
--
CPA survey results deconstructed --
Tue, 14 Nov 2017 12:13
--
Written byy Bobby Amm, executive officer, the Commercial Producers Association
With South Africa s unstable commercial production industry, and our currently strained economy, the topic of sustainability has been receiving a lot more attention. This has come sharply into focus via the CPA s annual survey, which has revealed some noteworthy results this year.
The annual CPA survey
The CPA runs a survey every year to better understand the magnitude of the industry and to detect prospects, challenges and local trends. The findings are assembled into two groups of results:
1. The whole group: 40 50 contributors per year
2. The control group: 30 South African production companies that participate in the survey every year
Even though the number of participants isn t high relative to the greater industry, most of the heavyweight companies are included, so the results are an adequate reflection of the general industry, we believe. For instance, the control group on its own, turned over R1,25 billion this last year.
The results from 2017
Commercials produced: In total, 703 commercials were produced by the survey participants for a little more than R1.6 billion.
Number of filming days: These ads were shot over 1 680 days, with an average daily budget of over R900 000.
Variety of commercials: More local ads were produced (368) than service ads (305), and South African directors made 30 ads for overseas clients.
Filming landscape: In total, 58 per cent of the ads were shot in the Western Cape, 39 per cent were shot in Gauteng, and only 3 per cent were shot in other regions.
Biggest customers: After South Africa, Germany was our biggest client, with 74 ads made. Next was the United Kingdom with 72, the United States with 51, France with 40, and Scandinavia with 26.
Expense analysis: Almost 50 per cent of production costs go to remunerating the crew and hiring equipment. The other big costs take up: 13 per cent for art and set construction, 5 per cent for location fees, 9 per cent for talent, and 6 per cent for post-production.
Rising location costs: Production is still relatively affordable in Johannesburg, but the increasing costs in Cape Town are making it hard to shoot commercials there. With accessibility to the area limited to those with deep pockets, the city and its surrounds are quickly becoming service-only regions.
How this affects you
From these results, it looks like the industry is dipping, mainly thanks to rising production costs and an insignificant change to turnover. This trend is more gradual in the control group, but it persists suggesting that production budgets aren t growing in line with expenses.
As this gap gets wider, so does the danger to the production industry. It s one we should take note of too, as other countries have taken years to recover after experiencing similar trends.
Impact on global projects
Something else we ve seen is that many CPA members are getting less work from overseas. We think this could be because of variables like:
Universal unease: Trump, Brexit, human trafficking, terrorism the world is a scary and uncertain place these days, so clients are less likely to travel.
Rate of exchange: The UK is no longer our biggest client, mainly because of Brexit and the weakening Pound. The Rand is also getting stronger against the US Dollar and the Euro, which has the potential to make South African production less affordable this season.
Location fatigue: Clients are on the lookout for novel, exciting locations. South Africa appears to have priced itself out of the market, to a point, so other players like Portugal, Thailand, and a few South American regions are preferred.
Politics & economy: SA isn t currently stable, both politically and economically, so clients (particularly newer ones) are choosing safer countries to film in. Plus, with our local recession, prices are up too.
Greedy South African: Some overseas clients believe that SA s succumbed to the greed factor. Production departments are growing and our talent want to earn more for working in remote areas. With less inflation in their home countries than we re familiar here, these clients may struggle to understand our increasing costs.
Bureaucracy: While it may be a lot easier to get a visa and process other admin needed for overseas clients to come to SA, it still isn t ideal; this deters clients from coming to SA. In fact, many jobs are lost annually because an overseas director can t apply for a visa in person.
The future of our industry
The views on the upcoming season are varied, with notable concern coming from experts who market to overseas clients. But it isn t all bad. For instance, South Africa has strengths that many other countries don t, such as:
1. A solid reputation in the production world
2. Hard working crews and quick-thinking solutions
3. Great South African hospitality
Some of the issues affecting our industry are beyond our control. Of the ones we can affect, however, many can be undertaken with some imaginative flexibility and a specific focus on keeping costs down. By working together, we may be able to secure these jobs and turn this downward trend around - for everyone s sake.
Related Articles
-- --
-- --
-- Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. comments powered by Disqus
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
20/11/2025
15 March 2012
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Cinegy and Vericom are pleased to announce the recent deployment of Cinegy Archive for production and as...
20/11/2025
6 September 2012
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
FIC Turkey supplies media content to Pay TV under Fox TV Channel brands in Turkey.
At the start of s...
20/11/2025
25 June 2014
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Last month VIVA finalized its Cinegy installation in order to produce and broadcast the World Cup Brazil ...
20/11/2025
1 October 2014
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
With 5 locations spread out around Baden-W rttemberg, Schw bisch Media required a scalable end to end s...
20/11/2025
27 April 2015
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Cinegy, which develops and produces media asset management products that are used in flagship production...
20/11/2025
12 August 2015
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Munich, Germany, 26 October 2015 - Cinegy, which develops and produces software technology for digital ...
20/11/2025
5 November 2015
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Munich, Germany 3 November 2015 - Cinegy, which develops and produces software technology for digital ...
20/11/2025
12 February 2016
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Munich, Germany 9 February 2016 - Cinegy, which develops and produces software technology for digital...
20/11/2025
22 June 2016
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Munich, Germany 21 June 2016 - Cinegy today announced that ABS BROADCAST, one of the largest independentl...
20/11/2025
10 January 2017
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Find us on page 12 of the Program Guide 2016
Tags
NewBay Media Awards , Program Guide 2016 , broadc...
