Screen Australia’s annual Drama Report
Screen Australia’s annual Drama Report released today shows expenditure on drama production in Australia has exceeded $1.17 billion, made up of a record $768 million spend on Australian stories including Official Co-productions, and increased foreign production spend of $410 million.
The expenditure on Australian titles was the highest in the report’s 29 year history, driven by an all-time record spend on Australian television and a five-year high spend on Australian features.
The Drama Report measures the health of the Australian screen industry by detailing the production of local and foreign feature films, television, and online programs plus PDV (post, digital and visual effects) activity. ‘Drama’ refers to scripted narratives of any genre and the report tracks productions from the commencement of principal photography, with some titles yet to be released. PDV is reported using two different methods.
The 2018/19 record expenditure on Australian titles included 37 TV dramas such as The Hunting , Five Bedrooms and Total Control and their combined spend was $334 million, up 13% on last year and above the five-year average. Spend on Australian feature films was up 15% on last year to $299 million. 33 Australian feature films were made including True History of the Kelly Gang and I Am Woman which recently had their world premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival.
15 Australian children’s television programs went into production with $95 million spent on the likes of Bluey series 2, Alice Miranda Friends Forever and The Unlisted . This is the highest spend on children’s drama since 2008/09, and a 95% increase on last year.
28 Australian online drama titles with durations of half an hour or more went into production (up from 21 in 2017/18), collectively spending $40 million.
New South Wales accounted for the largest share of total expenditure in Australia (31%), closely followed by Victoria (30%), and then Queensland (24%). South Australia and Victoria set new records for expenditure in their states.
TELEVISION
Australian TV drama production had a record high $334 million spend, with 37 titles generating 441 hours of content produced. Hours were up on last year due to the production of longer-running mini-series such as My Life is Murder (10 episodes) and Les Norton (10 episodes). Across the total TV drama slate the hours, budgets, spend and average cost per hour for all titles increased year-on-year.
New titles in production included the forthcoming Upright for Foxtel, Stateless for ABC and The Secrets She Keeps for Network 10.
CHILDREN’S TELEVISION
15 children’s TV dramas entered production in 2018/19, including two Official Co-productions. Of the 15, seven were for the ABC, one for NITV, six for the commercial broadcasters and one for Foxtel. The 15 titles generated a five-year high of 132 hours of content at a total cost of $105 million. The number of titles, hours, budgets and spend for the total slate were all above the five year averages, and live action production significantly increased to 61 hours, the highest level since 2012/13.
As a first release broadcaster, the ABC commissioned nearly half of the 15 children’s TV titles in production including five live action titles Hardball , The Inbestigators , Itch , Mustangs FC series 2, and The Unlisted and two animations 100% Wolf and Bluey series 2. NITV was the first release broadcaster for the second series of Little J & Big Cuz . The series was also financed by the ABC.
Nine was the first release broadcaster for three titles including Alice Miranda Friends Forever . Seven was first release broadcaster for two titles, while Network 10 and Foxtel were first release broadcaster for one title each.
Content quotas on commercial free-to-air broadcasters are cyclical in nature with one and three-year requirements for children’s drama. The 2018 calendar year marked the beginning of a new three year cycle for first release Australian children’s drama requirements. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) tracks how each network complies with their content requirements.
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