Producers, Writers, Directors, Actors: “It takes a village to raise a child”

Australian producers, writers, directors, composers, actors, and key industry groups have made a united front to reject calls by Seven, Nine and TEN to drop a quota for Children’s Television.

At the parliamentary inquiry into the sustainability of the Australian film and television industry this week, the CEOs of free to air broadcasters Seven, Nine and TEN all made submissions to abolish Australian children’s television quotas.

Kingston Anderson CEO, Australian Directors Guild said, “What the broadcasters are essentially arguing for is a reward for failure: failing Australian children, failing Australian parents, failing Australian industry. It is a cruel irony that in an inquiry into the growth and sustainability of the Australian film and television industry, the commercial broadcasters have argued for the destruction of the Australian children’s content industry.”

According to Screen Australia’s Drama Report, in 2014-15 there were 47 children’s productions in Australia with a total spend of $299 million. According to the industry groups, this economic activity would be in jeopardy if the quotas were abandoned.

Matthew Deaner CEO, Screen Producers Australia, “What is lost in the current focus on the broadcaster’s position, is the success of the Australian children’s television both here and abroad. Children’s television is one of the most lucrative international exports in the entire industry, contributing to a significant portion of $100 million in annualised international content revenue; its reach extends to over 150 countries across film, TV, digital, animation, gaming, live performance and merchandising. Local broadcasters are the trigger for this broader economic activity. We can’t lose sight of the bigger picture.”

According to the ACMA’s Broadcast Financial Results, in 2014-15, the commercial broadcasters spent approximately $30 million on children’s content, out of a total content budget of nearly $2 billion. Under these new proposals, the broadcasters would be under no obligation to commit to this level of spending in future.

“Australian taxpayers want and deserve Blinky Bill and the myriad of wonderful Australian characters that only a quota protects. Otherwise we become a dumping ground for exclusively American culture,” said Guy Gross (President, Australian Guild of Screen Composers).

TEN’s CEO, Paul Anderson told the hearings that the broadcaster would invest the budget attributed to children’s content into prime-time programming, should it be freed of its responsibilities.

But Paul Murphy, CEO, Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance said, “When the UK Government took away quotas on their broadcasters in 2003, it led to a 93 per cent fall in spend on children’s content by those broadcasters. The UK Government admitted it made a mistake and brought back children’s quotas. A recent Australian study by PwC concluded that the removal of content requirements in Australia would result in a 100 per cent reduction in children’s drama and other children’s content production. Under no circumstances can we take the risk of removing existing children’s content quotas unless a water tight alternative is in place.”

Screen Australia’s 2013 report Child’s Play, found that Australian children prefer content specifically made for them and are highly engaged with drama on a number of levels.

Jan Sardi President, Australian Writers Guild said, “This is about more than money. It’s about who we are as Australians. An intrinsic value of Australian children’s drama is that it reflects the diversity of the Australian experience back to our children. No one else is going to make Australian stories for us. If we lose the children’s industry, we will lose a sense of self, our cultural heritage. The next generation will grow up on a diet of foreign programming and without Australian accents. More importantly, Australian children deserve better. They deserve Australian stories. They deserve to dream Australian dreams.”

Seven’s Tim Worner told the committee the spend on children’s content is not proportionate to the audience, saying, “We’re spending millions of dollars on children’s content for just a few thousand viewers. Some of the audiences are down to an average of 6000.”

But Matthew Deaner said, “There has been a selective use of figures. The primary broadcaster audience reflects where the children’s content has been programmed, usually on multichannels. But we know that the numbers increase across platforms. This is why we need a multiplicity of children’s content offerings, not a monopoly. It takes a village to raise a child and that village is multi-platform.”

Signatories:

Screen Producers Australia
Australian Writers Guild
Australian Directors Guild
Media Arts & Entertainment Alliance
Australian Guild of Screen Composers
Australian Screen Editors
Australian Production Design Guild
Australian Screen Sound Guild
Visual Effects Society