Research on the Economic and Cultural Value of Cinema Venues 2022/295

The British Film Institute (the "BFI") and the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre (the "PEC") are seeking jointly to commission a study investigating the economic and cultural value of cinema venues in the UK.

The main goal of the study is to generate robust evidence on the value of existing UK cinemas that the cinemas can use through benefit transfer in their business cases to secure investment.

The study will employ quantitative survey-based economic valuation techniques that capture market as well as non-market (equivalently social) benefits and which are consistent with HM Treasury Green Book methodologies, as well as gather data on the cultural value of cinemas.

Economic valuation techniques, such as willingness to pay, are designed to capture the economic welfare enjoyed by beneficiaries of the good (cinema) in question - even where the benefits are not wholly captured in market prices (box office revenue) - and as such are conceptually distinct from economic impacts on tourism, jobs or gross value added.

Together with measures of cultural value (such as symbolic value, spiritual value, historical value, aesthetic value and authenticity value) they provide for a rounded value account (Throsby, 2001).

The research will provide the UK film sector with more holistic and integrated evidence on the benefits of investing in cinema venues in the UK, including on how these benefits vary across different groups.

Survey sample sizes will be targeted that also enable geographic variation to be analysed, generating important insights for levelling up and other place-based investments.

Importantly, the research will also be designed to contribute to DCMS's major new research-led initiative on the Culture and Heritage Capital Framework, which aims to place public investment in culture and heritage on a more sustainable footing.

The research will help to ensure that cinemas take their rightful place among other "culturally significant organisations" as methodological advances are made in valuing culture and heritage through DCMS's initiative.

Full details are set out in the Invitation to Tender.

Tender deadline 12:00 noon on 23 June 2022.