Live to Your Local Cinema—The Remarkable Rise of Livecasting

The phenomenon of 'livecasting' – that is, the broadcasting of live performances such as theatre and opera to local cinemas – only emerged in 2006. Since then it has grown exponentially. How did this remarkable growth come about and what are its implications? Martin Barker tells the story of this rise, and shows the challenges it has laid down to many ways of thinking about arts and culture. He explores how a new aesthetic of filming these performances has been developed. Drawing on both his own and commercial researches, he shows who the audiences are for livecasts, and the ways they judge their success. He charts the many debates over the 'liveness' of the arts, looking particularly at how livecasting disturbs our assumptions, and examines claims that this development amounts to a new 'democratisation' of culture. The book closes with a series of proposals for the future of research on this remarkable development.

MARTIN BARKER has published extensively on topics as widely-ranging as censorship controversies, The Lord of the Rings, comicbooks and their readers, racism in contemporary Britain, and film audiences. After periods at the University of the West of England, Sussex and Aberystwyth, he is now Professor of Film & Television at the University of East Anglia, UK. Alongside his more academic work, he has conducted research for the British Board of Film Classification, and worked with Picturehouse Cinemas.