All Evidence Articles
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Use of social and digital by Audience Spectrum
July 2024
Use of digital media and digital varies between Audience Spectrum, suggesting different potential routes to reach different segments.
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The election through Audience Spectrum
July 2024
Now that the election’s over, the ballot boxes stowed away again in the basements of town halls across the country, and hundreds of new MPs have taken the train to Westminster to be sworn in, we thought it would be a bit of fun to look at the election results using Audience Spectrum.
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Comparing over-represented Audience Spectrum Segments in seats won in the 2024 General Election
July 2024
Gain a deeper understanding of the 2024 election with our Audience Spectrum Analysis, where we break down the profile of each party's seats compared to the national average, revealing key trends and the demographics each party represents.
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Interest in history and heritage
June 2024
Heritage is broadly popular with the general population, with high proportions saying that it’s an interest of theirs.
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Attitudes to heritage
June 2024
We asked the extent to which people agreed or disagreed with a range of statements about history and heritage, to better understand the attitudes which people bring to their engagement. These results were surprising in a number of ways: neither consistently conforming to a traditional nor a progressive perspective.
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Cost of Living
June 2024
It’s no surprise that the UK population feel worse off than they did last year (33% feeling worse off, 49% about the same and only 18% better off, a net 15% reduction).
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Creative Places: Changing Hours
May 2024
We’ve been seeing a range of changing audience behaviours and attitudes since the pandemic, including shifting attitudes to event timings.
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Creative Places: Activities
May 2024
In our latest wave of the Cultural Participation Monitor, we asked about a wider range of cultural activities to get a fuller picture of the sorts of things people do outside our usual arts, cultural and heritage scope.
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Report | Let's Create: Opera and Music Theatre Analysis
March 2024
Arts Council England have published a report into the opera and music theatre sector.
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What’s happening with Panto and Christmas show audiences post-pandemic?
January 2024
Arts and cultural events continue to increase booker numbers post pandemic, but the cost-of-living crisis that followed is affecting some artforms more than others. Panto and Christmas shows are among those that are particularly affected.
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Audiences prefer live events to digital
January 2024
This report uses data from wave 9 of the Cultural Participation Monitor (CPM) to understand the extent audiences engage with live versus digital events, finding that:
- All audiences prefer live events, followed by at home viewing and then watching at a cinema screening.
- Lower engaged segments are more open to viewing at home and at the cinema compared to higher engaged segments.
- Younger people are more open to all viewing platforms and artforms compared to audiences aged 45 and over
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Audiences prefer live events, but how much varies by artform
January 2024
Data from the CPM suggests that the more popular an artform is the more open audiences are to viewing it in different formats other than live. This report presents insights into how the popularity of an artform and the initial audience interest can determine how engaging people find non-live events for a particular artform.
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Audience preferences on venues' values
November 2023
Social and environmental issues are at the forefront of much news about the cultural sector recently: cancellation of fossil fuel sponsorships; repatriation of museum artefacts and decolonialisation of collections and displays; demonstrations of support for Black Lives Matter; the emphasis on environmental action in Let’s Create and National Portfolio funding, to name but a few topics. But where is the voice of the audience in these discussions?
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Younger audiences prefer more relaxed behavioural codes
November 2023
Younger people are generally more tolerant of all divisive behaviours at live events, though some activities are universally off-putting (smoking/vaping, talking on the phone), while being 'allowed' to do others (eating, drinking, taking photos) actually makes people of all ages keener to attend.
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Cost-of-Living is hitting lowest engaged groups hardest
July 2023
Cost-of-living fears still soar above receding Covid concerns as the driving factor behind declining attendance, though less so for settled suburban groups - meanwhile the already least engaged audiences continue to be most affected, compounding the existing inequality gap in cultural consumption.
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Nothing beats the live experience
July 2023
While attending 'live' cultural events in person is everyone's strong preference, when it comes to alternative modes of engagement, watching from home, either streaming online or on TV, appeals more to all groups than doing so at the cinema, though both options are more popular among younger audiences.
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Social issues and climate concerns matter to audiences
July 2023
People (especially younger ones and better off families) say that they care whether venues share their own social and environmental values - particularly when it comes to the Climate Crisis - and that they are more likely to attend if organisations take an active stance on these issues.
