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Lotz, Amanda D, Potter, Anna, McCutcheon, Marion, Sanson, Kevin,& Eklund, Oliver (2021) Australian Television Drama Index, 1999-2019. [Working Paper]
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August 2021
Produced by the Making Australian TV in the 21st Century Research Team
Executive Summary
This report examines changes in the production and commissioning of Australian television drama from 1999 to 2019, a period marked by significant adjustments in the business of television in Australia and globally. Notably, more production companies now make drama in Australia, however, hours of drama have fallen. In 2019, twice as many companies produced 20 per cent fewer hours than in 1999. Also, foreign acquisitions are challenging the viability of domestic companies that lack access to international corporate capital and distribution.
The decrease in adult drama hours commissioned by commercial broadcasters has reshaped Australian television drama more than any other change, with commercial adult drama hours falling from 208 hours in 1999 to 67 hours in 2019, a reduction of 68 per cent. The national broadcasters have increased their role in commissioning, particularly in children’s drama.
Titles have not decreased nearly as significantly as the number of episodes per series. Commercial broadcasters’ drama decreased from an average of 21 episodes per title per year in 1999 to seven in 2019, a 60 per cent decrease that, along with the increasing peripheralisation of soaps, has diminished available training grounds and career paths in the Australian scripted production industry.
About the Authors
The Making Australian TV in the 21st Century Research team is funded by an ARC Discovery Project Grant (DP210100849). Professor Amanda D. Lotz (QUT) led the report in collaboration with Associate Professor Anna Potter (USC) and Professor Kevin Sanson. Dr. Marion McCutcheon and Oliver Eklund constructed the data set and contributed the visualisation and analysis. Our thanks as well to Godwin Simon for assistance in data gathering.
Suggested citation: Making Australian TV in the 21st Century Research Team, ‘Australian Television Drama Index, 1999–2019’, Report, Queensland University of Technology, 2021. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5204/rep.eprints.212330
This report can be downloaded from: https://eprints.qut.edu.au/212330/
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2 Australian Television Drama Index Index
Executive Summary 2
Introduction 4
Key Findings 5
Australian Television Drama: The Producers 6 Australia is not dominated by ‘in-house’ commissioning 6 More production companies are making less Australian drama 7 Decreasing levels of Australian ownership in the production sector 10
Australian TV Drama: The Commissioners 12 Decreasing role of commercial broadcasters, expanded role of national broadcasters 12
What is Commissioned? 14 Significant reduction in episodes per series offered by commercial broadcasters 14 Significant reduction in children’s live-action drama production 15
Conclusion 16
Methodology 16
Australian Television Drama Index 3 Introduction
The production of Australian television is at a turning point. A series of changes to the ecosystem of producers and distributors over the last two decades has forced both to evolve and adapt. The changes – particularly related to the internationalisation of the production sector and the revenue available to services that commission Australian television drama – have grown beyond those that industry adaptation can solve and are increasingly existential.
The research team for the Making Australian Television Our funding began in 2021, a year of great change in the 21st Century Discovery Project created this Index for Australian television drama. The combination of as a means of clarifying the extent of the challenges COVID-19 and modifications to Australian content facing Australian television drama. The Index draws regulations in 2020 means that 2019 marks the end from data collected by Screen Australia augmented of an era for producers. In particular, the complete with additional analysis in order to identify substantial removal of children’s or C drama quotas on Australia’s changes in the sector. We appreciate the scale of three commercial broadcasters is likely to profoundly challenges facing policymakers and the industry affect children’s drama production. and share the Index in the hope it brings systematic evidence to discussions and debates that will benefit Australian viewers and culture.
4 Australian Television Drama Index Key Findings
The number of production companies making Australian dramas has increased, while the 1 number of hours produced has declined significantly. Available work and revenue have become diluted, particularly in adult drama.
Australia has low levels of in-house drama production that are likely to drop further given the 2 changes to drama content regulations.
