CREATe 2012-2016: Impact on society, industry and policy through research excellence and knowledge exchange

On the eve of the CREATe Festival May 2016, the Centre published this legacy report (edited by Kerry Patterson & Sukhpreet Singh with contributions from consortium researchers)

Go West! Bristol's film and television industries

The report, based on two major surveys and numerous interviews, is an overview of the history, evolution and current configuration of the film and television industries in the Bristol region, identified as an important 'creative cluster'. It analyses in detail their social, cultural and economic significance and provides detailed evidence about the number of companies and their location, their size, number of employees and the six sub-clusters - natural history, animation, factual, post-production, corporate and facilities - which compose this sector. It discusses the crucial role played by the BBC and its Natural History Unit, the success of Aardman Animations and the interconnections between the companies, which often share 'untraded interdependencies': ideas, knowledge, expertise and also, informally, freelance labour, rather than enter into formal business arrangements. It shows the importance of Bristol's attractiveness as a location, socially, culturally and economically but also its disadvantages compared to London and the South-East. The report shows the importance of media organisations in cementing relationships and in universities in providing a 'talent pipeline'. It analyses the importance of freelancers but also shows the difficulties they face. The report also locates a lack of social and ethnic diversity in these industries in the Bristol region, which reflects the national picture. The report concludes with a series of eight recommendations to address the issues raised including the significant lack of a major drama production company

University for the Creative Arts staff research 2011

This publication brings together a selection of the University’s current research. The contributions foreground areas of research strength including still and moving image research, applied arts and crafts, as well as emerging fields of investigations such as design and architecture. It also maps thematic concerns across disciplinary areas that focus on models and processes of creative practice, value formations and processes of identification through art and artefacts as well as cross-cultural connectivity. Dr. Seymour Roworth-Stoke

Enriching Britain : culture, creativity and growth

Through an extensive process of consultation and review of research and policy, the Warwick Commission now presents its final report as a blueprint for Britain’s cultural and creative enrichment

A 21st-century gold rush? Video on Demand and the global competition for UK television

Over the past ten years, the linear broadcast model for UK television has been challenged by streaming content from Over-The-Top (OTT) platforms, both through linear channels’ catch-up services and through video-on-demand platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. This chapter assesses the threats and opportunities for the UK TV industry posed by digital platforms and conglomerate “super-indie” and “mega-indie” production companies, disrupting and reconfiguring a previously nationally based broadcasting ecosystem. It analyses the boom in the production of high-end UK TV drama, a “gold rush” partly driven by tax relief introduced by the government in 2013, leading to an inflation in the costs of TV production. It draws on the 2019 House of Lords House of Lords Select Committee on Communications inquiry on the future of public service broadcasting to consider the impact of the rising popularity of VOD services on the industry, and on television viewing. The chapter concludes with questions for future research on the appropriate regulatory framework for broadcasting in the context of OTT platforms, as well as the sustainability of the boom in television drama production

