Variant of NAICS 1997 - Labour Force Survey (LFS) Industries

7 - Services-Producing Sector

15 - Information, Culture and Recreation

51 - Information and Cultural Industries

This sector comprises establishments primarily engaged in creating and disseminating (except by wholesale and retail methods) information and cultural products, such as written works, musical works or recorded performances, recorded dramatic performances, software and information databases, or providing the means to disseminate them. Establishments that provide access to equipment and expertise to process information are also included.

The unique characteristics of information and cultural products, and of the processes involved in their production and distribution, distinguish this sector from the goods-producing and services-producing sectors. In particular,

*the value of these products lies in their information, educational, cultural or entertainment content, not in the format in which they are distributed. Most of these products are protected from unlawful reproduction by copyright laws. Only those possessing the rights to these works are authorized to reproduce, alter, improve and distribute them. Acquiring and using these rights often involves significant costs.

*the intangible nature of the content of information and cultural products allows for their distribution in various forms. For example, a movie can be shown at a movie theatre, on a television broadcast, through video on demand, or rented at a local video store; a sound recording can be aired on radio, embedded in multi-media products or sold at a record store; software can be bought at retail outlets or downloaded from an electronic bulletin board; a newspaper can be purchased at a newsstand or received on-line. In addition, improvements in information technology are revolutionizing the distribution of these products. The inclusion in this sector of telecommunications carriers and Internet access providers reflects the increasingly important role these establishments play in making these products accessible to the public.

The main components of this sector are the publishing industries, including software publishing, the motion picture and sound recording industries, the broadcasting and telecommunications industries, and the information services and data processing industries. There are establishments engaged in culture-related activities that are classified in other sectors of NAICS. The most important are listed below.

• Exclusion(s):

  Establishments primarily engaged in:

  • duplicating information or cultural products in print form, or in the form of optical or magnetic media(31-33)
  • wholesaling information and cultural products such as newspapers, books, software, videocasettes and sound recordings (See 41 Wholesale Trade)
  • retailing information and cultural products such as newspapers, books, software and sound recordings(44-45)
  • design activities (See 54 Professional, Scientific and Technical Services)
  • preserving and exhibiting objects, sites, and natural wonders of historical, cultural and/or educational value (See 71 Arts, Entertainment and Recreation)
  • producing live presentations that involve the performances of actors and actresses, singers, dancers, musical groups and artists, and other performing artists (See 71 Arts, Entertainment and Recreation)
  • performing in artistic productions, and in creating artistic and cultural works or productions as independent individuals (See 71 Arts, Entertainment and Recreation)

514 - Information Services and Data Processing Services

This subsector comprises establishments primarily engaged in providing, storing, providing access to and processing, information. The main components are news syndicates, libraries, archives, on-line information service providers and data processors.

5141 - Information Services

This industry group comprises establishments primarily engaged in providing, storing, and/or providing access to, information. The main components are news syndicates, libraries, archives and on-line information service providers.

51411 - News Syndicates

This industry comprises establishments primarily engaged in supplying information, such as news reports, articles, pictures and features to the news media.

• Exclusion(s):

  • independent correspondents and free lance news journalists (See 71151 Independent Artists, Writers and Performers)

51412 - Libraries and Archives

This industry comprises establishments primarily engaged in providing library or archive services. These establishments maintain collections of documents (such as books, journals, newspapers and music) and facilitate the use of such documents (regardless of its physical form and characteristics) as are required to meet the informational, research, educational or recreational needs of their users. They may also acquire, research, store, and make accessible to the public, original historical documents, photographs, maps, audio material, audio-visual material and other archival materials of historical interest. Cinematheques, videotheques and other film and video archives, whose primary purpose is the preservation of archival audio-visual material, are included. All or portions of these collections may be accessible electronically.

• Exclusion(s):

  • film libraries that own rights to films and license the exhibition of these films (See 51212 Motion Picture and Video Distribution)
  • providing motion picture and video stock footage (via libraries) to producers, the media, multimedia and advertising industries (See 51219 Post-Production and Other Motion Picture and Video Industries)

51419 - Other Information Services

This industry comprises establishments, not classified to any other industry, primarily engaged in providing information services. Examples of establishments in this industry are on-line information service providers, Internet access providers, telephone-based information service providers and information search service providers.

• Exclusion(s):

  Establishments primarily engaged in:

  • offering direct on-line access to information that they publish or compile (See 511 Publishing Industries)
  • publishing databases (See 51114 Database and Directory Publishers)
  • developing databases for the purpose of credit reporting (See 56145 Credit Bureaus)