8697.0 - Performing Arts, Australia, 2006-07 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 28/05/2008   
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EXPLANATORY NOTES

Introduction
Scope
ANZSIC06 and ANZSIC93
Statistical Units Defined on the ABS Register
Coverage
Improvements to Coverage
Comparison with Other ABS Statistics
Historical Comparisons
Reliability of the Data
Rounding
Reference Period
Acknowledgment
Availability of additional data


INTRODUCTION

1 This publication presents results for the 2006-07 reference year from a survey of businesses/organisations primarily involved in performing arts operation or performing arts venue operation. This is the fourth time the ABS has conducted a survey of performing arts operation businesses/organisations. Previous statistics were released for the 1996-97, 1999-2000 and 2002-03 reference years. This is the third time the ABS has conducted a census of businesses/organisations predominantly involved in operating performing arts venues. Previous statistics were released for the 1996-97 and 1999-2000 reference years.



SCOPE

2 The scope of the Performing Arts Operation Survey included all employing and significant non-employing businesses/organisations classified to Class 9001 Performing Arts Operation of the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification 2006 edition (ANZSIC06). Class 9001 includes Australian businesses/organisations mainly engaged in providing or producing live theatrical or musical presentations or performances.

3 The scope of the Performing Arts Venue Operation Census included all employing and significant non-employing businesses/organisations classified to Class 9003 Performing Arts Venue Operation of ANZSIC06. Class 9003 includes Australian businesses/organisations mainly engaged in operating venues for the presentation and rehearsal of performing arts. The scope of the collection also includes activities associated with performing arts venues operated by local government authorities, even though local government authorities are defined to Class 7530 Local Government Administration in ANZSIC06.

4 Classes 9001 and 9003, together with Class 9002 Creative Artists, Musicians, Writers and Performers, make up Subdivision 90 Creative and Performing Arts Activities. Businesses/organisations mainly engaged in Class 9002 Creative Artists, Musicians, Writers and Performers, however, were excluded from the scope of the collections.

5 For the purpose of these collections, significant non-employing businesses/organisations were defined as all non-employing businesses/organisations with an estimated annual turnover of at least $69,000 for Performing Arts Operation and at least $201,000 for Performing Arts Venue Operation. These turnover thresholds were selected so that the contribution of significant non-employing units, combined with all employing businesses/organisations, made up at least 97.5% of the total estimated annual turnover for all businesses/organisations classified to Classes 9001 and 9003 respectively. Non-employing units were excluded from the scope of both the 2002-03 Music and Theatre Production Survey and the 1999-2000 Performing Arts Venues Census.

ANZSIC06 AND ANZSIC93

6 The estimates in this publication are based on ANZSIC06. Data in previous issues were based on the 1993 version of the ANZSIC (ANZSIC93). ANZSIC06 was adopted to provide a more contemporary industrial classification system, taking into account issues such as changes in the structure and composition of the economy, changing user demands and compatibility with international classification standards.

Performing Arts Operation

7 Under ANZSIC06, Class 9001 Performing Arts Operation includes some businesses/organisations formerly coded to ANZSIC93 Class 9241 Music and Theatre Production, some businesses/organisations (i.e. theatre restaurants) formerly coded to ANZSIC93 Class 5730 Cafes and Restaurants, some businesses/organisations (i.e. circuses) formerly coded to ANZSIC93 Class 9330 Other Recreation Services. It excludes many businesses/organisations formerly coded to ANZSIC93 Class 9241 Music and Theatre Production which are now coded to ANZSIC06 Class 9002 Creative Artists, Musicians, Writers and Performers. The greatest impact of this latter change is on musicians and musical groups.

8 To illustrate this, musicians and musical groups can be coded either to ANZSIC06 Class 9001 Performing Arts Operation or to ANZSIC06 Class 9002 Creative Artists, Musicians, Writers and Performers depending upon whether their main source of income for a given financial year was from performing (ANZSIC06 Class 9001) or from other activities such as recording or receiving royalties (ANZSIC06 Class 9002). This is principally because the production cycle for such businesses/organisations spans several years and includes stages such as writing an album, recording the album, touring the album, and being on hiatus from recording and touring activities. Every effort was made to ensure that the correct businesses/organisations were covered by the Performing Arts Operation Survey for the 2006-07 reference period.