20/11/2025
15 March 2017
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Munich, Germany 15 March 2017 - Cinegy today announced that Thailand's Next Step direct-to-home Free...
20/11/2025
12 December 2017
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Munich, Germany 13 December 2017 - Cinegy today announced that it is making its Cinegy Air Cloud Pack...
20/11/2025
25 June 2018
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Munich 25th June 2018 - Cinegy today announced that Canada-based Accessible Media Inc. (AMI) has implemen...
20/11/2025
27 May 2019
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
The best quality live video from the worst networks - Haivision
Although DVB and the World Wide Web are...
20/11/2025
24 November 2020
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
ATV Expand and Increase their Playout and Editing Capabilities using Cinegy Software
Munich, Germany...
20/11/2025
1 September 2021
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Munich, Germany, 1st September 2021:
Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software technology for di...
20/11/2025
20 September 2021
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
ElectronicVerve continues a strong history of supporting Cinegy customers in India
Munich, Germany,...
20/11/2025
1 November 2022
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Munich, Germany, 01 November 2022: Cinegy, a premier provider of software technology for digital video...
20/11/2025
31 October 2023
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Britt Broadcast at TBC...
20/11/2025
CINCINNATI Oklahoma Community Television (OCT) has selected GatesAir and Triveni Digital as key technology partners in an ATSC 3.0 deployment that establishes a...
20/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has opened a wide-ranging inquiry into the relations between broadcast networks and their affiliates that could...
20/11/2025
NEW YORK Ad spend in the creator economy has more than doubled since 2021 from $13.9B to $29.5B in 2024 and that amount is projected to reach $37 billion in 202...
20/11/2025
Graduate Spotlight: Krysta Mirsik DePuy The educator from Hackettstown, New Jersey, shares how it took her 11 years to find the right graduate program for her...
20/11/2025
LONDON The winners of the Rise Awards 2025, which recognize women and companies whose achievements have stood out in the media technology industry, have been an...
20/11/2025
SANTA MONICA & NEW YORK Lionsgate's Worldwide Television Distribution Group and Debmar-Mercury have launched MovieSphere Gold in more than 30 million homes....
20/11/2025
ALAMEDA, Calif. Clear-Com has introduced its four-channel HelixNet beltpack, a next-generation advancement of its widely used two-channel model, and anticipates...
20/11/2025
NEW PROVIDENCE, N.J. Streaming technology and services provider Kiswe has launched Kiswe Core, a next-generation cloud-based platform designed to simplify the s...
20/11/2025
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. Dolby Laboratories has signed on as an official signature partner of the Bay Area Host Committee (BAHC) for the 2026 Super Bowl and the we...
20/11/2025
STUTTGART, Germany 3 Screen Solutions (3SS) has announced that the Canadian multiservice operator Telus has launched its Telus TV+ entertainment platform on Sam...
20/11/2025
Major League Baseball has announced deals with ESPN, NBCUniversal and Netflix covering 2026-2028 that make ESPN the exclusive distributor for MLB.TV, put regula...
20/11/2025
Berklee Presents Holiday Extravaganza: Duke Ellingtons The Nutcracker Suite and ...
20/11/2025
It's the Late Late Toy Show BIG BIG Ticket Giveaway day!
It's the Late ...
20/11/2025
Editor's note: This post is part of Into the Omniverse, a series focused on how developers, 3D practitioners and enterprises can transform their workflows u...
20/11/2025
The How To Gael pocast gals, comedian Chris Kent and quizzer Darragh Ennis drop by for the fifth episode of The 2 Johnnies Late Night Lock In
In the penultimat...
20/11/2025
Tonight on RT Prime Time, Marie Crowe on how a Reading School changed her son...
20/11/2025
The NVIDIA Blackwell RTX upgrade is nearing the finish line, letting GeForce NOW Ultimate members across the globe experience true next-generation cloud gaming ...
20/11/2025
Tanya Berger-Wolf's first computational biology project started as a bet wit...
19/11/2025
Sphere Sound Kicks Up Its Heels at Radio City Music HallUltra-immersive system from the singular Las Vegas venue is also ready for sportsBy Dan Daley, Audio Edi...
19/11/2025
The Future of Stadium and Arena Video Control Rooms: Tech Leaders Talk 4K, IP, a...
19/11/2025
One Year at Intuit Dome: Walking Through the Stunning Arena's Advanced Video...
19/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: IMG's Francois Westcombe Goes Inside IMG's Annual Digital ...
19/11/2025
Inside Brighton & Hove Albion's fan-first media machine By George Bevir
Tuesday, November 18, 2025 - 10:10
Print This Story
Brighton & Hove Albion'...
19/11/2025
Rock Chalk Rebuild, Part 1: Kansas Athletics Brings New Production Power to Rebu...
19/11/2025
Rock Chalk Rebuild, Part 2: A Pro's Guide to Kansas Athletics' New Video...
19/11/2025
MLB Media Rights Shakeup: NBC Inks Three-Year Deal for Sunday Night Baseball, Pe...
19/11/2025
Rohan Parashuram Kanawade attends the premiere of Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears) at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival at Egyptian Theatre on January 26, 2025, in Pa...
19/11/2025
Awards season is heating up, and the International Documentary Association just ...
19/11/2025
Aerojet Rocketdyne President Ken Bedingfield and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders were joined by state and local officials to celebrate the groundbreaking o...