Audio description and Australian Television: A position paper

Audio description (AD) – also referred to as video description, video programming or descriptive video – is a track of narration included between the lines of dialogue which describes important visual elements of a television show, movie or performance. It is an essential feature in order to make television accessible to audiences who are blind or vision impaired. As the human rights of people with disability become more prioritised and expanding technologies allow an individualisation of the experience of television, AD is becoming increasingly available across the world. For example, from its rudimentary beginnings in Spain in the 1940s, to date AD is available through terrestrial broadcast television in the UK, US, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, Germany, Spain, Italy, Poland, France, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Korea, Thailand, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and a number of other European countries. However, it is not available on Australian broadcast television, despite the federally funded agency Screen Australia having created a back catalogue of AD content. Screen Australia is the key funding body for the Australian film industry and according to several policy documents requires funded dramas to create an AD track. While producers may create these tracks, there is no mechanism to broadcast them on television. The Australian government and broadcast industry have stated that they believe it to be too technically complicated and financially prohibitive to offer here. This report outlines an AD position paper based on 5 years of research with Australian audiences with disability conducted by researchers in the Department of Internet Studies and the Critical Disability Research Network at Curtin University Australia. The report focuses in particular on the views of Australians with blindness and vision impairments who have taken part in these projects. The report is divided into three sections. Part 1 considers the broader context of the role of television in facilitating social inclusion, including the idea that television access is a fundamental human right. Part 2 considers the ways AD can be delivered, and begins with a brief history of AD, from its beginnings in the middle part of last century to the modern and innovative formats available today. The Big Access Media (BAM) app is presented as an immediate solution, and we argue the industry, especially the public Audio description position paper • page vii broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), utilise this app to immediately offer AD content to Australians. It will consider how standards, guidelines and legislation have shaped the AD industry worldwide and offer some common guidelines regarding principles, objectivity and voicing. The provision of AD in Australia is also discussed, specifically in relation to a similar accessibility issue – the provision of closed captions. The section concludes by providing case studies on two aspects of Australian media – the two ABC AD trials and the efforts of Screen Australia to increase AD content in this country. While the insights of blind and visually impaired audience members who require AD are featured throughout the report, Part 3 moves on to discuss these observations in more detail. This focuses on feedback from people regarding their access to television which had been carried out in two earlier research projects – this included 13 interview participants with vision impairment and a further 64 who participated in online surveys. Common themes that emerged included: § The importance of the public broadcaster. § Television being a social activity. § The feeling of exclusion – television is considered integral for inclusion. § Issues surrounding cost – the “economics of disability”. § Contradictory approaches to technology – some were willing to try new technology, others preferred older technology and were unwilling to upgrade. § The frustration that Australian content is audio described when exported overseas or released on DVD but is not available on local broadcast television. § Frustration with watching non-AD television content once AD has been experienced. The section concludes by also considering the potential benefits of AD to other audiences, including the elderly, people with intellectual disabilities and people whose first language is not English. The following recommendations are therefore proposed: § AD be made available on Australian free-to-air television either via terrestrial broadcast, catch-up portals or a dedicated app. § Any imported programming with an AD track created for international audiences must be licensed with the AD track for distribution in Australia. Audio description position paper • page viii § Further research is conducted to establish the mainstream benefits of AD and talking electronic programing guides (EPGs). The ways people consume media is constantly changing – if these formats and technologies can be embraced by the mainstream, disability inclusion will improve. § Regulation and standards introduced in the 1990s be brought up to date with the 21st century digital and online television environment: § The Broadcasting Services Act (BSA) 1992 should immediately be expanded to encompass television screened online; § Australian standards should be introduced to ensure set-top boxes can receive and display AD; § The BSA should be expanded to include AD. § The government needs to support people with disability to acquire digital literacy skills. Low income members of this group should also be supported financially to get online. § Innovation and competition in the business sector must be encouraged, for example to develop more apps to facilitate AD. § Screen Australia policy should be expanded to television drama in more explicit terms. § The public broadcasters should be supported to provide AD. § Australian licensing laws be relaxed to allow pubic broadcasters to continue airing shows on their catch-up portals with AD tracks even when they have moved to commercial or subscription channels. § Further audience research into the feasibility of synthetic voice systems be conducted to discover whether this is an acceptable interim or long-term solution to the provision of AD

Lifestyling Asia? Shaping modernity and selfhood on life advice programming

This article discusses the early findings of a research project examining the role of lifestyle television in Asia. Life-advice programming in East Asia includes a range of 'popular factual' formats from cooking and health shows to makeover and consumer advice shows. A growing body of AngloAmerican scholarship emphasizes the cultural importance of lifestyle programming, suggesting that the explosion of lifestyle formats at this particular cultural-historical moment connects to broader transformations in western neoliberal states, especially the rise of individualized, consumer-based models of identity and citizenship. Focusing on Singapore, China and Taiwan, this article offers a discussion of the potential of such arguments in these contexts, in light of our findings about the forms of life-advice programming prevalent in these three television industries. In particular, it explores the relevance (or not) of Anglo-American theories of neoliberal selfhood in these sites as read through the lens of lifestyle television

The Next Growth Strategy for Hallyu: A Comparative Analysis of Global Entertainment Firms

Previous policy approaches on Hallyu have been focused on the role of government engagement, particularly in fostering diversity and equal business opportunities for small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs). However, a more strategic approach to the cultural industries should be implemented by carefully examining the role of the private sector, particularly the role of large enterprises (LEs). This is important because LEs have an overarching and fundamentally differentiated role in increasing the size of industry through their expansive value-creating activities and diversified business areas. This study focuses on the complementary roles of SMEs and LEs in facilitating the growth of Hallyu by bringing in the perspective of value chain diversification and the modified value chain framework for the film industry. By conducting a comparative analysis of the global entertainment firms in the US, China, and Japan, this study reveals how LEs in the global market enter and explore new industries within culture and continue to enhance their competitiveness. By forming a business ecosystem through linking their value-creating activities as the platform of network, this study looks into the synergistic role among enterprises of different size and scale and suggests that Korea’s policy for Hallyu should reorient toward a new growth strategy that encourages the integrative network of firms where the value activities of LEs serve as the platform for convergence