The following are some initial reports of interest:
The conclusions seem pretty solid – the sector attracts out-of-state investments, creates high-paying jobs and contributes to the economic and civic vitality of communities
LOS ANGELES:
http://www.laedc.org/reports/CreativeEconomy-2008.pdf
With the growth of digital media in the entertainment industry more and more of these individuals are moving onto the payrolls of the studios. We selected software publishers as the industry that best fits this activity and identified 53 major video game producers in the Los Angeles and Orange counties.
In Los Angeles County, there were 6,800 persons directly engaged in software publishing during 2007, and sector revenues were $3.2 billion. The total economic impact proved to be impressive: 20,200 FTE jobs and total economic output of $6.1 billion. Orange County had 3,300 people working in this area in 2007, and sales of $2.4 billion. Again, the total economic impact was large: 9,700 FTE jobs and economic output of $4.5 billion.
AUSTIN
http://www.austincc.edu/techcert/TXP%20Gaming%2009-26-06.pdf
Economic Impact Analysis
Based on the survey results, interviews with local industry leaders, and existing national surveys, TXP estimates the current Austin MSA’s gaming and digital media sector directly accounts for almost $200 million in annual economic activity, pays almost $78 million in earnings, and employs over 1,100 people. To put these figures in context, gaming per se is slightly smaller than more established local industries such as music and film. However, the line of demarcation between creative sectors is becoming increasingly blurry. For example, some games are based on films, some films are based on games, and everybody uses musicians, designers, and state of the art technology to tell the story. sales earnings employment gaming & digital media sector $195,300,000 $77,967,517 1,116
The measurable economic impacts extend beyond the direct activity outlined above. In an input output analysis of new economic activity, it is useful to distinguish three types of expenditure effects: direct, indirect, and induced. Direct effects are production changes associated with the immediate effects or final demand changes. Video game sales generated by Austin companies are an example of a direct effect. In addition, venture capital funding and production advances spent in the local economy may also represent a direct change in final demand. This translates into the values in the table above.
Indirect effects are production changes in backward-linked industries caused by the changing input needs of directly affected industries – typically, additional purchases to produce additional output. This is the initial secondary effect, as the direct activity begins to move through the local economy. When a software company contracts with a local musician, writer, or freelance developer to provide content for an upcoming release, the money is said to “ripple,” as these downstream purchases affect the economic status of other local merchants and workers.
Induced effects (the final ripple) are the changes in regional household spending patterns caused by changes in household income generated from the direct and indirect effects. Both the contractors/ freelancers and the direct employees experience increased income. Induced effects capture the way in which this increased income is in turn spent by them in the local economy.
Once the ripple effects have been calculated, the results can be expressed in a number of ways. Two of the most common are “Output,” which describes total economic activity, and is equivalent to a firm’s gross sales, “Earnings,” which represents the compensation to employees and proprietors, and “Employment,” which refers to permanent jobs that have been created in the local economy. The interdependence between different sectors of the economy is reflected in the concept of a “multiplier.” An output multiplier, for example, divides the total (direct, indirect and induced) effects of an initial spending injection by the value of that injection – i.e., the direct effect. The higher the multiplier, the greater the interdependence among different sectors of the economy. An output multiplier of 1.4, for example, means that for every $1,000 injected into the economy, another $400 in output is produced in
FLORIDA (yeah, not a city, I know)
http://www.filmflorida.org/UserFiles/fast_facts.pdf
• Offers high-wage jobs. According to the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, the average salary for the film & entertainment industry in 2007 was $57,700 in Florida.
• Provides high-tech and high-value jobs, demonstrating strong growth globally.
• Productions often boost tourism by marketing Florida to the world at no cost to the state.
• Unlike other states, Florida already has a deep crew base of workers – BUT we are losing them to states offering aggressive incentives. We can’t afford to lose these high-wage, high-value jobs.
• Florida’s is a growing production destination for non-domestic producers (European, Latin American, etc.) due in part to the weak dollar and the popularity of American cultural productions.
• Florida’s commitment to competitive incentives can result in relocation and construction of brick-and-mortar businesses, including major production facilities.
The Future Is Now
• With a projected employment growth rate of 20%, Florida’s film and digital media industry is projected to grow faster than the Biomedical/Biotechnical cluster (19%) and the Defense and Security Cluster (18%).
• The US movie and home entertainment business, according to Standard and Poor’s, is experiencing sustained growth due to expanding audiences, pipelines and contents.
• A film production and post production cluster would likely attract more films and lead to a significant, long term economic impact on the Florida economy.
SOURCE: The Film & Entertainment Industry in FL. Statewide Economic & Fiscal
ALBUQUERQUE AND NEW MEXICO
http://www.unm.edu/~bber/pubs/DigitalMedia.pdf
Digital media plays a central role in a number of emerging industries, including motion picture and sound recording industries, software publishing, computer systems design, advertising, and others. By all measures, the field of digital media is posed for significant growth and represents a promising avenue for economic development for New Mexico.
1. Employment in digital media is expected to grow rapidly in the US1.
Table 1 provides the details of projections by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) of growth of employment in motion picture and sound recording industries, by occupation, for the period 2004-20142. As this table indicates, employment in the motion picture and sound recording industries is expected to increase by 17.1 percent during the period 2004-2014, well above the economy-wide rate of 13 percent. Of the 28 occupations that comprise the motion picture and sound recording industries, multimedia artists and animators are expected to experience the highest rate of growth of employment, with a projected increase of 39.5 percent during the ten-year period3.