Australian drama is decreasingly produced by Australian-owned production companies, 3 especially among those producing sizable quantities of adult drama hours.
Total hours of first-release adult and children’s Australian drama broadcast by commercial 4 channels in 2019 were less than half of those broadcast in 1999.
National broadcasters have expanded their role in drama production. Foxtel’s drama 5 commissions are now matched by the commissions of SVODs (Netflix and Stan). Combined, these services still commission only a fraction of what commercial broadcasters provided pre-2019.
Much of the decline in production results from a decrease in the number of episodes per title 6 rather than overall decline in the number of titles.
Children’s drama production remains quite level across the reference period, a result of 7 commercial broadcasters producing to meet quota levels, but it exhibits a notable replacement of live-action children’s hours with animation from 2006. The removal of content quotas from commercial broadcasters is likely to see these levels of production fall dramatically post-2021.
Data Source What is Television Drama?
Screen Australia’s annual Drama Report is Unless specified, all figures and tables here: the primary source of the Drama Index. The • Present drama programs by year of first Drama Report incorporates data gathered by broadcast Screen Australia through surveys and additional • Include drama programs broadcast by free-to- publicly available sources and aims to provide air, subscription, and video-on-demand services a comprehensive view of drama production in • Exclude soaps (series broadcast at a rate higher Australia in each financial year.1 The Drama Report than one episode per week, unless miniseries) because at half of annual drama hours, soaps is, however, not a census. In order to capture all obscure broader market changes Australian drama productions offered on Australian • Exclude telemovies – unless they were produced television, we have included additional productions as part of a series because the infrastructure identified by cross-checking the Drama Report with of a single movie differs from that of series Screen Australia’s Screen Guide and the Australian production Communications and Media Authority reports. A more detailed accounting of method appears at the end of the report.
1 www.screenaustralia.gov.au/fact-finders/reports-and-key-issues/reports-and-discussion-papers/drama-report
Australian Television Drama Index 5 Australian Television Drama: The Producers
Australia is not dominated by ‘in-house’ commissioning
Australia has had low levels of in-house drama production by broadcasters. This has occurred without any policy interventions, in contrast to the United States and United Kingdom. Only the Seven Network commissioned a significant share of hours from its own production entities, and that share has been decreasing since 2013.
Figure 1: Yearly Percentage of Hours Produced ‘In-House’ by Commissioning Channel Adult drama Children's drama
100% 100% 100 % 100 % 100 % 100 % 100 % 100 % 100 % 100 % 100 % 100 % 100 % 100 % 100 % 100 % 100 % 100 % 100 % 100 % 100 %
80% 80%
60% 60% 97% 96% 40% 40% 76% 75 % 75 % 75 % 75 % 72 % 70 % 70 % 69 % 67 % 67 % 66 % 66 % 65 % 65 % 65 % 64 % 63 % 62 % 61 % 61 % % of Total Runtime % of Total Runtime 20% 20%
0% 0% 199 9 200 0 200 1 200 2 200 3 200 4 200 5 200 6 200 7 200 8 200 9 201 0 201 1 201 2 201 3 201 4 201 5 201 6 201 7 201 8 201 9 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Seven Network ABC External ABC Network Ten SBS Disney Nine Network Foxtel External
6 Australian Television Drama Index More production companies are making less Australian drama
The percentage of drama hours produced by the five production companies responsible for the most hours each year has been declining, particularly for adult drama. In adult drama, the proportion of hours produced by the top five companies has fallen from approximately three quarters of production hours in the early 2000s to less than half in in 2018 and 2019. The percentage of hours produced by the top five companies averaged 68 per cent for adult drama and 76 per cent for children’s drama over the two decades.
