Disclaimer

This report was prepared at the request of Live Performance Australia solely for the purposes of publishing the Supplementary Ticket Attendance and Revenue Survey Report 2013 and it is not appropriate for use for other purposes.

Other persons accessing this report should do so for their general information only as EY has only acted for, and advised Live Performance Australia, and has not acted for or advised anyone else in respect of the contents of this report.

This report should not be taken as providing specific advice on any issue, nor may this report be relied upon in any way by any person other than Live Performance Australia.

The report has been constructed based on information for the year ended 31 December 2013, and which has been provided by organisation and venues outlined in Appendix A of this Report. Since this date, material events may have occurred since completion which is not reflected in the report.

EY accepts no responsibility for use of the information contained in the report and makes no guarantee nor accepts any legal liability whatsoever arising from or connected to the accuracy, reliability, currency or completeness of any material contained in this report. EY and all other parties involved in the preparation and publication of this report expressly disclaim all liability for any costs, loss, damage, injury or other consequence which may arise directly or indirectly from use of, or reliance on, the report.

Liability limited under a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.

Survey Participants

Scope of work

Ernst & Young (EY) has been engaged by Live Performance Australia (LPA) to undertake a supplementary survey of ticket attendances and revenues for the Live Performance Industry for the 2013 calendar year, focussing on small to medium companies and regional and metropolitan venues. This is the first time that a supplementary survey has been undertaken.

This study follows on from the 2013 Ticket Attendance and Revenue Survey previously published by LPA in partnership with EY, and provides additional data for performances not previously reported. Due to constraints around how quickly the data can be provided to EY, it is anticipated that two reports will need to be produced each year.

The Live Performance Industry encompasses performances, productions, rehearsals or concerts that are performed in front of a live audience. The scope of our work included:

• Coordinating the collection of the ticket sales and revenue data (“supplementary survey data”) from small to medium companies and regional and metropolitan venues in the Live Performance Industry in Australia
• Compiling the 2013 supplementary survey data on an overall basis, by state and by event category Performing an analysis of the supplementary survey data on an overall basis, by state and by event category.

Approach

For this supplementary survey, EY compiled data from the following organisations:

• Australia Council for the Arts – Key Organisations data (small to medium companies)
• The Australian Performing Arts Centre Association (APACA) – Regional and metropolitan venue data.

These organisations and venues were identified by LPA and provided both gross revenue and attendance data to EY for the 2013 calendar year. This data is collectively referred to as the “supplementary data” throughout this report. Gross revenue comprised revenue sourced from paid tickets and subscription revenues (i.e. it excludes sponsorships); while the attendance data provided and applied in the analysis included both paid and non-paid tickets.

The companies and venues that were covered in the survey are listed in Appendix A. One venue was excluded from the supplementary data received because it was already captured in the 2013 Ticket Attendance and Revenue Survey. This was to avoid double counting of revenue and attendance data.

Ticketing data was assigned by the Australia Council Key Organisations and APACA venues to event categories based on the guidelines established between LPA and these organisations. Table 1 presents a description of these event categories.

*These categories were introduced in 2009
^This category was renamed in 2011, having been named “Non-Classical Music” in prior years

The Australia Council for the Arts provided data to EY directly, while APACA distributed a data template to its member venues which was returned to EY. Confidentiality of individual data is of paramount importance. As such, and consistent with our agreed approach, EY have not revealed disaggregated raw survey data or event specific revenue or ticketing data in the contents of this report.

While our scope of works did not include a detailed review of all data to determine the appropriateness of event category allocations, where obvious anomalies were identified, EY queried the data with the relevant survey participants and where appropriate amendments were made.

Limitations

As with previous studies, data on ticket revenues and attendances for the Live Performance Industry was limited to that provided by the survey participants. For this supplementary study, the data was limited to previously under-represented performances in regional and metropolitan venues and by small to medium sized organisations. This report provides a snapshot of the venues and organisations that provided data (see Appendix A for full list). It is important to note that the data included is not a comprehensive survey of regional and metropolitan venues, as only 21 APACA member venues out of a total of 108 non capital city member venues provided data. Whilst attempts have been made to remove data that was previously captured in the 2013 ticketing survey, it was not possible to match individual performances as the regional and metropolitan data provided was aggregated at the venue level.