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The cost-of-living crisis and audiences’ attendance
July 2023
The cost-of-living crisis continues to expand and impact individuals in the UK. The Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH) rose by 6.3% in the 12 months up to September 2023 according to the Office for National Statistics. It is affecting many individuals’ daily lives and is having an impact on engagement at cultural and arts events and on organisations’ income, at an already difficult time.
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Cost of living outweighs covid
March 2023
Over 60% say that the cost-of-living is already slashing their ability to attend culture events (more than twice than because of Covid concerns), with even higher numbers expecting this to still be the case in 6-24 months' time.
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Engagement trends
March 2023
1/3 still report attending arts and culture less than pre-pandemic, though under 35-year-olds are returning more than others, and are more likely to identify as the 'initiators' of social cultural activity with friends and family.
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Late booking trends
March 2023
Panto season pre-sales stand out as being back on track, though this goes against an overall trend towards later booking, with over 40% saying that they now tend to book more last minute than they used to.
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Social media behaviour
March 2023
More than 1/3 people say they follow an 'arts and culture' organisation on social media, though report being more inclined to do so out of interest in the broad topic or artform, than in that specific organisation and its events.
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Support for organisations
March 2023
Half of those who previously did so intend to donate less over the next couple of years, but most who have cancelled memberships do intend to restart them, and c.80% of lapsed volunteers expect to return to their activities.
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Cost of living crisis
September 2022
The vast majority of respondents say that they are worried about the effects of the cost-of-living crisis on them and their household, with a whopping 92% intending to scale back on entertainment spend outside of the home as a result, especially among mid-engaged, middle-aged and less urban groups.
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Everyday creative participation
September 2022
While financial uncertainty might make people nervous about splashing out on more expensive arts and culture activities, over 40% of people say that pursuing creative hobbies in their own time is a key interest, a trend that skews towards younger participants and has increased through the pandemic.
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Ongoing Attitudes to Covid
September 2022
Fears surrounding Covid-19 are softening, with half feeling 'back to normal' and fewer than 1 in 10 people expressing strong concern about catching the virus themselves, although over half still worry about vulnerable friends and family, while support for certain safety precautions remains high.
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Plans for future attendance
September 2022
While willingness to attend continues to trend upwards however, people do anticipate that their future in-person participation will be less frequent than pre-pandemic, though outdoor events are an exception, and they also intend to engage with cultural activities more locally (and inexpensively) than before.
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Recent Engagement Trends
September 2022
Recent arts, culture and heritage attendance has risen to an impressive 90% among respondents, with film and museums/heritage proving especially popular, particularly with families, while online arts activities continue to attract a younger and more ethnically diverse audience.
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Spend in cultural shops and cafés
September 2022
As audiences tighten their belts, they also plan to reduce their general spend in venues' shops and cafés, though the former looks to be harder hit than the latter, where younger and highly culturally engaged visitors express a willingness to pay slightly more for greener and more ethical alternatives.
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Willingness to attend events, especially outdoors, is rising
April 2022
Overall there is much increased willingness to attend events and optimism about future attendance, though some groups continue to be especially concerned, with disabled people less likely to be willing or able to attend.
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Nearly half of people engaged with arts and culture digitally during the pandemic
April 2022
Nearly half of people say that they engaged with arts and culture online in some form during the pandemic, weighted towards audiences who are younger, typically high cultural engagers anyway, or disabled.
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Support for Covid-19 safety measures is starting to ebb
April 2022
Safety measures are rated as less important than they have been previously, but desire for them continues, with half of audiences still saying that they would not attend if precautions were removed all together.
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The cost of living crisis is starting to impact people's willingness or ability to spend on arts and culture
April 2022
The cost of living crisis is emerging as a predictable barrier to engagement, and is particularly likely to affect frequency of attendance (more than spend per attendance - though increased prices would act as a further deterrent).
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Working from home is here to stay
April 2022
Working from home is still prevalent, preferred and expected to continue in to some degree for most, which is likely a contributor to the widespread intention to attend more locally in future than before the pandemic.
