UK’s creative industries are coming through, having made a record contribution to the economy in 2017, surpassing the £100bn mark for the first time.

With an increase of £6.7bn between 2016 and 2017, and having grown almost twice the rate of the economy since 2010, according to figures published by the Department for Digital, Media, Culture and Sport (DCMS), the creative sector, which includes film, TV, radio, photography, music, advertising, museums, galleries and digital creative industries, have established themselves a leading force of the economy.

The reason behind the sector’s upturn is contributed to the popularity of the computer services sub-sector, which includes video games made by London-based games company, Rocksteady Studios and Red Dead Redemption 2, produced by Scottish company, Rockstar Games. The video sector, is estimated at £5.11bn alone.

Secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport Jeremy Wright says, “Our creative industries not only fly the flag for the best of British creativity at home and abroad but they are also at the heart of our economy. Today they have broken the £100bn  mark and continue on a hugely positive upward trajectory, outperforming the wider UK economy and bringing joy and entertainment to millions. We’re doing all we can to support the sector’s talent and entrepreneurship as we build a Britain that is fit for future.”

The prosperity of the creative industries corresponds to the UK’s digital and tech sector’s strength, that has also seen a raise in its contribution to the UK economy by 7.3% between 2016 and 2017 and by 32.9% since 2010, and is now worth more than £130bn. In total, DCMS sectors comprise around 14.6% of UK’s gross value added (GVA).

As part of the government’s industrial strategy, nine new Creative Clusters across the UK, a research and development investment, have received £80m to part-funding research partnerships between universities and industry. The goal of this investment is to increase the use of digital technologies to improve audience experience in the screen and performance industries, and shorten production times in the design industry.

The above goes hand-in-hand with the government’s investment in the digital sector. This month alone, the overmen’t budget included almost £300m for emerging technologies and £235  to establish a new National Quantum Computing Centre.

Caroline McGuckian, CEO at spatial intelligence company Meshh says this achievement is laudable. “It’s fantastic watching the UK creative industry continue on an upward trajectory and break the £100bn mark – this is testimony to the hard work and dedication from everyone in the sector, from museums and galleries, to advertising and digital creative industries. But more importantly, I believe this marks the beginning of a new, highly ROI-focused era,” McGuckian says.

She adds, “As the pressure mounts for these businesses to keep their status of being 'at the heart of British economy,’ they will become more creative in measuring their own success, but also highly driven by metrics and data. This is nothing but good news. Although the creative industry historically might have struggled to measure results, surrounded by vast amounts of qualitative data, the latest developments in technology are now helping these businesses get better feedback from clients, improve customer experience and gather meaningful data for stakeholders.”

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