7 and over going to the cinema. 65% of households now own a video recorder, compared with just 2% 10 years ago.

The report shows that radio is closing the gap with television interms of audience as television has reached saturation point with 98% of the population viewing. 89% of the population now listen to radio, with 9 out of 10 people listening for about 3 hours a day.

The report suggests that the launch of Virgin Radio is certain to effect Radio 1’s audience. It states that the new station “could well deliver an audience of some 10 million listeners worth an estimated £40m per annum in advertising revenue.”

The report suggests the cable and satellite industry has been hardest hit by the recession, accounting for no more than 5% of television viewing. It is now estimated that by the year 2000 9.5m homes are likely to have a dish or cable, 800,000 fewer than was originally expected.

The potential for commercial sponsorship of programmes is highlighted in the report. But it does say that a number of companies have tried unsuccessfully, “to exert undue influence on the content and placing of credits, as well as on the content of the programmes themselves.”

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