1. Growing the Audience of Today and
Tomorrow:
Education. Access. Choice.


2. Background Information
• Today, the average British person watches over
80 films per year on big and small screens.
• Film makes a vital contribution to the UK’s
economy of £4.2bn a year and is a key part of its
cultural life.
• Growing/developing the audience for film
throughout the UK, across all platforms, remains
an important policy objective in the digital era.

3. Main Problems
• Despite the success of some high-profile
British films, the audience across the UK still
gets to see too few British films, especially
independent British films and too few films
from the rest of the world apart from ever
popular Hollywood blockbusters.

4. Facts/Figures
• This is reflected in the low market share of
independent British films at the box-office –
(averaged 5.5 per cent between 2001-2010,)
while the average share of foreign-language
films was 3 percent.

5. Film Education
• Film education has a vital role to play in ensuring
that everyone has the opportunity to engage with
film across the UK.
• By enhancing the stock of knowledge about film,
(in particular among children and young people)
film education can assist in growing the audience
of the future, ensuring that audiences have an
improved understanding and appreciation of the
value of different kinds of film.
• Film education will also stimulate creativity.

6. Audiences
• Audiences have “imperfect information” about
the full range of films available at the cinema
because the high costs of effective marketing and
promotion puts smaller companies at a
disadvantage.
• “...there may be difficulties for independent
distributors in securing access to, or prominence
on, some major platforms in the emerging digital
download and streaming market.”

7. 56 Recommendations
• This is why the Panel put the audience at the
heart of its work, and developed a series of
recommendations which are intended to
increase audience choice across the UK.