Supported by the UK film industry.

   

YourLocalCinema is supported by the Cinema and Television Benevolent Fund (CTBF); UK film distributors (via FDA); the British Film Institute (BFI) awarding funds from the National Lottery); and technology companies Cobweb Solutions and IFDNRG.

The award-winning YourLocalCinema service helps people with hearing or sight loss to enjoy, rather than endure the cinema experience. Every week YourLocalCinema collaborates with distributors and cinemas to directly market all accessible, captioned shows nationwide to a unique, targeted email/twitter customer database of tens of thousands of film fans with hearing loss. For almost two decades this combined commercial/cultural approach has helped to offset losses that cinemas incur from providing specialist shows to a niche audience.

Admissions and revenue to accessible shows have doubled over the last decade and are now at an all-time high. Industry data estimates almost 800,000 admissions to almost 80,000 English-language captioned shows this year. An estimated £5m+ worth of cinema tickets annually, from mostly off-peak shows. (Not bad, considering less than 1% of cinema fans require captions, and less than 1% of captioned shows are provided in the popular Fri/Sat evening slots).

CUSTOMER BENEFITS

Accessible cinema screenings provide social benefits such as equality, inclusion and community integration.
For a few hours, people with hearing loss are NOT disabled - the disabling barrier is removed. Opportunities to attend are very much appreciated by many, as clearly indicated by the positive experiences from many happy customers HERE

Accessible shows have made a positive, cultural, long-term impact on society. They benefit people of all ages with hearing loss. Hundreds of thousands of people under 30 have hearing loss (RNID). Each year, almost a thousand children are born in the UK with significant hearing loss (NDCS). Our society is ageing, and with ageing, loss of some hearing is inevitable. Access to film - via subtitles/captions - is something that we may all appreciate, eventually. 

Before 2000, the only way people with hearing loss could enjoy cinema was to watch a foreign-language film. Today, thanks to collaborative work between the UK film industry, YourLocalCinema, and charities representing disabled people, most cinemas are accessible and welcoming. Thousands of customers with hearing loss regularly attend cinemas with their friends & families. 

SUPPORTER BENEFITS

YourLocalCinema is a social enterprise. Social benefits such as equality, diversity, inclusion and community integration are the goals. Profit plays no role as an incentive. Financial support pays for the minimum time and infrastructure necessary to enable the popular service to continue its valuable work. 

YourLocalCinema's marketing activities currently cost supporters around a half-percent of the estimated £5m+ revenue it helps generate. The equivalent of less than £1 per week from each UK cinema. Or less than 5p per attendee to each captioned show. One day of 'captioned' box office revenue recoups the industry's annual investment in YourLocalCinema. It returns £150+ for every £1 spent, providing its financial supporters with a 16,000% return on investment. Even better than popcorn!

To provide maximum value to its supporters, the service keeps operating costs to the absolute minimum. Key to YourLocalCinema's successful audience-engagement strategy is consistency and commitment. Its robust data infrastructure and customer database began building 17 years ago and is now very efficient. YourLocalCinema has no office - there's no rent or commute costs. The service runs on laptops and smartphones - from anywhere with an internet signal. Its only costs are staff time and website/internet/communications fees. Currently, the whole service runs on the equivalent of one marketing employee's average salary. 

YourLocalCinema is extremely grateful to its supporters for their financial support. Without it, the service could not continue to help people with disabilities enjoy the cinema experience. YourLocalCinema welcomes in-kind support too - taking costs out is, in many ways, just as important as bringing funds in.

 

Cinema and Television Benevolent Fund
CTBF is the leading UK charity for Cinema, Film and TV professionals.

CTBF, 22 Golden Square, London W1F 9AD
info@ctbf.co.uk   •  www.ctbf.co.uk

 

 
Film Distributors' Association and UK film distributors
The FDA is the trade body representing film distributors that account for over 95% of UK cinema admissions. Warner Bros., Disney, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal, Parmount, Sony and many more. The major distributors ensure that all of their films are accessible to cinema-goers with hearing or sight loss. The FDA has supported YLC financially since 2004.

FDA, Kingly Court, Carnaby Street, London, UK
info@fda.uk.net   •  www.launchingfilms.com

 

BFI - British Film Institute
The BFI is the lead body for film in the UK with the ambition to create a flourishing film environment in which innovation, opportunity and creativity can thrive. It has supported YLC financially since 2004.

BFI, 21 Stephen Street, London W1T 1LN
info@bfi.org.uk   •  www.bfi.org.uk

 

Cobweb Solutions
Microsoft's 2017 Partner of the Year, and the power behind our website, Cobweb is the number one Cloud Solutions provider in Europe. It has been providing uninterrupted 24/7 internet & email services to customers for 20 years, and continues to be a trusted adviser to thousands of customers worldwide. The company is internationally recognised and has won many industry awards, including Microsoft 'Hosting partner of the Year' and 'best small business solution in western Europe' awards, and ISP Awards 'Best Application Service'.

Cobweb Solutions, Delme Place, Cams Hall Estate, Fareham, Hampshire, PO16 8UX
sales@cobwebsolutions.com   •  www.cobwebsolutions.com

IFDNRG
IFDNRG servers help power the YourLocalCinema audio & video files. It provides services to a wide range of online content covering music, live sports, corporate events, agency campaigns and more.

IFDNRG, 127 Rose Street, South Lane, Edinburgh, EH2 4BB
paul@ifdnrg.com   •  www.ifdnrg.com

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An award winning service.

The YourLocalCinema website & information service has been successful in winning some high-profile awards voted for by the public and its peers in the UK film industry. Winning awards helps to spread awareness of 'accessible' cinema.

The BKSTS 'Samuelson' Award recognises and rewards the efforts & achievements of companies that have embraced technology or enhanced accessibility to ensure that cinema exhibition is available to all people.

The Daily Mail 'People's Choice' Enterprise Award. The event, hosted by the Institute of Directors, recognises people who have turned their ideas into reality. Thousands of Daily Mail newspaper readers voted for the twenty finalists and YourLocalCinema received the most votes overall.

The @diversity European 'Access Culture' Award. Implemented by the European Commission and presented at the EU Culture Forum in Brussels, the awards celebrate innovative ways of using technology to make culture more accessible across Europe. More than 250 projects were submitted.

The Barco 'Innovation in Cinema' Award. Part of the 'Raam Awards', which recognise and reward the efforts & achievements of people working in the UK film industry.

The British Telecom 'Remote Workers' Award honours people who manage to run a successful business without an office, using mobile technology. Judges selected the winner based on the company that demonstrated how remote working had created the greatest positive impact.

The service beat hundreds of projects, with many thousands of votes, to make the finals of the National Lottery Awards. The Awards recognise the difference that lottery funded projects have made to local communities. The ceremony was broadcast live, primetime, on BBC1, exposing millions of people to accessible cinema.

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