Figure 2: Percentage of Total Hours Produced by Top 5 Production Companies Each Year
Adult drama Children's drama
100% 100% 4% 6% 13% 14% 14% 16% 17% 17% 18% 19% 21% 21% 22% 22% 23% 25% 25% 26% 26% 27% 27% 28% 27% 28% 29% 29% 29% 30% 32% 32% 34% 80% 35% 80% 37% 39% 39% 43% 44% 50% 50% 50% 55% 55%
60% 60% s s 96% 94% 87% 86% 40% 40% 86% 84% 83% 83% 82 % 81 % 79 % 79 % 78 % 78 % 77 % 75 % 75 % 74 % 74 % 73 % 73 % 72 % 73 % 72 % 71 % 71 % 71 % 70 % 68 % 68 % 66 % 65 % 63 % 61 % 61 % % of Total Hour % of Total Hour 57 % 56 % 50 % 50 % 50 %
20% 45 % 45 % 20%
0% 0% 199 9 200 0 200 1 200 2 200 3 200 4 200 5 200 6 200 7 200 8 200 9 201 0 201 1 201 2 201 3 201 4 201 5 201 6 201 7 201 8 2019 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Top 5 Other
Australian Television Drama Index 7 The next two figures visualise the top five companies (based on total hours produced per year) responsible for Australian adult (figure 3) and children’s (figure 4) drama. Visualisation of the full range of production companies is too detailed to include here though shows even more clearly that drama commissions are increasingly shared among more companies, while the number of hours produced by a single company has decreased. The grey block at the bottom of each bar indicates the number of hours produced by all other production companies and the number indicates how many production companies share those hours. In some years, there are multiple equivalent-ranked companies in the top five.
Figure 3: Top Five and Other Adult Drama Producers by Runtime, 1999 to 2019
350
300
250
200 Hour s
150
100 20 20
50 18 19 21 11 12 17 14 8 16 14 7 14 11 13 10 8 8 15 12 0 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 200 201 201 201 201 201 201 201 201 201 201
Australian Broadcasting Corporation Hoodlum Entertainment Beyond Entertainment Pty Ltd JAHM Pictures Burberry Productions Jim Henson Television Ltd Coote/Hayes Holdings Pty Ltd Knapman Wyld Television Cordell Jigsaw Zapruder Productions Lone Hand Cornerbox Productions Matchbox Pictures Pty Ltd Crackerjack Productions Pty Ltd McElroy All Media Pty Ltd December Media Pty Ltd Millenium Television Pty Ltd Easy Tiger Productions New Wave Entertainment Pty Ltd Endemol (Shine) Australia Pty Ltd Playmaker Media Pty Ltd Essential Media & Entertainment Ruby Entertainment Pty Ltd Every Cloud Productions Pty Ltd Screentime Pty Ltd Fox Television Creative Australia Seven Network Fremantle Australia Southern Star Entertainment GNW TV Pty Ltd The Comedy Channel Gannon Television Pty Ltd Twenty 20 Pty Ltd Great Western Entertainment Pty Ltd Working Dog Pty Ltd Guesswork Television Pty Ltd Other
8 Australian Television Drama Index Figure 4: Top Five and Other Children’s Drama Producers by Runtime, 1999 to 2019
140
120
100
80 Hour s
60
40 8 9 20 5 10 7 9 8 4 6 6 4 8 6 5 4 5 4 3 0 2 1 2 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
A Stark Production Pty Ltd Kapow Pictures Pty Ltd Ambience Entertainment Pty Ltd Light Knights Entertainment Pty Ltd Australian Children’s Television Foundation Media World Pictures Ltd Barron Television Ltd Moody Street Kids Pty Ltd Beyond Entertainment Pty Ltd Northern Pictures Pty Ltd Blue Rocket Productions Pty Ltd Northway Productions Pty Ltd Bogan Entertainment Solutions Pty Ltd Pacific and Beyond Pty Ltd Burberry Productions Planet 55 Studios Cheeky Little Media Pty Limited SLR Productions Pty Ltd Chocolate Liberation Front Pty Ltd Southern Star Entertainment Crawfords Australia Stewart & Wall Entertainment Pty Ltd December Media Pty Ltd Sticky Pictures Pty Ltd Endemol (Shine) Australia Pty Ltd Studio Moshi Productions Pty Ltd Energee Entertainment The Wiggles Productions Ettamogah Entertainment Pty Ltd Three's A Company Pty Ltd Fuzzyashell Animation Pty Ltd Viskatoons Galaxy Pop Pty Ltd Werner Film Productions Pty Ltd Goalpost Pictures Australia Pty Ltd Westside Film and Television Pty Ltd Grace - A Storytelling Company Pty Limited Westway Productions Great Western Entertainment Pty Ltd Yoram Gross / Flying Bark Productions Gristmill Pty Ltd Other Jonathan M Shiff Productions Pty Ltd
Australian Television Drama Index 9 Decreasing levels of Australian ownership in the production sector
Figure 5 identifies the substantial increase in hours (particularly adult drama) created by production companies owned by foreign conglomerates as a result of acquisition of Australian production companies.
