Minutes:
The Committee considered the undernoted report:
“Relevant Background Information
To update Members on the bid to host Europe’s biggest music awards event, MTV Europe Music Awards (EMA). The original permission to bid was previously presented and agreed by Members in August 2010.
It has been provisionally confirmed that Belfast has won the bidding process to host the 2011 MTV EMAs. The event, if agreed by Council, would be co-funded with NITB (subject to contractual arrangements between MTV and BCC) and take place in the Odyssey Arena, along with satellite events leading up the EMAs.
The event would take place on Sunday 6th November (Sunday evening is the peak viewing time across the MTV European network) and would be broadcast live across Europe and also be seen by global audiences. The Belfast event would involve a series of activities in the week leading up to the awards culminating with the main event, which would be staged in the Odyssey Arena.
In March 2010 Member’s agreed to fund and deliver an MTV Music Week in conjunction with MTV Europe. This event ran from the 13 to 20 September 2010 and culminated with a Mark Ronson concert at the Belfast Waterfront and generated in excess of £1.6m for the Belfast economy.
The proposed 2011 events would have a week long series of events and smaller concerts that will showcase the city and also provide a substantial platform to profile the Belfast music industry. The proposed staging of this major event is inline with the Council’s Integrated Strategic Framework for Belfast Tourism (2010-2015) as the document identifies high profile events as a development opportunity that will allow the city to continue to build a strong reputation as a vibrant location with unique and exciting experiences that encourage new and repeat tourism visits.
In addition at the Development Committee in December 2008, Members noted that Visit Britain’s research showed that 21% of potential visitors were inspired to choose a destination because of the music or bands of that country, and approved a Music Tourism Action Plan in order to celebrate Belfast’s rich musical heritage. Due to the work of the Council and partners over the last number of years Belfast’s music has received international praise and the latest generation of Belfast musicians are playing a crucial role in revitalising the city. In addition music tourism has also been identified as new product that should be developed, packaged and promoted by cities.
It would be proposed that lead in events for the EMAs would see the Council’s Tourism, Culture and Arts and Economic Development Units (along with the Belfast music industry, NITB, ACNI, BBC and Tourism Ireland) creating a number of music related products to ‘show-off’ the city’s cultural music base. These would include, but would not be limited to: the Belfast Music Coach Tour; the Belfast Music Exhibition at the Oh Yeah Centre; the creation of one-off unique gigs; the promotion of Belfast’s music listings website, Belfastmusic.org; the promotion of Belfast’s music i?phone application; and international showcasing and marketing of Belfast’s musicians. All with MTV’s endorsement.
Creative Industries – Music Development
The Committee is also reminded that Council’s current Local Economic Development Plan includes the following key themes: Business Competitiveness, Talent and Community Economic Regeneration. The new local economic development plan states that in order for Belfast to stay competitive it must nurture those sectors which can create high value-added products and bring new wealth to the city. The Music sector in Belfast has grown significantly over the past three years and now plays a key role in the overall economic development of the city. With a rise in musicians and bands making headlines in the international marketplace and new and innovative music businesses based in Belfast, BCC is playing a significant role for this industry e.g. participation at the prestigious South by Southwest Media Conference and showcase, which has shown returns of over $500,000 leverage each year for participating artists from the city.
All in all the hosting of the MTV EMAs will underpin all this activity and provide a truly international platform for the city.
Therefore, taking the integral role that BCC now plays in the development and support of music, Members are now being asked to agree to hosting and staging of the most prestigious music event in Europe – the MTV Europe Music Awards (EMAs).
2011 and 2012
The 2011 EMAs event would certainly profile Belfast as a world?class music destination, a place which has a new, modern and exciting future. The week of activities prior to the awards will give a concentrated focus on the promotion of indigenous musicians to show Belfast’s rich musical heritage, thriving contemporary musical scene and promote and highlight the city’s distinctiveness. These lead events would also involve international music stars which local audiences could attend at low or no cost.
Additionally the event will give a significant platform for Belfast’s 2012 activities focused around the opening of the Titanic SignatureBuilding. In fact MTV have made it a condition of hosting the EMAs in 2011 that they want to be part of the 2012 programme. However, this involvement is not free and would come with a price tag of £500,000. Therefore, Members are also asked to provide permission to part fund this event, in the 2012, at a cost of £250,000 to BCC (NITB have provisionally agreed to £250,000). If permitted, Officers would seek to identify funding within Council’s existing budgets, and those of external partners, to enable MTV to be included in any planned 2012 events.
