Disability Inclusion in Movies and Television: Market Research, 2019 - Key Findings Booklet

Disability Inclusion in Movies and Television Market Research, 2019

Viewers Open to More Disability Representation in TV and Movies Have High Spending Power The people most open to more accurate portrayals of persons with disabilities spend more money on TV and movie entertainment than average. They also constitute a strong base of potential spending; about half of US households that support accurate portrayal of disabled characters would sign up for a content distributor committed to disabled characters, and/or would sign up for a content distributor committed to disabled actors.

That’s $10.4 billion in potential revenue for networks and streaming services.

MORE LIKELY TO...

Watch Disabled Character Portrayed Accurately

Sign up Content Distributor Committed to Disabled Actors

48%

44%

Average Income

$65,136

$67,208

Monthly TV/Movie Spend ($)

$168.6

$182.9

Estimated # of US households

61,052,000

56,612,000

Total monthly TV/movie spend*

$10.3 billion

$10.4 billion

Prportion of US 16+ pop

* To come to this estimate, we first calculated the qualification rate of respondents, and used that percentage to aggregate the data, which gave us an estimate of percent of US residents aged 16+ open to each of these initiatives, as well as the number of households open to each. We then multiplied the number of households open to each by self-reported monthly TV and movie spend to give us an estimate of the total monthly TV and movie spending of each group.

Content Distributors Stand to Benefit through Committing to Casting Disabled Actors Half of viewers are more likely to sign up for a content distributor committed to more accurate portrayals of characters with disabilities.

Likewise, current subscribers indicate they’d be happy to see more actors with disabilities on screen and, as a result, would be more likely to renew their subscriptions.

More Satisfied 58%

26%

Much more satisfied

32%

Somewhat more satisfied

No difference

32%

More Likely 53%

22% 31%

43%

Less satisfied

Much more satisfied Somewhat more satisfied

No difference

Less satisfied

4%

4%

Satisfaction

Intent to Keep Subscription

Accurate Portrayals of Disabled Characters are Key to Audience Satisfaction Half of respondents indicate they are more likely to watch a TV show that features a disabled actor cast as a character with that same disability, versus a show where a non-disabled actor is cast in that same role.

However, audiences’ current perception of accurate disability portrayals on TV is that authentic representation is lacking – that disabled actors are rarely given the chance to portray a disabled role.

Benefits of Accurate Portrayal How Likely are you to Watch a Show with a Disabled Character Played by an Actor with that Same Disability (vs. a Non-Disabled Actor)?

Accurate Portrayal

31% A little more

24% A lot more

55% Total "more"

Casting Opportunities for Disabled Actors to Play Disabled and Non-Disabled Characters The majority of respondents believe disabled actors should portray both characters with and without disabilities at least some of the time. Majorities in all demographic subgroups share these beliefs.

How Often do you Think Disabled Actors Should Portray Disabled and Non-Disabled Characters?

DISABLED CHARACTERS Rarely/ Never

Always

12%

35%

NON-DISABLED CHARACTERS

14%

Always

Rarely/ Never

9% 17%

Mostly

Mostly

20%

39% 54%

Some

Some

At least some of the time 88%

At least some of the time 83%

About our Hollywood Campaign Actors with disabilities are routinely discriminated against in the entertainment industry, especially onscreen. Almost 80% of disabled roles are played by able-bodied actors, and often times actors with disabilities aren’t even given a fair chance to audition. As a leading disability advocacy organization, The Ruderman Family Foundation pushes for full, fair inclusion of people with all types of disabilities in all areas of society, including the entertainment industry. That’s why we launched our Hollywood campaign, which is making headlines in the entertainment sector.

We’ve partnered with key players in the industry from studios, networks, guilds, companies, and with celebrities. Our pledge for studios to audition and cast more people with disabilities was launched in February 2019 and is gaining momentum CBS became the first studio to sign the pledge in June 2019.

We also introduced the Ruderman Seal of Authentic Representation, an up and coming industry award, which is awarded to films and TV shows that portray authentic representation of people with disabilities.

Our goal is to have authentic representation onscreen become an industry standard. We hope networks and studios no longer shy away from auditioning and casting people with disabilities, and that they embrace disability inclusion.

Our research shows this shift will please audiences, increase viewer's loyalty, and will has an impact on studios and networks increased profits.

Research Methodology We partnered with Hub, a leading entertainment & technology research firm, in conducting the research.

To conduct our study, we surveyed 1,288 US TV and movie consumers.

We completed collecting our data in July 2019.

Respondents were at least 16 years old and watch at least one hour of TV per week or full-length movies.

The sample was also weighted to reflect population data from the U.S. Census, which reveals about 20% of the population has a disability.

The weighted sample was balanced for gender, age and disability.

Age groups were 16-34, 35-54, and 55+ with an even distribution of respondents in each one. Lastly, 25% of the respondents have a person with a disability in their household.

The sample was also balanced for additional demographics including employment, income, residence and ethnicity.

Employment

Total

Non-Disabled

Disabled

Employed

51%

55%

36%

Not employed

48%

44%

63%

Employment

Total

Non-Disabled

Disabled

Less than $35k $25k-$49.9k

21% 30%

18% 30%

33% 30%

$50k-$49.9k

28%

29%

24%

$100k+

15%

16%

10%

Employment Urban

Total 29%

Non-Disabled 29%

Disabled 29%

Suburban

47%

49%

41%

Rural

23%

22%

30%

Sign our Inclusion Pledge!

Go to www.rudermanfoundation.org/pledge

Learn more about our research: www.rudermanfoundation.org

Follow us on social media @RudermanFdn @RudermanFamilyFoundation @disabilityisdiversity

Contact us admin@rudermanfoundation.org

617-559-9919