Figure 5: Australian/Non Australian Ownership of Production Companies by Runtime Adult drama Children's drama
400 400 381
350 350 310 300 299 300 279 254 253 250 9%
238 250 234 233 225 223 223 221 23% 206 25% 204
200 191 188 187 200 19% 17 8 35 % 17 1 40% 15 7 51% 46% 15 2 34% 29% 150 27% 34% 150 13 0 12 9 77% 100% 39% 91% 12 1 12 1 11 5 25% 11 3 11 2 11 2 10 9 91% 10 8 40% 10 7 Total runtime (hrs) 10 4 10 1 Total runtime (hrs) 10 0 98 95 95%
100 100%
100 87 80 77% 41% 78 75% 36% 90% 81% 72 42% 65% 88% 50% 73% 71% 66% 60% 66% 54%
50 91% 96% 75% 49% 61%
50 82% 86% 88% 85% 95% 97% 90% 60% 80% 83% 74% 88% 64% 94% 59% 58% 78% 71% 0 0 50% 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Australian Foreign
10 Australian Television Drama Index Trends in Australian drama production indicate more production companies are creating Australian drama, however, very few of these companies have a production slate that make them sustainable producing drama alone. The underlying data reveal that 65 per cent of the 124 production companies making adult drama and 60 per cent of the 75 children’s drama producers made fewer than 20 hours in total over the 21-year period. Of the 36 production companies with drama titles broadcast in 2019, exactly one half had produced six hours or fewer and 34 produced fewer than 20 hours. Such low levels of production suggest companies are either short-lived or exist with a multifaceted portfolio of work and rely on broader slates including factual or feature production or advertising and online production work.
Although a healthy production sector prioritises both diversity and sustainability, it is difficult to accomplish both at the diminished level of production now characteristic of the sector. Twenty-first century policymakers increasingly must choose between these goals.
Looking more closely at the top producers by yearly output, we see a notable difference between the first and second decade of the study in adult drama. Figure 6 shows the significant change in number of hours being produced by top companies in the periods 1999–2009 and 2010–2019, as well as the shift from Australian ownership.