Key Issues
MTV is the world’s largest television network, the leading multimedia brand for youth and are experts at staging international events. It reaches over 213 million households in Europe through 28 different MTV channels and they receive 8 million unique visitors each month to MTV Music websites. 65% of MTV’s adult viewers in Europe are aged 15-34.
The MTV EMAs alone attracts a live television audience of up to 22 million viewers across Europe on the night of the awards and up to 500 million viewers via recorded and edited showings. It has been hosted in cities from Berlin to Stockholm, Barcelona to Rome, Dublin to Munich and Copenhagen to Liverpool. The following table highlights some of the outputs for previous host cities:
|
HostCity |
Output |
|
Edinburgh 2003 |
Economic impact £8.9 million Return on investment £1:£11.9 Viewing figures 12-14 million Total airtime coverage 77 hours Media value of coverage £13 million Web visits - No details available |
|
Copenhagen 2006 |
Economic impact £6.1million Return on investment £1:£8.13 Viewing figures 465 million Total airtime coverage 55 hours Media value of coverage £4 million Web visits 29 million |
|
Liverpool 2008*
* This event was one of 25 signature events as part of Liverpool’s European City of Culture year and the superficial nature of the outputs may be a reflection that EMAs was one of many events in Liverpool during this year. |
Economic impact £2 million Return on investment £1:£6 Viewing figures - No details available Total airtime coverage – No details available Media value of coverage - No details available Web visits - No details available |
This event would be co-hosted and co-funded by NITB with additional funding being sought from ACNI; DETI and INI with the overall aims of the initiative being:
- To host the world-class music event in partnership with MTV Europe.
- To attract 7,500 Audience to EMAs with 25% out-of-state visitors
- To gain the equivalent of £9million media coverage for Belfast aimed at actively travelling young adults.
- To showcase and strengthen Belfast’s position on the world stage as a primary destination for music, entertainment and culture.
- To increase the profile of Belfast as an exciting weekend break destination to actively travelling young adults across UK, ROI and Europe.
- To establish Belfast on all new media platforms via MTV.
- To increase visitor satisfaction levels of Belfast’s cultural offer from 39% to 45%
- To promote and enhance a confident, positive, exciting image of Belfast through delivering world-class events
- To host an additional MTV Music week event 2012
- To bring together all sectors of the community from Belfast and across the region whilst improving community cohesion
Satellite gigs would take place in music venues across Belfast leading up to a free ticketed EMAs event in the Odyssey Arena. The key objective being to put Belfast on everyone’s destination wish list, ahead of our competitors and provide a significant level of profile for Belfast. The nature of the MTV EMAs will see the best global pop acts descend on the city creating a vibrancy and media coverage that will surpass any previous large-scale event staged in Belfast or Northern Ireland.
Resource Implications
Finance
The overall estimated budget required to deliver this project, in 2011, would be £750,000. This figure is based on knowledge gained from previous host city bids. It would be recommended that BCC should invest £320,000 into this event, with the proposal that the remaining budget comes from: NITB - £320,000; Tourism Ireland - £50,000; DCAL - £20,000 and £40,000 private sector and others.
BCC’s proposed contribution, for 2011, would not be new money or additional to the current budgets. It would be made up of the City Events Unit’s £100,000 events bidding finances 2011-2012 and £200,000 from Department’s finances. Members should note that usage of these finances would mean that there would be no additional monies available to bid or host other major events in this financial period 2011/12.
The finance for the suggested 2012 MTV input at £500,000 would also be sought from existing finances. Possible sources would be the allocation of BCC’s finances from proposed 2012 programme.
Equality and Good Relations Considerations
None
Recommendations
It is recommended that Members agree the following:
- Approval to host the 2011 MTV EMAs
- BCC to contribute £320,000 to the hosting this event
- Officers secure further funding from partners, including DETI, DCAL, NITB, Tourism Ireland, NI Screen and commercial sponsors, in order to further finance MTV EMAs 2011
- To provisionally commit £250,000 to MTV’s input to any Council agreed 2012 initiatives based around the Titanic theme, at a total cost of £500,000. Members are asked to note that NITB have agreed in principle to support this initiative to the sum of £250,000 also.
Decision Tracking
Further to any possible BCC ratification, an update will be brought to Committee regarding partner funding and MTV’s involvement in any Titanic 2012 initiatives.
Time line: May 2011 Reporting Officer: Tim Husbands
Key to Abbreviations
NITB – Northern Ireland Tourist Board
ACNI – Arts Council of Northern Ireland
DETI – Department for Enterprise, Trade and Investment
DCAL – Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure”
The Committee adopted the recommendations.