The UK Film Council is backing a six month study to probethe contribution and trickle down effect of the UK screen industries -including film, television, games and commercials - to the economy.

The study will look to uncover the size, scale and impact ofthe UK screen industries on each nation and region of the UK. It will look atissues such as the economic benefits brought to different parts of the countryby multi-million pound film shoots such as Thunderbirds, Bond and the Harry Potter films.

The UK film and video industries employ around 50,000 peopleand more than £1.1 billion was spent on film production in the UK lastyear, an all-time high. The study is being conducted on behalf of the UKFilm Council, Regional Screen Agencies and Regional Development Agencies (RDAs)and will be carried out by Cambridge Econometrics, in association with Optima,a partnership between David Graham & Associates and Oliver and OhlbaumAssociates. It is being supported by the Department for Culture, Media& Sport (DCMS).

Data for the study will be gathered by surveys of companiesand workers in each of the screen industry sectors in every nation andregion. The report will be completed in the autumn.