Figure 6: Top 10 Adult Production Companies by Total Runtime 1999 to 2009 2010 to 2019
Seven Network 643.3 Seven Network 321.0
Southern Star Entertainment 578.4 Screentime Pty Ltd 171.5
Millenium Television Pty Ltd 224.0 Fremantle Australia 144.9
Beyond Entertainment Pty Ltd 201.5 Playmaker Media Pty Ltd 143.3
Screentime Pty Ltd 91.1 Southern Star Entertainment 125.5
Jim Henson Television Ltd 81.4 Matchbox Pictures Pty Ltd 122.1
McElroy All Media Pty Ltd 69.9 Endemol (Shine) Australia Pty Ltd 95.2
Coote/Hayes Holdings Pty Ltd 66.0 Every Cloud Productions Pty Ltd 61.9
Australian Broadcasting Corporation 55.0 Essential Media & Entertainment 51.4
Knapman Wyld Television 53.3 December Media Pty Ltd 48.3
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 0100 200300 400500 600
Total runtime (hrs) Total runtime (hrs) Australian Foreign
The concern about Australian ownership is less a matter of fear of foreign influence and more a recognition of the sizable advantages that companies enjoy once they have structural connections to multinational conglomerates with capital and international distribution capability. The increased internationalisation of the television industry makes stories that are specific to the Australian experience – a key objective of Australian content regulations – more difficult to produce. The scale at which Australian drama producers have been absorbed into foreign conglomerates raises complicated questions about the extent to which Australian stories continue to feature in their productions, although they continue to access significant sums of Australian supports.
The foreign acquisition of Australian production companies also raises questions about the viability of those companies in the Australian ecosystem that lack access to the resources provided by such conglomerates. Australian policy does not prioritise Australian-owned companies in the allocation of funding supports and the criteria used to determine content as ‘Australian’ are unreliable. The data collected here suggest these are important considerations for policymakers.
Australian Television Drama Index 11 Australian TV Drama: The Commissioners
Decreasing role of commercial broadcasters, expanded role of national broadcasters
Australia’s commercial broadcasters have steadily reduced their drama commissions over the last two decades. Annual adult commercial drama broadcast hours more than halved between 1999 and 2019, declining at a compound average rate of seven per cent per annum. Figure 7 contrasts data measuring titles and hours to reveal that hours are a much stronger indicator of sector activity. The data illustrate that while commercial drama titles have remained steady, there has been a significant decline in adult drama hours offered by commercial broadcasters.
Hours of adult Australian drama commissioned by commercial broadcasters in 2019 were 68 per cent fewer than those commissioned in 1999. If we include soap hours, commercial adult drama hours fell from 531 hours in 1999 to 291 hours in 2019, a decrease of 45 per cent in total.
In contrast, titles and broadcast hours by national broadcasters increased over the same period, with hours increasing particularly from 2009 when the ABC received an extra $70 million in funding for adult drama over three years. The introduction of streaming services provided minimal additional drama hours, although SVOD hours were on par with Foxtel at the end of the reference period and increasing.
Figure 7: Yearly Total Titles and Hours of Adult Drama by Provider Type Number of titles Total runtime hours
45 250 4 3 40 5 4 4 7 35 200 6 5 30 2 2 4 2 19 150 25 3 1 6 21 15 7 21 1 20 9 2 3 2 15 17 14 2 10 1 4 15 100 Title count 8 10 5 5 Total runtime hour s 15 1 8 6 1 11 10 5 3 8 10 50 17 15 16 13 13 13 13 13 12 12 10 11 11 11 11 11 10 10 5 8 9 8 0 0 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Combined commercials Combined PSBs Subscription SVODs
12 Australian Television Drama Index Figure 8 shows that children’s titles and broadcast hours for commercial broadcasters have been relatively stable over the time period, with commercial broadcast hours decreasing very slightly. Funding from the ABC has been inconsistent (SBS provides very few children’s hours). Hours increased significantly in the short term after 2009, when the ABC received $67 million in tied funding to establish its children’s channel.