9 This issue is further complicated by the fact that ANZSIC06 coding is not available for businesses/organisations included in the 2002-03 Music and Theatre Production Survey. Consequently it is not possible to estimate the impact on the 2006-07 estimates of excluding businesses/organisations which are now coded to ANZSIC06 Class 9002 Creative Artists, Musicians, Writers and Performers. It is possible, however, to estimate the contribution to 2006-07 estimates of theatre restaurants formerly coded to ANZSIC93 Class 5730 Cafes and Restaurants and circuses formerly coded to ANZSIC93 Class 9330 Other Recreation Services. The contribution of theatre restaurants to the 2006-07 estimates was negligible. Circuses contributed approximately 13% of the 2006-07 estimate of total income and approximately 8% of the 2006-07 estimate of employment.

Performing Arts Venue Operation

10 There is direct comparability between ANZSIC06 Class 9003 Performing Arts Venue Operation and ANZSIC93 Class 9252 Performing Arts Venues because ANZSIC06 Class 9003 Performing Arts Venue Operation includes all businesses/organisations formerly coded to ANZSIC93 Class 9252 Performing Arts Venues and only those businesses/organisations.

11 For more information on the 2006 industry classification and concordances between ANZSIC06 and ANZSIC93, please refer to Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC) 2006 (cat. no. 1292.0).

STATISTICAL UNITS DEFINED ON THE ABS REGISTER

12 The ABS uses an economic statistics units model on the ABS Business Register to describe the characteristics of businesses/organisations, and the structural relationships between related businesses/organisations. The units model is also used to break groups of related businesses/organisations into relatively homogeneous components that can provide data to the ABS.

13 In mid 2002, to better use the information available as a result of The New Tax System, the ABS changed its economic statistics units model. The new units model allocates businesses/organisations to one of two sub-populations. The vast majority of businesses/organisations are in what is called the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) Maintained Population, while the remaining businesses/organisations are in the ABS Maintained Population. Together, these two sub-populations make up the ABS Business Register population.

ATO Maintained Population

14 Most businesses and organisations in Australia need to obtain an Australian Business Number (ABN), and are then included on the ATO Australian Business Register. Most of these businesses/organisations have simple structures; therefore the unit registered for an ABN satisfies ABS statistical requirements. For these businesses/organisations, the ABS has aligned its statistical units structure with the ABN unit. The businesses/organisations with simple structures constitute the ATO Maintained Population, and the ABN unit is used as the economic statistics unit for all economic collections.

ABS Maintained Population

15 For the population of businesses/organisations where the ABN unit is not suitable for ABS statistical requirements, the ABS maintains its own units structure through direct contact with the business/organisation. These businesses/organisations constitute the ABS Maintained Population. This population consists typically of large, complex and diverse businesses/organisations. The new statistical units model described below has been introduced to cover such businesses/organisations:
  • Enterprise Group: This is a unit covering all the operations in Australia of one or more legal entities under common ownership and/or control. It covers all the operations in Australia of legal entities which are related in terms of the current Corporations Law (as amended by the Corporations Legislation Amendment Act 1991), including legal entities such as companies, trusts, and partnerships. Majority ownership is not required for control to be exercised.
  • Enterprise: The enterprise is an institutional unit comprising (i) a single legal entity or business entity, or (ii) more than one legal entity or business entity within the same Enterprise Group and in the same institutional subsector (i.e. they are all classified to a single Standard Institutional Sector Classification of Australia subsector).
  • Type of Activity Unit (TAU): The TAU is comprised of one or more business/organisation entities, sub-entities or branches of a business/organisation entity within an Enterprise Group that can report production and employment data for similar activities. When a minimum set of data items are available, a TAU is created which covers all the operations within an industry subdivision (and the TAU is classified to the relevant subdivision of the ANZSIC). Where a business/organisation cannot supply adequate data for each industry, a TAU is formed which contains activity in more than one industry subdivision.

