Australian TV industry - General Discussion

and now have to hold all the responsibilities that come with it, paying salaries, maintaining infrastructure, wearing any losses, etc., which they never had to when they were collecting 50% of revenue.

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Infrastructure on a scale that is massive compared to what theyā€™re used to.

Of course. Thatā€™s what happens when a company acquired another. Happens every day. Companies even acquire companies making massive losses. They do it because they believe they can grow revenue and decrease operating costs, through scale.

Itā€™s why Nine did it with 3 stations. Why 7 is doing it here. And why thousands of companies do it every day.

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Iā€™m certain SWM more than looked over Prime7ā€™s operating costs. Nothing should be a surprise financially. Itā€™s all in writing and in records and disclosed reports internal and public.

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I get that, and Iā€™m sure 7 has done all its due diligence. I was just adding context that while theyā€™re effectively getting 100% of Primeā€™s revenue thereā€™s a lot of heavy lifting that comes with that extra 50%. If they think they can make a better dollar by merging Seven and Prime into one then good luck to them.

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Agree. There would be big duplication between Prime7 and 7 that SWM will be looking to eliminate fast.

Seven will now own stations that broadcast Into 13 of the biggest 15 cities in the nation. The only exceptions being Hobart (12th) And Darwin (15)

Nine owns stations in 9 of the 15 biggest cities. Missing out on Canberra (8) Sunshine Coast (9) Wollongong (10th) Hobart (12th) Townsville (13) and cairns (14th)

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Bit off topic given all the Prime7 stuff, but a mini-doco I made on stations that used Channel 0 (eg TVQ-0, ATV-0, etc.)
Hope you enjoy!

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The merger could see Screentime (owned by Banijay) merging with Endemol Shine Australia. Together it will hold the Australian rights to global reality franchises like Survivor, Married at First Sight and MasterChef. We will be left with three multinational production firms (Endemol Shine-Screentime, ITV Studios, Fremantle) and smaller ones such as CJZ and Matchbox Pictures.

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I saw it on youtube. Good stuff :sunglasses:

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Matchbox is owned by NBCUniversal so itā€™s not really small.

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Expect mass redundancy after 7 do a business wide analysis and move towards a lean Business model.

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Of course as with every tv network in the world

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Screen Australiaā€™s annual Drama Report

Screen Australiaā€™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 reportā€™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. ā€˜Dramaā€™ 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 childrenā€™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 childrenā€™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.

CHILDRENā€™S TELEVISION

15 childrenā€™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 childrenā€™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 childrenā€™s drama. The 2018 calendar year marked the beginning of a new three year cycle for first release Australian childrenā€™s drama requirements. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) tracks how each network complies with their content requirements.

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Enjoy? More than enjoy, highly impressed with your overall effort @Leo_Puglisi6

Puggo, what do your teachers, family and interested parties think? They all should be very proud of you.

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(Sorry, glitchy phone saw me accidentally delete earlier post)
Thereā€™s always been a good response by teachers and family (some of those would remember ATV-0!) Itā€™s always been a passion of mine and researching into TV history (not just with 0, I also did a project on Ten Capital News) has always been enjoyable!
Thanks so much for your kind words, I take all the support I can get! :+1:

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New ACMA website launched

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Most of the links that I use are broken or canā€™t be found. None are in logical places.

This happens every time ACMA relaunch their site, why canā€™t they retain the same URLs or at least point to the new ones indefinitely.

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I canā€™t find the Radio and TV handbooks on the new ACMA website. Any idea where they are? I used to save copies of it but never bothered in recent years as I always accessed the latest online version. Iā€™m hoping they havenā€™t discontinued it.

https://www.acma.gov.au/list-transmitters-licence-broadcast

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