How PRISM used The Data City to measure West London’s screen industries cluster

Traditional economic datasets were not providing an accurate picture of the screen industries.

Many screen businesses, suppliers and innovation-led companies are either poorly represented or completely missed by SIC code classifications. Critical parts of the supply chain, including lighting, construction, costume, rigging and catering businesses, often sit outside recognised creative industry categories despite playing a central role in screen production.

This created a significant challenge for PRISM’s research. West London authorities believed there was a substantial concentration of screen industry activity in the region, but there was no reliable way to measure it.

Without better data, it was difficult to understand where businesses were located, where innovation was taking place and how economic activity was distributed across the cluster.

The Data City provided an alternative approach by identifying companies through their real-world activities rather than relying solely on SIC codes.

Working with The Data City, PRISM built a bespoke company dataset using a combination of RTICs, SIC codes and targeted keywords to identify businesses operating across the screen industries ecosystem. This approach enabled the team to capture companies that would otherwise be missed by traditional classifications alone.

Once the company list had been established, The Data City’s clustering analysis was used to identify and map concentrations of screen industry activity across the nine West London boroughs. This provided a much clearer picture of where businesses were located and how activity was distributed across the region.

The team also used The Data City’s visual mapping capabilities to communicate findings clearly to policymakers, local authorities and industry stakeholders.

Using The Data City, PRISM successfully measured the scale and concentration of screen industry activity across nine West London boroughs. Through a bespoke classification combining RTICs, SIC codes and targeted keywords, the research identified 6,842 screen industry companies generating £74.5 billion in turnover.

The findings, published in West London Screens: The Hidden Engine of the UK’s Convergent Screen Industries, demonstrated that West London accounts for 34% of London’s screen enterprises and 14.5% of the UK’s screen enterprises. The research also highlighted that West London is the only place in the UK where the full screen industry supply chain exists within a single geographic cluster.

The visual outputs proved particularly valuable in communicating complex findings quickly, helping stakeholders understand the significance of the cluster and its contribution to innovation and economic growth.

The project ultimately delivered on its original objective: providing the first robust measurement of West London’s screen industries ecosystem and helping establish the region as a nationally recognised screen industries cluster.

As Professor Emily Caston explains, the project demonstrated how The Data City can reveal economic activity that traditional classification systems fail to capture, creating a stronger evidence base for research, policy and investment decisions.