AudioUK has today announced an extension to the deadline for its latest Business Census, which aims to capture the state of the audio production sector through the activity of the UK’s production companies.
The Census, which will cover the financial year 2019-20, follows on from the exercise carried out in 2015, which showed that production companies were diversifying into an ever-growing range of audio-led activity.
Almost five years later the expectation is that podcasting, audiobooks and other such activity has grown substantially, in particular prior to the coronavirus pandemic.
The census will also seek to capture the level of commissions from both BBC and also the commercial sector, production for the latter of which has grown with developments such as the Audio Content Fund, for which AudioUK, along with Radiocentre, was responsible for persuading the Government to provide the finance.
Data from the 2015 survey was used as supporting evidence in AudioUK’s lobbying work to open up BBC Radio commissioning to more competition from external production companies. It was also used in development of the Audio Content Fund. It is envisaged that the new data will be used in AudioUK’s ongoing work to develop the audio sector, including support for businesses through COVID-19, levelling-up for companies based outside London, and development of a new tax relief for the audio production sector.
The process is GDPR-complient and all data will be anonymised.
The AudioUK 2019-20 Business Census is open to UK audio production companies of all sizes, working on radio, podcasts and audiobooks. The survey is now open until 6 November and is available at https://www.surveygizmo.eu/s3/90160389/Audio-Radio-Production-Companies-business-census-2020