All the drama of TEN’s local content

There are more questions today about how TEN will meet its drama points in 2011.

“We’re fully aware of our obligations and we will meet our drama quotas,” a spokeswoman has told The Australian.

But so far it isn’t apparent how it will do so.

The network has to gain at least 250 points in a calendar year, with different drama formats attracting different points from the Australian Communications and Media Authority. While Feature Films and Miniseries are worth 4 points, a half hour serial is just 1. To qualify they must air between 5-11pm.

So far this year TEN has screened New Zealand-produced Outrageous Fortune and Baz Luhrmann’s Australia.

Under the Free Trade Agreement with New Zealand, Kiwi-produced television also counts as local Aussie drama.

The last Content Compliance report from ACMA saw TEN deliver 265 points in first run Aussie drama, trailing Nine on 300, and Seven far in front on 387 points.

But that was when Neighbours counted towards its total. Now on ELEVEN, the show no longer attracts those points and as we approach April the situation is dragging on.

The only content TEN could confirm for this year to The Australian was another series of NZ drama Go Girls, and 13 episodes each of Offspring and Rush.

In January this year programming chief David Mott told TV Tonight, “We haven’t put Neighbours on ELEVEN and thought ‘Now what are we going to do?’ We have a very clear strategy in place and all will be revealed as the year rolls out.

“I can absolutely say we will completely meet all our obligations.”

“Neighbours was going to belong on ELEVEN whether the government gave us any comfort on the multichannels and clearly they haven’t for 2011, but that hasn’t changed our view.”

Fulfilling those promises TEN announced Bikie Wars: Brothers in Arms last week. But it isn’t hitting screens until 2012, and according to today’s report, neither is prison drama Inside Out.

Since January, TEN has also been subjected to enormous managerial issues. Whether they have slowed drama developments isn’t clear.

If TEN can get the government to award drama points for multichannels it will find a way forward, but there could be a bigger danger.

The points system exists for a reason: to support Australian drama production. If multichannels operate on the same points system as our primary channels, networks may dump low-rating Aussie dramas onto them just to meet their quotas. Or they could produce low-rent dramas for the same purpose.

Keeping them on primary channels, where they only survive if the audience embraces them, means the pressure is on to maintain levels of quality.

Source: The Australian