Live broadcasts of the National Theatre’s production of ‘Phèdre’ to cinemas across the UK attracted lower income audiences than the usual National Theatre demographic, according to a new report from NESTA. ‘Beyond Live: digital innovation in the performing arts’, shows that a quarter of the 14,000 people who saw the NT Live! production in a cinema earned less than £20,000 a year, compared to only 16% of the theatre audience. Similarly, high earners were better represented amongst the theatre audience, with twice as many theatregoers as cinemagoers earning more than £50,000 a year. The report also found that 84% of cinema audience members surveyed ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that they felt “real excitement” because they knew the performance was live. More than half of both the cinema and theatre audiences ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that seeing the play in the company of an audience increased their enjoyment. The report argues that these figures go against a general perception that consumers want only ‘on demand’ entertainment, as audiences in both the theatre and the cinemas valued the shared experience of seeing something live and in company. However, a large majority of the cinema audience surveyed would not pay more than £15 for a cinema broadcast, despite almost a third being willing to pay up to £40 for a theatre ticket.
