ACMA Reports Continue to Paint Ugly Picture for Vulnerable Genres of Australian Content – The figures once again highlight the alarming drops in Australian children’s content, including children’s drama across all Australian commercial free-to-air (FTA) TV channels and the sustained decline in adult drama since the unprecedented decision to suspend regulation under the ‘cover of covid’ and then deregulate, crippling business activity and employment and halting the development, production and supply of Australian content to Australian audiences.
“This is the direct result of what was a disastrous outcome of the then Government’s deregulation of our industry at a point of extreme vulnerability in the production industry, and now with no real correcting strategies having been put in place to address this collapse for over five years,”
– said SPA CEO Matthew Deaner.
Figures show that before deregulation, there were 391 hours of Australian children’s content, but this has now dropped to just 48 hours in 2024. When it comes to children’s drama, the drop is from 98 hours to just 10 hours – for the entire year.
“It’s hard to understand how anyone can look at these dismal figures and feel any sense of satisfaction. The more you look closely at them, the worse the picture actually is.
“The opportunities for Australian screen-producing businesses are narrow and getting narrower each year. When you look at series commissions in drama, children’s and documentary production (combining seasons of the same title), there have been only nine opportunities for a commission from Ten and 10 from Seven. We note that Nine appears to be doing better with more overall commissioning opportunities.
“That is far from the level of investment in new commissions needed to ensure a diverse and growing screen industry across commercial television partners in what are the most vulnerable of screen genres.
“For local drama, the 2021 deregulation has seen the number of drama hours decrease from 444 hours in 2019 to 259 hours in 2024.
“It is also notable that New Zealand programming content accounts for a significant portion of all content reported by Seven and Nine, but Ten has done much better on this.
“Not surprisingly, Australian audiences are shifting to streaming services for their drama viewing; however, and despite an initial burst of commissioning activity, the absence of local content rules and discoverability requirements on those platforms means there’s slim pickings for finding any Australian drama there in this unregulated space.
“It’s way past time for the Australian Government to come to terms with the current crisis in local Australian screen content. Weak or, in the case of streamers, non-existent, local content rules are short-changing Australian audiences.
“And with a social media ban for under sixteens to come into effect from December 2025, and children making up 20% of our population, it’s hard to understand exactly what the cultural strategy is for our kids being able to engage to see and hear their own authentic stories, except to keep feeding them a steady diet of Americana. Australia can and should do much better than this,”
– said Mr Deaner.
Link to 2024 commercial TV Australian content compliance results HERE.
Media Release – SPA
Link to SPA HERE
TV Central Screen Australia content HERE
ACMA Reports Continue to Paint Ugly Picture for Vulnerable Genres of Australian Content
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