December 10, 2018

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport says that the UK’s “roaring” creative industries, which includes film, TV, radio, photography, music, advertising, museums, galleries and digital creative industries, made a record contribution to the economy in 2017, smashing through the £100 billion mark.

The value of the creative industries to the UK is up from £94.8 billion in 2016 to £101.5 billion, and has grown at nearly twice the rate of the economy since 2010, according to figures published by the DCMS.

The figures show that the increase has been driven in part by a boom in the computer services sub-sector, which includes video games such as Batman Arkham made by London-based games company Rocksteady Studios and Red Dead Redemption 2 produced by US company Rockstar Games. This sector alone is worth £5.11 billion.

The figures also show that the strength of the creative industries is matched by the UK’s world leading digital and tech sector, which has seen its contribution to the UK economy increase by 7.3% between 2016 and 2017 and by 32.9% since 2010. It is now worth more than £130 billion. It continues to perform highly and over the last two months British tech firms Monzo, Farfetch and Funding Circle have surpassed the $1 billion mark, meaning they are now so-called “unicorns”.

The DCMS says that Government tax relief schemes supporting high-end television and film productions have seen a boom worth £12.6 billion since they were introduced. There was also £1.38 billion of inward investment in the film industry last year as a result of tax relief.

As part of the Government’s Industrial Strategy, nine new Creative Clusters across the UK have benefitted from £80 million funding to boost innovation by part-funding research partnerships between universities and industry. They aim to increase the use of digital technologies to improve audience experience in the screen and performance industries, and shorten production times in the design industry.

The DCMS says that this dovetails with investment in the UK’s digital sector. This month’s Budget included nearly £300 million of investment in emerging technologies including AI and quantum, with up to £50 million to be invested in new Turing AI Fellowships to help bring the best global researchers in AI to the UK, and £235 million to establish a new National Quantum Computing Centre, a quantum challenge to bring the technology to market and new centres for doctoral training.

The value of sport to the UK economy has increased by 5.3% year-on-year and by 40% since 2010. Sport’s value, which includes sport equipment production and the operation of sports facilities, rose to £9.8 billion, although this does not include the sports broadcasting rights or sports advertising markets.

DCMS sectors’ contribution to the UK economy overall continues to rise, with GVA at £267.7 billion in 2017, up 3.4% year-on-year. DCMS sectors now account for 14.6% of the UK’s GVA. To read the DCMS press release in full and for a link to the figures, click here.