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Playing a play: online and live performing arts consumers profiles and the role of supply constraints

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Abstract

In this paper, the relation between live and online highbrow performing arts consumption is examined. Specifically, we analyse whether restrictions on live cultural participation can be overcome by online consumption and the differences in the profiles of live and online consumers. To this end, using the Survey of Cultural Habits and Practices in Spain 2014–2015, two Bivariate Probit models using information about online and live consumption of highbrow performing arts in Spain are estimated. We separately analyse theatre and musical performing arts (ballet, opera, Spanish operetta and classical music concerts). Our results show that the profiles of live and online cultural consumers differ. However, we also find a complementarity effect between live and online consumption. Therefore, the online channel could be a valuable tool for spreading access to culture that might overcome some restrictions on live cultural participation, such as high prices and time constraints. Alternatively, if this is true only for people already consuming culture but not attracting new consumers, the online channel would help just to reproduce old patrons of inequality in cultural access but not to democratize highbrow culture.

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Notes

  1. The Metropolitan Opera has been offering live performances in cinemas since 2006, increasing their popularity. Nonetheless, it took several years before it broke even (Bakhshi and Throsby 2010).

  2. We are aware of the potential zero-inflation problem of our database. In order to contrast the robustness of our empirical estimations, the further analysis has been conducted for both the full sample and for an alternative database in which those individuals who are broadly categorized as no-consumers of cultural products have been removed. Results for the reduced sample were consistent with the ones in the complete model. Further information about the alternative sampling results is disposable under request.

  3. Specifically, we include three dummy variables for three population sizes (less than 10.000 habitants, between 10.001 and 50.000 and between 50.001 and 100.000), being the one for more than 100.001 habitants the reference category.

  4. Both PCA analyses are available upon request.

  5. The choice set was the following: (1) high price, (2) it is difficult to get tickets, (3) scarcity of supply, (4) not enough information, (5) preference for television, (6) video or the Internet, (7) it is difficult to understand, (8) lack of time, (9) lack of interest and (10) lack of company.

  6. Since opera and Spanish operetta are theatrical expressions with a story line, it could be arguable whether it would be better to group opera and Spanish operetta with theatre, and ballet and MPA alone. To examine whether our results change depending on the grouping of the different performing arts, we estimate the same model with this alternative classification. Given that results are pretty similar, we keep the prior grouping in the paper. The parameter estimates of the alternative grouping can be found in “Appendix”.

  7. Population size of the city and the region where each individual lives (NUTS 2) are also controlled for to account for further observable heterogeneity. Results are not discussed for the sake of brevity, but they are available upon request.

  8. Since we estimate a SUR-Bivariate Probit in which the explanatory variables in the two equations are not the same, the computed marginal effects for the live attendance restrictions that only appear in the online Participation equation are the conditional ones, namely the marginal probability of being an online consumer conditional on being/not being a live cultural consumer.

  9. This could be a piece of evidence in favour of our classification of the performing arts in two different groups: theatre and musical performing arts.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Pablo De la Vega

  2. Department of Economics, University of Oviedo, Oviedo, Spain

    Sara Suarez-Fernández, David Boto-García & Juan Prieto-Rodríguez

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  1. Pablo De la Vega
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Appendix

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See Table 6.

Table 6 Alternative grouping of the highbrow performing arts results bivariate probit model
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De la Vega, P., Suarez-Fernández, S., Boto-García, D. et al. Playing a play: online and live performing arts consumers profiles and the role of supply constraints. J Cult Econ 44, 425–450 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10824-019-09367-y

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