1Economic analysis of digital media is complicated by the fact that it is new, and standard systems of industrial classifications do not yet capture it independently. The most effective method to measure and analyze the field is to examine the occupation most closely identified with digital media: multimedia artists and animators (Standard Occupational Classification, SOC 27-1014). According to SOC definitions multimedia artists and animators “create special effects, animation, or other visual images using film, video, computers, or other electronic tools and media for use in products or creations, such as computer games, movies, music videos, and commercials.”
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupation Employment Statistics (OES) locate multimedia artists and animators primarily in four industrial subsectors. Total employment of multimedia artists and animators in 2005 was 23,790. Motion picture and sound recording industries employed the greatest number (5,640), followed by advertisers (4,950), computer systems designers (3,050) and software publishers (1,360). For the purposes of this brief study of digital media in New Mexico, employment of multimedia artists and animators in the motion picture and sound recording industries is most relevant.
2 Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2006-2007 Career Guides to Industries, Bulletin 2601.
3 BLS projects that the number of multimedia artists and animators employed by Advertisers will grow by 39.8 percent during the 2004-2014 percent, compared to an industry-wide increase of 22.4 percent; by Software Publishers by 84.7 percent, compared to 67.7 percent for the industry; and by Computer System Designers by 35.6 percent, compared to a 39.5 percent growth for the industry. The projected rate of growth of employment by multimedia artists and animators for all four industries is 45.4 percent.
UNM-Bureau of Business and Economic Research 1
Digital Media Industry in Albuquerque and New Mexico
2. Wages in digital media are high.
Multimedia artists and animators employed in motion picture and sound recording industries earned an average hourly wage of $34.46 in 2005 – more than any other occupation in the Industries, with the exception of General and Operations Managers and Producers and Directors4. The hourly rate is nearly twice the industry-wide average. Although the BLS does not project changes in earnings by occupation, one might reasonably anticipate that, given projections of rapid growth of employment of multimedia artists and animators in all industries, wage growth for multimedia artists and animators will continue to outpace those of most other occupations, both within and outside the motion picture and sound recording industries.
3. Opportunities to attract digital media Industries are promising.
To date, no one region or city has staked claim as the principal employment center for the now rapidly growing field of digital media. Of the 23,790 employed nationally and in all industries as multimedia artists New York (2,780), but the vast majority of these workers are employed in small numbers across the country5.
Average earnings of multimedia artists and animators across all industries vary widely. In California, the average hourly wage is $36.30 ($75,510 annually); in New York, $31.05 ($64,680 annual); in Massachusetts, $24.30 ($50,540 annual); in Michigan, $19.59 ($40,740 annual); in New Mexico, $18.19 ($37,830 annual); and in Louisiana, $14.56 ($30,280)6.
These patterns offer promise to areas working to establish a place in emerging field of digital media.
4. The potential economic impact of digital media in New Mexico.
The development of digital media, at least initially, is tied to the growth of the motion picture and sound recording industries. Other industries in which digital media is applied nationally (i.e. advertising, computer design and software publishing) have only a small presence in the State.
Table 2 provides a guide for estimating the economic impact of film and multimedia-animation industries in New Mexico. The numbers serve as a model rather than any attempt to provide definitive forecast – no attempt is made to project the number of jobs that may be created within the industries; instead, the model estimates the indirect and induced employment and fiscal impacts of a given number of jobs. The table has two parts. The top half estimates the impacts of the creation of 100 jobs in the film industry, and the lower half makes corresponding estimates for the creation of 100 jobs in digital media (multimedia artists and animators). Because of the scarcity of data at this level of geographical and industrial disaggregation, and to provide conservative estimates, the coefficients and multipliers are held constant for the two cases; only wage rates vary from the top to the bottom7.
The difference in average wage rates between the film industry ($19,310 per year) and the digital media industry ($37,830 per year for multimedia artists and animators) results in a significantly greater impact for the digital media sector. Higher wages are associated with a higher value of output (essentially, revenues) and greater indirect and induced impacts (except for employment). Higher wages and output, finally, translate into higher gross receipt and personal income tax revenues. For every 100 jobs created per sector, the State of New Mexico can expect to receive about $940 thousand per year more in revenues from the digital media Industry than the film industry; Albuquerque can expect to receive about $300 thousand more.
WASHINGTON (This includes motion picture production)
http://www.nga.org/Files/pdf/0807PROMOTINGFILMMEDIA.PDF
Thriving film, television, and related media arts industries offer states and localities in the United States not only cultural benefits but also significant economic benefits and opportunities. According to an economic impact report from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), more than 1.3 million Americans were employed by the motion picture industry in 2005 and the total payroll that year exceeded $30 billion. The industry spent an additional $30 billion in direct payments for goods and services provided by U.S. businesses in 2005. Thus, direct economic benefits of filmmaking in the United States exceeded $60 billion in just one year.
The attraction and support of film, television, and related media arts is now part of many states’ economic development strategies. Studies have shown that the motion picture industry benefits state and local economies by:
• Attracting out-of-state investments;
• Creating high-paying jobs;
• Contributing to the economic and civic vitality of communities; and
• Stimulating cultural tourism.