16 For more information on the impacts of the introduction of the new economic statistics units model, refer to Information Paper: Improvements in ABS Economic Statistics [Arising from The New Tax System] (cat. no. 1372.0).

Comparison over time

17 For the 1999-2000 Performing Arts Venues Census, the statistical unit was the management unit. For the 2002-03 Music and Theatre Production Survey and for future iterations of both collections, the statistical unit is the ABN unit. In most cases, ABN/TAU units concord with the management units used in the 1999-2000 collection.

COVERAGE

18 The frame used for the 2006-07 Performing Arts Operation Survey and the 2006-07 Performing Arts Venue Operation Census, like most ABS economic collections, was taken from the ABS Business Register. The frame is updated monthly to take account of new businesses/organisations which have ceased employing.

IMPROVEMENTS TO COVERAGE

19 Data in this publication have been adjusted to allow for lags in processing new businesses/organisations to the ABS Business Register, and the omission of some businesses/organisations from the register. The majority of businesses/organisations affected, and to which the adjustments apply, are small in size.

20 Adjustments have been made to include new businesses/organisations in the estimates in the periods in which they commenced operations, rather than when they were processed to the ABS Business Register. Adjustments of this type will continue to be applied in future periods.

21 For more information on these adjustments, please refer to the ABS publication Information Paper: Improvements to ABS Economic Statistics, 1997 (cat. no. 1357.0).

COMPARISON WITH OTHER ABS STATISTICS

22 Annual industry data for ANZSIC93 Class 9241 Music and Theatre Productions and ANZSIC93 Class 9252 Performing Arts Venues are published in the 2005-06 edition of Australian Industry (cat. no. 8155.0). There are important differences between the ANZSIC93 statistics published in Australian Industry 2005-06 and the ANZSIC06 statistics published in the Performing Arts 2006-07 publication and users should exercise caution when making comparisons between the two sets of estimates. For more information about scope and changes between ANZSIC93 and ANZSIC06 refer to paragraphs 2-11 above.

23 Commencing with the 2006-07 issue (expected in late 2008), Australian Industry will present results on an ANZSIC06 basis. Australian Industry presents annual summary statistics at the ANZSIC division and subdivision level and experimental statistics at the ANZSIC class level. It shows the relative performance of each industry division and subdivision, and allows patterns of change or growth to be analysed across particular segments of the Australian economy.

24 Performing Arts supplements Australian Industry statistics with a detailed examination of the structure, performance and activities of performing arts businesses/organisations for the reference year of the collection. As such, the estimates in Performing Arts are not designed to monitor change over time.

25 The main reason the two sets of estimates vary relates to the use of different industry coding practices. For Australian Industry, businesses/organisations are coded to ANZSIC industry classes on the basis of the activity reported to the ATO when registering for an ABN, or for more complex businesses/organisations, on the basis of information reported directly to the ABS (see paragraphs 12-17 above). For Performing Arts, however, businesses/organisations are coded to ANZSIC06 Classes 9001 and 9003 on the basis of detailed financial data reported in the collection. Adjustments were made to the data to remove the contribution of businesses/organisations that were found to be incorrectly coded to ANZSIC06 Classes 9001 and 9003.

26 Other differences in results relate to further scope variations between the two collections. General government units were excluded from the scope of Australian Industry but some were in scope of Performing Arts. Non-employing units below the thresholds identified above in paragraph 5 are included in the scope of Australian Industry, but excluded from the scope of Performing Arts.
HISTORICAL COMPARISONS

27 Historical comparisons are not made in this publication for Performing Arts Operation for several reasons, as described below in paragraphs 29-33.

28 While historical comparisons are made in this publication for Performing Arts Venue Operation, the reader should bear in mind that the collection was not designed to support accurate estimates of change, and should exercise caution when comparing 2006-07 results to the 1999-2000 results for several reasons, as described below in paragraph 29-33.

