A record spend on Australian content …and absolutely $0 on Children’s Drama
Commercial networks spend more on Sport as costs rise and they fuss over anti-siphoning -whilst shunning the audience for Children's Drama.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News, Top Stories
Commercial Free to Air networks spent $1.91b on content in the 2022 – 2023 financial year, down slightly on $1.94b the previous year.
The numbers have been released by the Australian Communications and Media Authority in their annual Commercial TV Expenditure Report.
87% of all program expenditure was for Australian content, an increase of 8% on the previous year.
$1.67b was spent on Australian content -a record amount. $35m of that was in regional areas, almost entirely in News & Current Affairs. This marks a 16% increase in expenditure on regional news.
Australian Content:
Sport: $635,095,000
Light Entertainment: Other: $556,556,000
News & Current Affairs: $412,693,000
Adult Drama: $49,437,000
Documentaries: $14,788,000
Light Entertainment: Variety: $1,153,000
Children’s: Other: $744,000
Other Programming: $111,000
Children’s Drama: $0
There were increases in Sport, News & Current Affairs and Light Entertainment: Other.
Australian Adult Drama slid from $65m in 2021 – 2022 to $49.4m in 2022 – 2023 ,while Sport rose from $545m to $635.1m.
Children’s Drama went from $2m to $0 in 12 months.
Since the requirement for Children’s content was scrapped, overall spending on Australian Children’s Drama has steadily declined from $11.6 million (2018-19) to $0 (2022-23).
Similarly, spending on Australian children’s other content (i.e. non-drama) has fallen from $13.2 million (2018-19) to $743,820.00 (2022-23).
A further $0.24b was spent on Overseas content.
Free TV Australia:
Free TV CEO Bridget Fair said: “Providing quality Australian programming for free to all Australians is part of our DNA. We are committed to bringing Australians the trusted news, live and free sport and local entertainment programming that they love.
“These numbers are a powerful demonstration that Free TV broadcasters see themselves as the home of Australian content. No other media platform makes the consistent investment in our local content year in, year out.
“This level of investment is a clear reason why the Australian Government should ensure that our policy settings support the sustainability of the commercial television sector. If we are going to have a Future Made in Australia, a strong local media industry is central to that objective.”
Screen Producers Australia:
“In the very same week that we are hearing about the threat to free-to-air audiences from losing some sport on their channels, we have confirmation that they are spending very little on Australian drama programs for Australian child audiences,” said SPA CEO Matthew Deaner.
“Australia’s children make up 20% of our population and should have free access to stories that reflect their lives and culture.
“The same social equity arguments being made around free access to sport apply equally to free access to other Australian culture such as drama programs. If sports should be free to watch, so should children’s TV dramas.
“Australia’s anti-siphoning list amounts to significant industry assistance to commercial free-to-air networks as sporting events are a key revenue driver, yet there is no reciprocal social obligation for important Australian child audiences.
“While spending on Australian sport, light entertainment, news, and current affairs is trending upwards, spending on Australian adult drama is declining and has dropped 24% since last year.
“In some good news, it is very welcome that spending on Australian documentaries has increased since 2019-20 and has remained almost on par with spending in this genre this year as for last.
“SPA has raised concerns around children’s content several times with the Australian Government ever since the previous Government deregulated regulation for commercial broadcasters in 2019, spending on Australian child audiences has continued to drop.
“These new figures are highly alarming – but not at all surprising. Until there is more balanced regulation of commercial broadcasters and the increasingly dominant streaming platforms, nothing will change for Australian child audiences.”
16 Responses
And while watching those classic kids show, kids were watching 1 hour of ads for chips, soft drinks, ice blocks and takeaway food full of sugar, fat and salt after school. Now you can’t advertise during kids TV, which is why Go shows shows that are just giant ads, and responsible parents won’t let their kids watch any commercial TV at all.
Kids TV has moved to iView, Cbeebies, Nicholodeon and Disney+, where there is more of it than ever.
It’s probably a good thing that $0 is being spent on children’s drama, we have seen just what Disney is doing to children’s films.
Disney is not a FTA commercial broadcaster.
Doesn’t matter. The same identity politics infects both.
Bluey seems to be doing pretty well, and on a public broadcaster. Networks would kill to have her.
Maybe 10 could buy bluey reruns and slam them in each weeknight like they did with MASH. But dogs could be anything they want, because they are animated dogs not humans.
Nothing wrong with identity politics.
Thanks for the heads up David
Isn’t the Rock island Mystery Tv series filmed on the GC for Paramount, money spent on Kids Tv??
Yes when it falls into the 2023 – 2024 year, that report will come next year.
Childrens Drama is rightly $0 thanks entirely to do-gooder lobby groups:
a) If confectionary like the Milky Bar Kid advertises, they complain.
b) If cereals like Rice Bubbles advertises, they complain.
c) If games like Mouse trap and Barbie advertises, they complain.
d) They don’t even like school shoe ads like Bata Scouts with the compass inside.
They will not let you advertise to children – plain and simple.
And commercial TV is not a charity service.
My two older teenage kids wouldn’t have dreamt of watching something on FTA after school – irrespective of what was showing. They want to stream stuff they’re interested in on demand, and it doesn’t bother them whether it’s new or old. My daughter in particular in the last couple of years has streamed Mako Mermaids, Dance Academy, Gilmore Girls, New Girl and Modern Family. The idea of watching something scheduled at a certain time, with ads, is completely alien to them and of no interest.
Absolutely, the requirement to run 30 minutes of kids programming on weekdays from the main channel a decade back was the death knell for children’s drama, removing visibility. Saturday content moving to multi-channels made sense as they could run big repeat blocks there and instead invest in Weekend Sunrise and Today.
But the idea that on weekdays, scheduling this content at 7 or 8am on a multi-channel would work was always fanciful.
Networks: “no one watches local content on FTA these days”. Well, if you don’t spend money making these shows, then no one will watch them. The fact that Children’s Drama is $0, and adult drama is dismal, then that’s the bigger problem.
Long gone are the days when Commercial Networks would air kids drama in the afternoons – from Spellbinder and Ship To Shore, to Ocean Girl and Mirror Mirror. (and ABC’s popular Round the Twist)
A friend of mine posted a clip of the 80s children’s drama Henderson Kids on social media recently, so many comments from people saying how much they love this show & wish shows like this were on our screens for our young people to watch.
It’s an absolute disgrace that the networks don’t invest in local drama for kids, they deserve to see local stories on our screens too & for young up & coming actors a chance to get into the industry.
The fact that the networks only spent just under 50 million on adult drama & more than 556 million on reality crap is also a huge concern.
It’s as if the quotas actually served a purpose.