Disclaimer

This report was prepared at the request of Live Performance Australia solely for the purposes of publishing the Ticket Attendance and Revenue Survey Report 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 current as of 1 January 2015, and which has been provided by the Survey Participants as outlined in Appendix A of this Report. Since this date, material events may have occurred since completion which are 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

Australia Council for the Arts (Key Organisations) and Australian Performing Arts Centres Association (APACA) members (“Supplementary data”)

EY compiled data from the Australia Council for the Arts (Key Organisations) to collect revenue data for small to medium companies and the Australian Performing Arts Centres Association (APACA) to get a clearer representation of regional and metropolitan venues.

Scope of work

Ernst & Young (EY) has been engaged by Live Performance Australia (LPA) to undertake a survey of ticket attendances and revenues for the Live Performance Industry for the 2015 calendar year. The Live Performance Industry encompasses performances, productions, previews and 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 (“Ticketing Survey data”) for the Live Performance Industry in Australia from participating ticketing companies, venues, entertainment companies, event promoters and the Australian Major Performing Arts Group (AMPAG) companies
• Coordinating the collection of the ticket sales and revenue data (“Supplementary data”) for the Live Performance Industry in Australia from small to medium companies (Key Organisations) and regional and metropolitan venues (APACA venue members)
• Compiling the 2015 national survey data on an overall basis, by state and by event category
• Performing an analysis of the 2015 national survey data on an overall basis (and in comparison to previous years), by state and by event category.

This study follows on from the previous annual ticketing studies published by LPA in partnership with EY since 2006.

This report includes data received from participating ticketing companies, venues, entertainment companies, event promoters and the Australia Council for the Arts. In addition to previous year’s reports, the 2015 report also incorporates the ticket attendance and revenue for Key Organisations (via the Australia Council) and a selection of venues that are members of the Australian Performing Arts Centres Association (APACA). This supplementary dataset has been compiled to provide a representation of the small to medium sector, as well as regional and metropolitan (non-capital city) venues. This new data is reported separately to ensure comparability to previous studies.

Approach

For this Survey, EY compiled data from ticketing companies, self-ticketing venues, event promoters and the Australia Council for the Arts. These companies were identified by LPA and provided both gross revenue and attendance data to EY for the 2015 calendar year. Gross revenue comprised of revenue sourced from paid tickets only (i.e. it excludes sponsorships); while the attendance data provided and applied in the analysis included both paid and non-paid tickets. Average ticket price data was calculated based on paid tickets only. Further, as part of these guidelines, the ticketing companies and venues are requested to exclude from their data all events produced or presented by the AMPAG companies. This is to avoid double counting of revenue and attendance data. For these AMPAG companies, the gross revenue includes both single ticket sales as well as subscription revenues.

EY also compiled data from the Australia Council for the Arts (Key Organisations) to collect revenue data for small to medium companies and the Australian Performing Arts Centres Association (APACA) to get a clearer representation of regional and metropolitan venues. The organisations and venues identified by LPA provided both gross revenue and attendance data to EY for the 2015 calendar year. 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. 


Ticketing data was assigned by the ticketing companies, self-ticketing venues and the Australia Council to event categories based on the guidelines established between LPA and these organisations. Table 1 presents a description of these event categories. Further, as part of these guidelines, the ticketing companies and venues are requested to exclude from their data all events produced or presented by the AMPAG Companies. This is to avoid double counting of revenue and attendance data.

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

Survey participants provided data to EY directly. Confidentiality Deeds were in place between data providers and EY where requested. As such, and consistent with our agreed approach, EY did not reveal, insofar as possible, disaggregated raw survey data or event specific revenue or ticketing data to LPA.

While our scope of works did not include a detailed review of all data to determine the appropriateness of the events and event category allocations, where obvious anomalies were identified, appropriate amendments were made. Examples of such anomalies included for instance:

• Sporting events, fashion festivals, workshops, cinema screenings, award nights, graduation ceremonies, theme park passes and art exhibitions were identified in some data sets. These were excluded as they are not considered part of the Live Performance Industry.
• Royal Melbourne Show included in Special Events was excluded as this was not considered to be part of the Live Performance Industry.
• Amateur events such as school performances, dance academy concerts and other community group performances were excluded as the scope of this Survey does not include amateur performances.
• Music festivals included in Contemporary Music were reallocated to Festivals (Single-Category).
• Comedy events included in Theatre or Festivals (Single-Category) were reallocated to the Comedy category.
• Circus events included in the Theatre, Special Events, or Children’s/Family categories were reallocated to the Circus and Physical Theatre category.

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. The following sections highlight the key limitations in data collection.