Figure 8: Yearly Total Titles and Hours of Children’s Drama by Provider Type
Number of titles Total runtime hours
45 250 40
35 200
30
150
25 s
20 100 Title count 1 1 15 1 2 1 1 3 1 5 1 1 1
3 1 9 Total runtime hour 3 5 1 1 5 4 4 4 10 10 3 2 5 6 50 2 4 7 4 11 4 9 10 10 9 9 10 9 5 8 8 8 7 8 7 9 6 5 6 6 6 4 0 0 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Combined commercials Combined PSBs Subscription SVODs
The data here clearly illustrate that the challenges facing Australian drama production originated before the arrival of streaming services in Australia. The first phase of digital disruption caused by the arrival of digital multichannels fragmented audiences and introduced programming budget pressures. In doing so it encouraged commercial broadcasters to deprioritise drama in their programming strategies.1 Notably this data does not identify the extent to which the declining hours of commercial adult dramas have been scheduled on multichannels with lower viewership or received limited on-air promotion since 2011. Commercial broadcasters continued to meet the hours-based requirements for Australian drama, however, the visibility and presence of Australian drama on their linear television services have been strongly diminished.
In contrast, since 2009 the ABC has become the most reliable source of Australian drama. The ABC has done this despite the significant decrease in drama and children’s funding it faced following the 2009–12 triennial budget that supported its digital expansion. The ABC’s Charter mandate leads it to prioritise metrics other than maximising viewership, which has led to its continued ambition in drama despite facing the same multichannel expenses. The ABC’s commitment to Australian drama and its success making it available suggest that a more robustly funded ABC is an efficient and effective tool for modernising cultural policy aims for 21st century dynamics.
1 See Anna Potter & Amanda D. Lotz, (2021). ‘The first stage of Australia’s digital transition and its implications for Australian television drama.’ Media International Australia. https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878X211030370 for a detailed account.
Australian Television Drama Index 13 What is Commissioned?
Significant reduction in episodes per series offered by commercial broadcasters
Figure 9 illustrates how the average number of episodes per series of adult drama has decreased over the last two decades, particularly among commercial broadcasters’ offerings. The decrease from 21 episodes per title in 1999 to seven episodes per title in 2019 explains the contradictions in figure 7 where a significant decline in total hours can be seen despite a slight increase in number of titles.
Figure 9: Average Number of Episodes/Year of Drama By Provider Type, 1999-2019
25
20
e 15
Eps per titl 10
5
0 199 9 200 0 200 1 200 2 200 3 200 4 200 5 200 6 200 7 200 8 200 9 201 0 201 1 201 2 201 3 201 4 201 5 201 6 201 7 201 8 2019
Combined commercials Subscription Combined PSBs SVODs
Note: 2002 adult drama outlier for subscription TV is Crash Palace, with 65 x 30 minute episodes.
14 Australian Television Drama Index The strong decline in average episode counts underscores another aspect of the sustainability challenge. Soaps and long-running series have served for decades as training grounds for the next generation of Australian storytellers. The reduction in both broadcast hours and the number of episodes per series has eroded opportunities for emerging practitioners to gain experience and hands-on training. For adult drama series across all services, annual hours have fallen by a third, from an average of nearly 300 hours per year from 1999 to 2005, to 200 hours per year from 2006 to 2019, with the average number of episodes per title falling from 17 to 8 between 1999 and 2019. Soaps are excluded in these charts because the scale of their production – 50 per cent of all production over the two decades explored here and more than 200 hours per annum in nearly all years – obscures adjustments in the broader business. Yet, soaps too have experienced declining production and diminishing Australian cultural relevance. Between 1999 and 2019, broadcast soap hours fell by nearly one third, from an annual total of more than 320 hours in 1999 and 2000 to an average of 215 hours per year from 2012. Total episodes of soaps broadcast each year fell by more than a third, from nearly 700 in 1999 and 2000 to around 470 from 2003 onwards. The transition to fewer episodes and fewer series and the marginalisation of the soaps have diminished pipelines of training, particularly for drama writers, producers, and directors. The reduced opportunities facing emerging practitioners in honing their craft pose additional challenges to sector sustainability and increases reliance on foreign productions indifferent to Australian culture as training grounds. This too is an area warranting policy consideration or strategies from industry.
