Australian TV drama on the ropes: a QUT study

The Uncertain Future of Australian TV Drama: How Australians Cultural Policy is Failing is published on QUT ePrints, produced by Making Australian TV within the 21st Century research team within the QUT Digital Media Research Center and funded by an ARC Discovery project grant.

The results of a four-year study show that while federal government investment in TV series is rising, Australians are receiving falling value in return.

QUT researcher Professor Anna Potter said the failure of governments to address the impact of digital technologies has led to a situation where corporate interests are put ahead of Australian culture and identity.

“Australians used to enjoy mainstream, long-running series such as Blue Heelers (Seven Network, 1994–2006), Water Rats (Nine Network, 1996–2001) and Offspring (Network Ten, 2010–2017), as well as miniseries such as All the Rivers Run (Seven Network, 1983), The Dismissal (Network Ten, 1983) and Howzat! Kerry Packer’s War (Nine Network, 2012),” Professor Potter said.

Co-author Professor Amanda Lotz said this is no longer the case and that Australian dramas currently shown are increasingly not stories specific to Australia.

“Federal support is also growing for productions commissioned by multi-territory streamers like Netflix for global audiences. These dramas may be set here, but they rarely engage with Australian social and cultural themes in any significant way,” Professor Lotz said.

“Such services are focused on maintaining international subscriptions and are not concerned with returning value to Australians in return for the funds and tax credits they receive.”

Professor Potter said fit-for-purpose policy based on impartial industry knowledge was needed to respond to the profound disruption digital technologies had introduced to Australian television.

“Instead, the goals of Australian cultural and economic policy have been confused, with policies consistently putting corporate interests first,” Professor Potter said.

“The sector’s main policy tools – Producer Tax Credit and funds managed by Screen Australia – operated with a low level of transparency and were not subject to independent review. Both cases prioritized the economic activities of the sector over the achievement of social and cultural objectives that have historically justified Australian content regulation and support.

“Recently, the government has even extended industry support without Australian content criteria.”

The research team – which included Dr Marion McCutcheon and Professor Kevin Sanson – found that the standard of Australian television series has declined dramatically in recent decades, with reduced commercial broadcaster programming being most responsible for this decline.

“In the past, commercial broadcasters Seven, Nine and Ten competed with each other, commissioning hundreds of hours of series to attract the attention of Australian viewers. As a result, content quota policies have delivered economic and cultural results,” said Professor Sanson.

“Currently, commercial broadcasters are funding fewer series and their costs are increasingly being met by Australians through tax credits for the production sector.

“The government is currently one of the most important investors in Australian drama, but there is little guarantee that foregone tax revenues will benefit the Australian community.”

The report says Australia must unbundle and rebuild its cultural and economic policy initiatives to ensure Australians have free access to stories that are unique to Australia, not just those that are made here.

Read the full report online (https://eprints.qut.edu.au/248187/).

Main photo: Dr Marion McCutcheon, Professor Kevin Sanson, Professor Amanda Lotz and Professor Anna Potter