Local TV drama production expenditure breaks record high

Screen Australia released its annual Drama Report today, revealing that overall drama expenditure has increased by 9 per cent for 2012/13, boosted by Australian television drama, which has reached the highest levels on record, increasing by 27 per cent.

Screen Australia's Chief Executive Ruth Harley said, The television broadcasters have raised their stakes, with all broadcasters increasing their investment in Australian drama.

In particular, it's been an outstanding couple of years for the ABC, which financed 30 titles in the 2012/13 slate, providing the largest contribution of investment of any single broadcaster. The ABC's recent triennial funding boost has enabled it to commission significant levels of high-quality, original drama. This has produced great results for the industry and audiences with titles such as Serangoon Road, The Gods of Wheat Street and returning seasons of Redfern Now and Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, said Dr Harley.

Adult television drama is going from strength to strength, with the continuing trend in high-production value mini-series. Overall hours increased by 7 per cent and budgets and spend by 11 per cent and 16 per cent respectively.

There is renewed activity in children's television drama, which increased significantly across all indicators following a contraction over the previous three years. Total expenditure more than doubled, hours increased by 95 per cent and total budgets by 74 per cent.

There is clearly a growing demand from local audiences for Australian stories, across multiple platforms and new channels, said Dr Harley. Australian stories are important to the cultural fabric of our society and contribute to our social belonging and sense of national identity. Moreover, our stories are resonating with international audiences as demonstrated by multiple format sales overseas for Australian television dramas such as Rake and A Moody Christmas.

Feature production dropped by 16 per cent from last year's high of $297 million, which was boosted by high-budget titles The Great Gatsby and I, Frankenstein.

Dr Harley said, The drop in Australian feature film activity reflects the cyclical nature of feature film production, which while down on last year, still achieved a strong result with compelling Australian stories including The Rover and Tracks. A diverse ecology of projects across all budget ranges is needed to ensure a vibrant and healthy film production sector.

Foreign activity increased by almost a third on last year, primarily due to the high-budget US feature The Wolverine, after two years with no high-budget US features shooting in Australia.

However, expenditure by foreign projects carrying out post, digital or visual effects (PDV) work in Australia declined. The PDV sector as a whole has experienced a contraction over the last 12 months with the high Australian dollar of recent years challenging the sector's ability to attract foreign PDV work.

The Drama Report 2012/13 documents the contribution of the Producer Offset to the annual slate of Australian features and TV drama, both domestic productions and official co-productions. Data is presented for the past five years, 2008/09 to 2012/13. Foreign titles are also analysed if they have been shot (or substantially shot) in Australia, or carried out PDV work in Australia without shooting here.

The report can be downloaded from www.screenaustralia.gov.au/DramaReport

LINK:	http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/news_and_events/2013/mr_131023_drama...
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