Significant reduction in children’s live-action drama production
Figure 10 shows how hours of children’s animation have increased while children’s live-action drama hours have fallen, with animated drama dominating from 2006 onwards. Children’s live-action drama hours fell at an average rate of five per cent per annum, and hours of children’s animation grew at an average rate of six per cent per annum. Average episodes per title for live-action drama have also fallen, from between 20 to 25 episodes per title up to 2010 to around 15 episodes per title from 2016.
Figure 10: Yearly Hours of Children’s Live-Action Drama and Animation, 1999-2019
Total runtime hours Average episodes per title
45 120 40
100 35
30 80
e 25
60 20 Eps per titl 15 40 Total runtime (hrs) 10 20 5
0 0 199 9 200 0 200 1 200 2 200 3 200 4 200 5 200 6 200 7 200 8 200 9 201 0 201 1 201 2 201 3 201 4 201 5 201 6 201 7 201 8 201 9 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Children's Live Action Drama & Comedy Children's Animation
In children’s drama, the C drama quotas ensured commissioned hours held steady on the commercial broadcasters, although these quotas were increasingly filled with animation rather than live-action drama from 2006. ABCME’s need for new programming from 2009, including live-action drama series, masked to some extent the decline in live-action drama commissions by commercial broadcasters. The data illustrate the decline in average episode counts for all children’s live-action drama series from 2014, including on the ABC. The 2021 removal of children’s quotas on commercial broadcasters is likely to result in plummeting production levels of children’s animated drama series.
Australian Television Drama Index 15 Conclusion
Constructing data over a twenty-year horizon is valuable because it allows us to see how the industry has responded to often overlapping challenges and changes. The industry absorbed major alterations in funding support with the introduction of the producer offset in 2007 and the amalgamation of the Film Finance Corporation, Australian Film Commission and Film Australia Limited into Screen Australia. These developments coincided with the global financial crisis and were immediately followed by the launch of digital multichannels.
The implications of disrupting events are often not immediately evident as a result of the multi-year process of series development and production. Notably, local content subquotas remain consistent throughout this period and appear to account for the steady, albeit fluctuating, number of hours of children’s drama. The ABC’s 30 per cent funding increase for drama and children’s programs in its 2009–12 triennial budget had a profound but short- term effect on levels of drama commissioned by the national broadcaster. Streaming services had minimal impact on production levels during this period, though by 2019 their drama hours matched Foxtel’s.
We expect strong deviation from the data offered here in 2020 and going forward. The disruption of COVID may only span 2020 to 2022, but the implications of adjustments in subquotas are likely to introduce a ‘new normal’. We plan a comparative addendum in 2023 to explore such change.
16 Australian Television Drama Index Australian Television Drama Index 17 Methodology The primary sources of drama Classification guidelines ensured • Telemovies are not included in the production data for this analysis are consistency across the database: analysis. Exceptions are telemovies Screen Australia’s Drama Report and • Production companies: Titles produced as a series or associated Screen Guide. While the Drama Report are allocated to the production with a drama series. publishes information about drama company with the main responsibility • Soaps are not included in the programs in production in Australia by for production decisions. Where analysis. We define soaps as adult financial year, it is not a census so we the Screen Guide does not series produced to be broadcast have cross checked its listings against unequivocally identify the production daily. Screen Australia’s online Screen Guide company, we used desk research to • Series commissioned by subscriber- to gain more consistent information identify the producers. Production funded, video on demand services about the production companies companies are named consistently are included; series uploaded to involved, whether the content is a over time. In the case of acquisitions services such as YouTube are not. co-production, and whether there are and emerging partnerships, the • Children’s drama includes live- associated seasons. We also identified production company named is the action drama and animation. It the calendar year of broadcast (season entity in existence in the year of encompasses C and P content year) for each title through desk production. produced in fulfilment of CTS quotas research using sources such as IMDB. requirements as well as national • Co-productions: Only include com, trade press and news articles broadcasters’ drama and animation co-productions identified as official in Factiva, Wikipedia, and general co-productions by Screen Australia. commissions. internet searches.