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The ‘creative industries; have been defined by the UK Government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) as: ‘Those industries which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property.’

The term ‘cultural industries’ is also used by some agencies, though this term relates to a more specific range of industries and can be regarded as a subset of the creative industries. The cultural industries are defined by UNESCO as ‘industries that combine the creation, production and commercialisation of contents which are intangible and cultural in nature; these contents are typically protected by copyright and they can take the form of a good or a service.’

There are thirteen sub-sectors under the term ‘creative industries’ and these are: advertising; architecture; the art and antiques market; crafts; design; designer fashion; film and video; interactive leisure software; music; the performing arts; publishing; software and computer games; and television and radio.

According to DCMS research, the Creative Industries accounted for 8.2% of Gross Value Added (GVA) in 2001 in the UK and the sector grew by an average of 8% per annum between 1997 and 2001. Exports from the UK by the creative industries contributed £11.4 billion to the balance of trade in 2001. This equated to around 4.2% of all goods and services exported. Exports for the creative industries grew at around 15%per annum over the period of 1997-2001. In June 2002, creative employment totalled 1.9 million jobs and there were around 122,000 companies in the Creative Industry sectors on the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR) in 2002.

According to the Financial Times , “a report from the (UK) Government’s Strategy Unit has concluded that the creative industries in London are now more important than financial services to the economy. Employment in the creative industries (including fashion, software design, publishing, architecture and antique dealing) has topped 525,000 and is still rising, compared to a mere 322,000 and falling in financial services.”

Internationally, the creative industries are one of the fastest growing sectors in OECD economies, employing on average 3-5% of the workforce according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development . The global value of creative industries was expected to increase in the years from 2000 to 2005 from US$ 831 billion to US$ 1.3 trillion, a compound annual growth of over 7% .

This astounding figure is achieved by creative businesses, most of which are small or medium sized enterprises and in reality are very small or ‘micro-enterprises’, including individual practitioners. The British Council points out that this scenario is typical internationally and works to support international co-operation since creative businesses move more quickly to international markets than many other forms of enterprise, often using the Internet.

The creative industries are the only sector which has been identified as a priority area by all of the countries and regions of the UK. This is reflected by the number of agencies supporting the creative sector, such as CIDS (Creative Industries Development Service), CIDA (Creative Industries Development Agency), Inspiral, and Creative Kernow.

The first of these to be established in the late 1990’s was Merseyside ACME (Arts, Culture and Media Enterprises).

References

Mapping Document. October 1998. Creative Industries Unit and Taskforce. UK Government Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

UNESCO, Paris. 2000. Culture, Trade and Globalisation: Questions and Answers.

Source.UK Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

Source: Financial Times. 4 July 2003.

Source: UNCTAD, Geneva. 2004. Creative Industries and Development. Howkins, John. 2001. The Creative Economy: How People Make Money from Ideas. Allen Lane, London.