Changes in scope

29 For both the 2002-03 Music and Theatre Production Survey and the 1999-2000 Performing Arts Venues Census, non-employing businesses/organisations were excluded from the scope of the collections. For the 2006-07 collections, non-employing businesses/organisations were included if they had an estimated annual turnover of at least $69,000 for the Performing Arts Operation Survey and at least $201,000 for the Performing Arts Venue Operation Census.

30 For the Performing Arts Operation Survey, significant non-employing businesses/organisations contributed approximately 48% to the estimate of volunteers, 33% to the estimate of the number of businesses/organisations, 7% to the estimate of total income and 6% to the estimate of employment. For the Performing Arts Venue Operation Census, the contribution of significant non-employing businesses/organisations was negligible (e.g. approximately 2% of the estimate for total income).

Change in industry classification

31 The estimates in this publication are based on ANZSIC06 whereas estimates in previous publications were based on ANZSIC93. For the Performing Arts Operation Survey the ANZSIC changes were several and complex. For more information refer to paragraphs 6-11 above. The ANZSIC change had no impact on the Performing Arts Venue Operation Census.

Australian Equivalents to International Financial Reporting Standards

32 The new Australian Equivalents to International Financial Reporting Standards (AEIFRS) were progressively implemented in Australia from 1 January 2005. As a result, changes in definitions have impacted upon both income statements and balance sheet items.

33 Since the implementation of AEIFRS, analysis of published time series data has indicated structural breaks in series. The magnitude of such breaks, however, cannot be determined without imposing a disproportionate load upon data providers. The ABS will continue to monitor developments and report any significant identified impacts as a result of AEIFRS.

RELIABILITY OF THE DATA

34 When interpreting the results of a survey it is important to take into account factors that may affect the reliability of estimates. Such factors can be classified as either sampling or non-sampling error.

Sampling error

35 The estimates are based on information obtained from a randomly selected stratified sample of performing arts operation businesses/organisations and a census of performing arts venue operation businesses/organisations. However some units incorrectly classified to ANZSIC06 Class 9001 Performing Arts Operation were reclassified to ANZSIC06 Class 9003 Performing Arts Venue Operation, and vice versa. Consequently, Performing Arts Venue Operation estimates include both sampled and completely enumerated businesses/organisations and therefore, estimates for Performing Arts Venue Operation are subject to sampling variability.

36 Estimates for Performing Arts Operation are subject to sampling variability, that is, they may differ from the figures that would have been obtained if all units had been included in the survey (that is, if a census was conducted). One measure of the likely difference is given by the standard error (SE), which indicates the extent to which an estimate might have varied by chance because only a sample of units was included.

37 There are about two chances in three that a sample estimate will differ by less than one SE from the figure that would have been obtained if a census was conducted and approximately 19 chances in 20 that the difference will be less than two SEs.

38 Sampling variability can also be measured by the relative standard error (RSE), which is obtained by expressing the SE as a percentage of the estimate to which it refers. The RSE is a useful measure in that it provides an immediate indication of the sampling error in percentage terms, and this avoids the need to refer also to the size of the estimate. The following table contains estimates of RSEs for a selection of the statistics presented in this publication.

RELATIVE STANDARD ERRORS FOR PERFORMING ARTS OPERATION AND PERFORMING ARTS VENUE OPERATION

Performing arts operation
Performing arts venue operation
For-profit
Not-for-profit
Total
Total
%
%
%
%

