$1.2 billion in tix sales: Industry ‘Stable’ say LPA

Melbourne, Australia – July 29, 2013 – Live Performance Australia [LPA], the peak body for Australia’s live performance industry and presenter of the Helpmann Awards, today released its annual Ticket Attendance & Revenue Survey 2012, which shows the sector remains stable generating $1.2 billion in revenue.

Overall, the Survey recorded 16,273,730 tickets for Live Entertainment Industry events were issued in Australia in 2012.

Contemporary Music and Musical Theatre remain the two largest sectors, generating 40% and 16.9% of revenue respectively. While both experienced declines in revenue and attendance, combined they still account for 56.9% of gross revenue and 47.4% of total attendance.

Genres reporting strongest growth in 2012 are Festivals (both Single category and Multi category), Theatre and Classical Music.

This is the ninth annual Survey released by LPA and represents the most comprehensive survey available of ticket sales for Australian Live Entertainment events.

Chief Executive of Live Performance Australia (LPA), Evelyn Richardson, said “This year’s Survey shows the industry is stable with only a slight decline in revenue and attendance. The inclusion each year of new data sources continually improves our picture of the industry across established and emerging sectors.”

Overall revenue for the Live Entertainment Industry declined when compared to 2011, from $1.3 billion, to $1.2 billion – a drop of 8%. This decline was largely mirrored by a 6.2% decrease in overall attendance, from 17.3 million tickets in 2011 to 16.2 million in 2012. This decline in revenue reflects a decline in attendance and a marginal fall in the average ticket price.

New data points include:

• Data from SeatAdvisor Box office (SABO), which has positively impacted the Comedy category, and Cirque du Soleil, whose data was previously provided by existing data partners.

• LPA is working with the Australia Council for the Arts, and the Australian Performing Arts Centre Australia (APACA) to improve reporting around performances by the small to medium sector, and at regional venues in a new supplementary report to be released later in 2013

“The addition of new data partners is important to improving the reach of the Survey, and we encourage event owners not presently included in the Survey to become data partners,” said Richardson.

One addition to this year’s Survey is the inclusion of analysis of revenue and attendance on a per capita basis. The results show that Victoria and New South Wales command a larger share of both revenue and attendances compared to their share of the population. However overall, state based breakdown shows declines in Victoria and New South Wales but revenue and attendance increases in Queensland.

Sector breakdown:

• In the (Multi) Festival category, the increase in revenue is largely explained by the growth in average ticket price (24.4% increase in 2012) while (Single category) Festivals saw a slight 2% increase in revenue, a significant 18.7% increase in attendance, reflecting a strong year for music festivals, and a 7.4% decline in average ticket price.

• Theatre reported a 25.9% growth in revenue and 16% growth in attendance, while the average ticket price increased by 6.6%. These increases were largely driven by Dame Edna Everidge’s national Farewell Tour. However, productions presented by the Major Performing Arts companies generated the majority of ticket sales and revenue.

• While the Classical Music category experienced modest revenue growth of 1.3%, it experienced a significant 19.7% increase in attendance. However, the average ticket price fell by 12.3% which explains why revenue growth did not match attendance growth. Growth in this sector was largely driven by the reopening of Hamer Hall at the Arts Centre Melbourne.