Britons prefer films at home to cinema visits: Survey shows pounds 1,400m spent annually on movie-watching, mostly on small screen

BRITAIN spends pounds 1,400m on watching films, but less than pounds 300m of that is spent at the cinema.

Figures published today show that we are a nation of film buffs; but, despite the cinema boom of recent years, we still watch most of our films on television.

The latest edition of Cultural Trends, published by the Policy Studies Institute, shows that consumers spend between three and four times as much money watching films on video or movie subscription channels as in the cinema.

The British Film Institute estimates that the average amount of time spent watching films on television each week is about equal to the amount of time spent watching films in a cinema each year, even though the total UK cinema audience in 1992 was estimated at 101 million, more than in any year since 1980.

The continuing popularity of video recorders is, therefore, unsurprising. In 1991, 65 per cent of British homes had one, compared with just 2 per cent of households 10 years earlier.

The statistics on films also show that while the number of UK productions almost doubled between 1989 and 1991, the total production cost of all UK films, after allowing for inflation, showed a 40 per cent drop on the 1984 figure.

However, despite continuing despair by the British film industry over government funding, the PSI report shows that government support for film has actually increased substantially in recent years. Total grants of pounds 22.1m in 1992-93 were 67 per cent higher than five years earlier.

The PSI report also covers research on radio and television, and shows that while the BBC spent a record pounds 338.2m on radio broadcasting in 1991-92, the corporation is gradually losing audiences to commercial stations. In the last quarter of 1992, all BBC stations had 58.4 per cent of the total audience, with Classic FM's 2.8 per cent beating Radio 3's 1.3 per cent. The launch of Virgin Radio, after the figures were collated, is certain to undermine Radio 1's 22.4 per cent of the market. 'Virgin 1215 could well deliver an audience of some 10 million listeners worth an estimated pounds 40m per annum in advertising revenue,' the report says.

Figures on television show that there has been a slowing of the growth of satellite and cable services. Together they account for no more than 5 per cent of all television viewing, although homes with the services use them for 30 per cent of their viewing.

Cultural Trends 17; Policy Studies Institute, freephone 0800 262260; pounds 15.50.