Businesses/organisations at end June
4.7
2.3
2.6
2.3
Venues at end June
. .
. .
. .
1.8
Employment at end June
4.6
1.5
1.8
0.6
Volunteers during the month of June
14.0
8.9
8.6
2.0
Income
Box office income
4.4
1.1
2.4
0.9
Rent, leasing and hiring
0.6
1.3
1.0
3.7
Government funding
20.5
0.7
0.8
0.2
Other
4.3
1.2
2.2
0.5
Total
3.4
0.7
1.4
1.2
Expenses
Labour costs
3.3
0.5
0.9
1.1
Contract payments to performers/artists and artistic support
8.6
2.5
3.8
-
Rent, leasing and hiring
3.8
1.4
1.9
2.2
Other
3.7
1.0
1.9
1.1
Total
3.4
0.6
1.3
1.1
Operating profit/surplus before tax
6.5
3.9
3.7
6.1
Operating profit/surplus margin
4.7
3.6
2.9
4.4
Industry value added
3.3
0.5
1.1
1.3
Paid performances(a)
9.3
1.8
5.4
1.7
Paid attendances(b)
6.4
4.9
4.2
. .
Performing arts spaces at end June
. .
. .
. .
2.3
Seating capacity
. .
. .
. .
1.2

. . not applicable
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
(a) For performing arts operation, paid performances relate to productions and include overseas performances. For performing arts venues, paid performances relate to venues. For more information, refer to the Glossary.
(b) Includes overseas attendances.


39 Total income for performing arts operation during 2006-07 is $733.4m and the RSE is 1.4%, giving a SE of $10.3m. Therefore, there would be two chances in three that, if all units had been included in the collection, a figure of $723.1m to $743.7m would have been obtained, and 19 chances in 20 (i.e. a confidence level of 95%) that the figure would have been in the range $712.8m to $754m.

40 The sampling variability for estimates at the state/territory level was generally higher than for Australian level aggregates. Collection estimates for states/territories should therefore be viewed with more caution than national estimates. Additionally, within states/territories, the sampling variability and therefore the RSEs of estimates for the smaller states/territories were higher than for larger states. Collection estimates for the smaller states/territories should therefore be viewed with more caution than those for larger states.

41 Similarly, sampling variability for estimates at main activity level was generally higher than for Australian level aggregates and should therefore be viewed with more caution.

42 Estimates that have an estimated relative standard error between 10% and 25% are annotated with the symbol '^' . These estimates should be used with caution as they are subject to sampling variability too high for some purposes. Estimates with an RSE between 25% and 50% are annotated with the symbol '*', indicating that the estimate should be used with caution as it is subject to sampling variability too high for most practical purposes. Estimates with an RSE greater than 50% are annotated with the symbol '**' indicating that the sampling variability causes the estimates to be considered too unreliable for general use.

Non-sampling error

43 Errors other than those due to sampling may occur in any type of collection and are referred to as non-sampling error. For this collection, non-sampling error may result from such things as deficiencies in the register of businesses/organisations from which the sample was drawn, non-response, imperfections in reporting and/or errors made in compiling results. The extent to which non-sampling error affects the results of the collection is not precisely quantifiable. Every effort was made to minimise non-sampling error by careful design and testing of questionnaires, efficient operating procedures and systems and the use of appropriate methodology. Collection estimates subject to a high level of non-sampling error have been suppressed or provided with relevant cautions.

ROUNDING

44 Where figures have been rounded, discrepancies may occur between the sum of the components and the total. Similar discrepancies may occur between a proportion or ratio, and the ratio of the separate components.

REFERENCE PERIOD

45 Data contained in the tables in this publication relate to businesses/organisations involved in performing arts activities in Australia during the year ended June 2007. Financial estimates include the activity of any business/organisation that ceased or commenced operations during the year. Counts of businesses/organisations include only those that were operating at 30 June 2007. Employment includes only those persons working for businesses/organisations during the last pay period ending in June 2007. Volunteers include only those persons volunteering during the month of June 2007.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

46 ABS publications draw extensively on information provided freely by individuals, businesses/organisations and governments. Their continued cooperation is very much appreciated; without it, the wide range of statistics published by the ABS would not be available. Information received by the ABS is treated in strict confidence as required by the Census and Statistics Act 1905.

AVAILABILITY OF ADDITIONAL DATA

47 Inquiries about these statistics and more detailed statistics than those presented in this publication should be made by contacting the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070 or Sophie Vassiliou on (03) 9615 7442.