Accessible arts at risk of post-pandemic decline

Improvements in accessibility to arts and culture during the Covid pandemic are in danger of being lost as organisations pull back from regular streaming content, academics have warned.

A study funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council found there has been a "significant reduction" in UK theatres' online offerings since summer 2021, with evidence of a "similar retrenchment" across the performing arts. 

The report warns of the very real danger that a "snap back" to in-person only activities will leave older and d/Deaf and disabled people returning to the level of exclusion they experienced before the pandemic.

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"Many participants with accessibility needs now see the provision of online arts and culture as an essential accessibility feature," the report states.

"However, various factors have recently caused many performing arts organisations in particular to pull back from providing regular streaming content.

"As a result, many people with protected characteristics and previously invisible accessibility needs (for example, geographic isolation) now risk being left behind from arts and culture organisations’ return to venue-focused programmes."

Rarely profitable

Organisations said one of the reasons for the move away from digital was its "low revenue potential".

Researchers identified a number of strategies used to try to drive revenue from digital. These include ticketed livestreams, pre-recorded curator tours, virtual workshops, sales to commercial VoD platforms and subscriptions to organisations’ own digital platforms.

However, interviewees emphasised that producing and distributing high quality digital content is "not cheap and rarely profitable".

"For example, for performing arts organisations, the kind of variable pricing typically practised in venues (£20 or less for upper balcony seats; £80 or more for stalls seats) is impossible. Online, most consumers are only willing to pay £5-15," the report states.

"Our case study with Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra demonstrated that despite high online sales, which in May 2022 remained buoyant at about 800 tickets per concert, per-ticket yield is typically only £8 to £9 – drastically lower than for in-person tickets."

The report suggests that, in the absence of a clear route to profitability, organisations could learn from business models in more lucrative sectors of the creative industries.

It points to the example of The Tank Museum in Dorset which joined the YouTube partner programme in 2018, and now looks to YouTube influencers rather than other cultural organisations for inspiration on how to generate revenue. 

Although the museum's direct advertising yield from YouTube is relatively low (about £3,500 per year), with over 380,000 subscribers its videos provide a gateway to memberships, sponsorships and online merchandise sales typically generating c.£160,000 annual income. 

An opportunity in disguise

Fiona Morris, Creative Director and CEO of The Space, which collaborated on the report, said that rather than focusing on the declining volume of digital offerings in the wake of "a pretty extraordinary thing that no one saw coming", organisations should build on what the pandemic revealed about effective use of the internet to increase accessibility and reach new communities.

"One of the really extraordinary positives was a whole set of communities who had been unable to participate in some of that offer prior to that were suddenly aware of it and able to participate," she said.

"That was one very specific, crisis-driven situation which has given us, from a digital perspective, a quite unique moment to look at that and then go, 'Right now, what does that mean going forward?'"

One of the barriers hampering the creation of online content is the lack of a sector-wide digital rights framework.

During the pandemic, artists often worked for reduced royalties or waived them altogether. "That can’t be a sustainable model going forward," Morris said.

"For actors, dancers, choreographers, composers, musicians – if their work is being commissioned to be presented in a live context, you can’t suddenly create a digital version of it and go, 'And there’s no more money for it.'"

But she added that any conversation about digital rights must acknowledge online content doesn’t generate much revenue.

"As there is no standardised digital licensing model for the performing arts, organisations still need to use individual agreements that can end up being time consuming and costly. Half of respondents to follow-on surveys highlighted the need for an effective sector-wide digital rights framework," the report found.

"Work is currently taking place within the performing arts sector to develop a framework that ensures the value of digital cultural content is shared by all those producing and contributing to its creation, but the challenges are significant."

The report makes a series of recommendations for arts and culture organisations, as well as funders and policymakers.

Among these is that Arts Council England shoul require all NPOs to produce digital policies as a condition of funding, which should also address how their digital activities contribute to accessibility goals.

Clear objectives

Morris said that organisations need to build on evidence gathered during the pandemic to create hybrid programming with clear objectives and outreach strategies.

“There's no point making any digital content unless you've got a really clear route to audience because the online environment is utterly chaotic and completely random in how and where and when pieces of content surface in a really successful way,” she said.

“If you don't go into it with a really clear idea of who is the audience, what is the message, which platform, how you're going to measure it and what success looks like, there's no point even starting.”

Organisations need to consider how to expand their reach beyond existing audiences who can now return to watching performances in person, she said. 

“There are tons of barriers and difficulties but what I don't want is for everyone to get demoralised,” she added.

“What the pandemic evidenced was the positives. Now we have to get on with the day-to-day and work out how we’re going to make this happen, because it will take work and it will take a different set of considerations.”