Ticketing Survey data

Attendances at festivals are under-reported in this Survey. First, some festivals maintain their own ticketing systems and many of these are not part of this Survey. The inclusion of ticketing data from Oztix, MONA FOMA and Dark MOFO addresses some under reporting in the festival categories. However, revenue and attendance are likely to be undervalued in the category because a number of boutique festival events are self-ticketed and are presently not contributing data to the Survey, including music festivals such as Listen Out, Harbourlife and Strawberry Fields. For a number of festivals, the Survey only reports paid tickets and does not include the substantial unpaid and/or unticketed components. The Contemporary Music category is subject to similar limitations; as pub and club venues that self-ticket, or use ticketing companies who are not part of the Survey are not included in the results. However, data from Oztix and The Ticket Group helps to decrease the level of under-reporting, as these ticketing agencies include smaller performances at certain bars and hotels. Still, this Survey provides a conservative estimate of the total ticket revenues and attendances sourced from live performance events in Australia.

As part of our analysis, the 2015 data was compared against historical data sourced directly from Live Performance Australia’s Live Performance Industry in Australia 2006 - 2014 Reports. EY notes that we did not revisit the data collection and allocation methodology used in 2006 and 2007 as the historical data used to prepare the reports in these years was not provided in a disaggregated format. As such, EY was unable to query the accuracy of the allocation of events in these years.

Therefore caution should be applied when comparing data from 2008 to 2015 with data from previous years as inconsistencies may exist in the data collection methodology between the surveys performed in these seven years, and for previous surveys (where more detailed event specific information was not requested).

Supplementary data

The 2015 report incorporates the ticket attendance and revenue for a selection of Key Organisations (via the Australia Council) and ticketing data from venues that are members of the Australian Performing Arts Centres Association (APACA). This supplementary dataset has been compiled to provide a representation of the small to medium sector, as well as regional and metropolitan (non-capital city) venues. This new data is reported separately to ensure comparability to previous studies.

It is important to note that the data included is not a comprehensive survey of regional and metropolitan venues, as only 45 APACA member venues out of a total of 108 non capital city member venues provided data. This includes a mix of small and large regional and metropolitan venues. Whilst attempts have been made to remove data that was previously captured in the data provided by major ticketing companies, self-ticketing venues, event promoters and Australia Major Performing Arts Group (AMPAG) companies, it was not possible to match individual performances as the regional and metropolitan data provided was aggregated at the venue level.

Changes in the 2015 Ticketing Survey compared to prior years

EY have made the following changes to the 2015 survey compared to previous years.

The inclusion of venue capacity data measuring the average venue utilisation per performance (attendance per performance /venue capacity) for selected ticketing companies, self-ticketing venues, event promoters and Australia Major Performing Arts Group (AMPAG) companies

• The inclusion of data from a number of providers since 2014 including:
• Brisbane Powerhouse, which included events across most categories
• Hayes Theatre Co, a Sydney-based venue predominantly presents small-scale musical theatre and cabaret
• MONA provided ticketing information for MONA FOMA and Dark MOFO in the category of Festivals (Multi-Category) as well as some smaller events in the Contemporary Music and Special Events categories
• Oztix provided ticketing information for events in most categories, with an emphasis on Contemporary Music and Festivals (Single-Category). Fringe Tix (Adelaide Fringe Festival), Fringe World and Bluesfest were new ticket providers in 2013, somewhat addressing the under reporting in the festivals categories.
• The Non-Classical Music category was renamed to 'Contemporary Music' in 2011. However, the scope of performances in this category remains the same as prior years.
• The Melbourne Recital Centre and The Ticket Group (formerly Foxtix together with Moshtix) were new data providers in 2011. Melbourne Recital Centre provides ticketing services primarily in the categories of Classical Music and Opera while The Ticket Group operates primarily in the categories of Festivals (Single-Category) and Contemporary Music.
• In 2009, the 'Comedy' and 'Circus and Physical Theatre' categories were introduced. As defined in Section 1.2 under our Approach, the Comedy category includes all comedy events such as stand up but does not include comedy plays, while the Circus and Physical Theatre includes Circus, Physical Theatre and Burlesque events. The introduction of these categories does not represent an extension of the scope of the Ticketing Survey, rather events which fall within these new categories would have been included in other categories in prior years.
• The inclusion of data from Arts Projects Australia. Arts Projects Australia from 2009 onwards provided ticketing data for WOMADelaide, a multi-category festival in Adelaide previously not covered by this Survey. Also in 2009, data from The Arts Centre (Melbourne) was included for the first time, having previously been outsourced to Ticketmaster (and therefore included in Ticketmaster's data).