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Surveys to discover impact of ‘Saturday night TV effect’ on West End audiences

Published Tuesday 11 November 2008 at 17:10 by Alistair Smith

Arts Council England and the Society of London Theatre have launched investigations into the so-called ‘Saturday night TV effect’ to determine whether programmes such as I’d Do Anything, How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? and Grease is the Word have attracted new audiences to the West End.

Two reviews are currently being carried out - one by ACE which will use postcode data from West End box offices to compare the type of audiences attending musicals that have been cast using TV shows and those cast by more traditional methods, and another commissioned by SOLT that is surveying theatregoers about their behaviour.

The results of both are due in the new year and between them they are expected to give a much clearer picture of whether shows such as the revivals of The Sound of Music and Oliver! have attracted large numbers of first-time theatregoers, as has frequently been claimed. It should also reveal whether this has happened consistently throughout the runs or only in the immediate aftermath of the TV shows which cast their leads.

David Brownlee, ACE director of public engagement, explained that the arts council research formed part of a wider investigation into audience behaviour across England and was employing a new demographic profiling tool that the organisation has developed.

He added: “The reason why we went to SOLT was because we were particularly interested in the Saturday night TV effect and we weren’t aware of any research to see whether it was getting a different kind of audience into theatre. So, we thought it would be interesting to also get some control, non-TV cast shows and then compare them to each other. We will also compare against funded work, regional work and other non-funded work. That way we can see which different bits of the theatre ecology are getting to different bits of the audiences.”

SOLT commercial manager Paul James explained that as well as supplying box office data to ACE for its investigation, the society was also looking into the matter itself.

He told The Stage: “As part of our survey, there’s a question on whether watching one of these TV shows influenced you to come to one of these specific shows or more generally to attend the theatre. Also, we’re supplementing that with a more in-depth online survey where we’re burrowing down a little deeper into the attitudes around the Saturday night TV effect.

“So, with that and the ACE stuff, we should be able to build up a pretty decent idea of the effect. But the results of both won’t be ready till next year, I hope early in 2009.”

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