Screen Producers Australia chief executive, Matthew Deaner, has predicted a further decline in TV drama production as a result of federal government budget cuts following the worst result in a decade.
Deaner said Australian TV drama was at a critical juncture with measures urgently needed to boost production levels following the release of Screen Australia’s annual Drama Production Report.
Deaner pointed to continued falls in the number of adult drama hours produced, with 2014-15 levels at their lowest point in a decade.
Contributing to this trend are several factors, including a move to shorter series as well as sharp declines in commercial television commissioning.
Deaner said that the full effects of the budget cuts to the ABC were yet to be felt and that, without intervention, the drama production figures for 2015/16 were likely to be even worse.
Screen Australia will lose $3.6 million over four years. This follows a cut of $38 million over four years in the 2014 Budget.
The ABC's budget has been reduced from $1.113 billion to $1.084 billion and SBS was sliced by $2 million to $283 million.
Deaner said the industry expected a level of fluctuation from year to year, particularly in expenditure on local and international feature film production.
"But the hours of drama television are a worrying sign as television remains the engine room of the production sector,” he said.
"After eight years of growth in adult drama expenditure, we have now seen two consecutive years of falls in spend with the total number of hours produced dropping from a peak of just over 500 hours in 2007-08 to closer to 400 hours in 2014-15. This the lowest figure in a decade.
“At this rate we are on track for Australian adult drama to be in the same situation as children’s drama, where commercial networks merely meet their quote obligations only rather than commissioning over and above the quota.”
Deaner said that, increasingly, second-run drama programs from New Zealand were being used by networks to fill quota, making it impossible for Australian programs to compete on a cost basis.
“Shorter run series reflect the demands of the marketplace due to the popularity of six and eight episode dramas and, it can be argued, allow for a greater diversity of programming and provide opportunities for more creatives and production companies, but the flip side is that these short form dramas are incredibly expensive to establish when costs are not amortised over a long form series," he said.
"This has lead to a reliance on Screen Australia funding for these productions. Sustainability is the issue here."
Deaner pointed to modelling from PwC, commissioned by Screen Producers Australia and ASTRA, which indicated that an increase in the Producer Offset for Australian television to 40 per cent (to equate with the Offset for feature films) would boost Australian television production.
“We believe increasing the offset would create significant investment opportunities for producers to explore, taking pressure off Screen Australia funding, and opening doors for more international finance and co-productions,” he said.
Deaner said that it was an imperative that a new agreement be reached between Screen Producers Australia and Actors’ Equity on the ATRA agreement for repeats and residuals.
“The industry has to come together to agree on a new ATRA agreement which reflects the contemporary realities of the digital world," he said.
"The agreement has not been substantially amended in 33 years.
"Networks are other investors are looking for ways to monetize their commissions across multiple platforms and plays."
This year film expenditure was above the five-year average, marginally down from last year.
However, Deaner raised concerns that about half of all feature film expenditure came from foreign feature films shooting in Australia.
"There has been a significant decrease in Australian feature film expenditure after three peak years driven by three big productions Gatsby, Mad Max: Fury Road the Gods of Egypt," he said.
“Essentially Australian feature film production has been static for a number of years.
"Screen Producers Australia is working hard with industry colleagues to get a low budget feature film scheme in place to increase the range and number of films being made here and to build creative pathways for emerging filmmakers."