The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted 70 productions which the ABC has commissioned from a total of 50 independent producers, according to MD David Anderson.
See-Saw Films' Emile Sherman identifies the worldwide exclusion of COVID-19 from insurance cover as the biggest issue facing the film and television industry - and that's a problem for completion bond company Film Finances Australia.
Screen Producers Australia has canvassed the pluses and minuses of two of the models set out out in the Screen Australia/ACMA options paper.
Lingo Pictures MD Helen Bowden has called on the Federal Government to adopt the model set out in the Screen Australia/ACMA options paper which would require all commercial networks, pay channels and SVOD services to invest a percentage of their revenues in new Australian content.
The Seven, Nine and 10 networks insist they are not stockpiling Australian dramas and other local programming despite the suspension of the local content quotas for the rest of this year.
The coronavirus pandemic has forced the suspension or postponement of 119 screen productions, resulting in a loss to the production sector of $471 million.
The commercial free-to-air networks and Foxtel are major beneficiaries of the Federal Government's package of measures to help sustain Australian media businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In response to the COVID-19 crisis, Screen Producers Australia (SPA) has called on the government to implement a $1 billion screen content fund.