COMMUNICATIONS AND THE MEDIA
The production centre in London has the brief of keeping its overseas listeners in touch with home and provides specialist programmes on a variety of subjects involving many of Britain's premier broadcasting personalities.
BFBS London also provides live news every hour on the hour.
Film Industry
Despite the growing popularity of video clubs and the widespread ownership of video cassette recorders, cinema-going remained a popular leisure activity. Attendance in 1990 totalled 50 million, compared with 59 million in 1989. The number of cinemas increased from 152 in 1989 to 161 in 1990. Some complexes contain several mini-cinemas, offering greater choice to cinema-goers.
While imported films continued to be popular, good quality local films were still favoured. During the year, locally-produced films totalled 241 (including eight co- productions), compared with 156 (including eight co-productions) in 1989. Action films and comedies continued to dominate the market. The biggest box-office hits for the year included All For The Winner which grossed $41.3 million; God Of Gamblers ($37.6 million), Front Page ($26.3 million) and Heart Into Hearts ($23.3 million).
Films are classified into three categories: approved for exhibition to persons of any age (Category I); to be advertised as 'not suitable for children' (Category II); and to be exhibited only to people aged 18 years or above (Category III). Classification standards are based on the results of regular surveys of community views. A statutory panel of advisers, comprising about 200 members drawn from a wide cross-section of the community, assists in the classification process.
During the year, 1278 films intended for public exhibition were submitted for class- ification compared with 1771 in 1989. Of these, 271 were classified Category I (two with excisions), 488 Category II (24 with excisions) and 519 Category III (299 with excisions). A total of 6 845 items including video tapes, slides and laser discs were exempted from classification.
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