ABSTRACT
For over a hundred years now viewers have been able to engage with the hugely appealing and attractive medium of film. Although not as popular today, at the beginning of the twentieth century moviegoers would queue in vast numbers to catch the latest releases. The cinema audience has progressively become more fragmented declining from 1,585 million in 1945 to 72 million in 1985 before rising to 140 million in 1999 (British Film Institute 2005). The overall fall in numbers is in part explained by increased competition from other developing media services, beginning perhaps with the advent of television in the 1950s and then the accessibility of film on video in the 1970s. In recent years the diversity of available products has widened further with cable and satellite services as well as new digital technology providing an almost overwhelming array of products to select from.
