Creative Industries Add $3.848b to NZ Economy

Creative Industries Add $3.848b to NZ Economy

New Zealand’s creative industries added $3.848b to gross domestic product (GDP) in 2014 and are a significant contributor to national employment, a new report shows.

Released today, the report measures the combined economic contribution of five creative industries: games, music, books and film and television.

Figures in the report show nearly 20,000 New Zealanders are directly employed in these industries. When wider industry employment is taken into account, this number more than doubles to almost 42,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs.

The total $3.848b GDP impact figure was contributed to by the five industry groups as follows: 74 per cent by film and television combined; 12 per cent by music; 8 per cent by books; and 6 per cent by games.

An earlier report, released in 2014, valued the GDP impact of four of these industries at $3.597b and measured employment at 30,599 FTEs. Today’s report, prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), includes data from a fifth contributor: the New Zealand games industry.

WeCreate, an alliance of New Zealand’s creative industries, commissioned these reports to understand the value of the creative sector and to support its strategy for increasing its contribution to New Zealand’s cultural and economic prosperity.

Chair of WeCreate, Paula Browning, says up-to-date data on the value of these industries is critical to being able to measure their future growth.

“As the report shows, each industry has a different mix of revenue streams. The level of revenue from each stream is changing and new streams are being added as industries respond to influences such as technological innovation and customer demand.

New Zealand’s creative industries have significant economic potential – domestically and globally.
Recently we have seen great examples such as the TV series The Almighty Johnsons, Anna Smaill’s book The Chimes, films The Dark Horse and What We Do In The Shadows, musicians Sol3 Mio and Gamespot’s PC Game of the Year – Path of Exile, all achieve international success. This leads to increased export earnings as well as enhancing New Zealand’s position as a creative, innovative nation.

The PwC report does not examine the value of other industries that are also part of the creative sector – arts, design, advertising, software and architecture. WeCreate is working to add these to future valuation reports.

Figures from today’s report show:

• The games industry provides a total 2,305 FTE jobs (1,024 direct) and has a total impact on GDP of $239 million ($98 million direct)
• Book publishing provides a total 3,708 FTE jobs (2,026 direct) and has a total impact on GDP of $308 million ($128 million direct)
• The music industry provides a total 4,295 FTE jobs (1,754 direct) and has a total impact on GDP of $472 million ($213 million direct)
• Film and television provides a total 31,416 FTE jobs (14,431 direct) and has a total impact on GDP of $2,829 million ($1,303 million direct)

The report will be launched by the Minister of Commerce & Consumer Affairs – Hon. Paul Goldsmith at an event in Auckland tonight (30 September 2015).

The PwC report “Employment and National GDP impacts of music, publishing and film and television in New Zealand” can be found at www.wecreate.org.nz

ENDS

© Scoop Media