2011 Drama Report
There were 40 Australian TV dramas produced in 2010-11, the highest result in more than a decade.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News
Earlier this week Screen Australia issued its annual Drama Report, a stocktake of scripted Drama and Comedy for the year 2010 – 2011.
There were 40 Australian TV dramas with budgets comprising $322 million, up by 12 per cent on last year.
This year’s result was the highest in more than a decade.
The total hours of produced television was 581 hours of TV, up from 566 hrs in 2009-10.
Total expenditure in Australia by the 2010-11 drama slate was $495 million, comprising $410 million by Australian projects and $85 million by foreign production.
There have been no adult TV drama co-productions for the past four years.
The Australian children’s drama slate continues to fall, comprising 94 hours of programs, down from 116 the previous year, with total budgets of $65 million in 2010/11 down from $76m. In the case of children’s drama, production has been at lower levels in the last two years after strong results in 2007-08 and 2008-09.
The Australian film/TV industry provided (64%) for this year’s Australian TV drama slate, down from 76% the preceding year, contributing $208 million, down from $234 million.
Direct government sources contributed $44m to 30 programs, up on 2010’s $28 million to 21 programs, but short of 2009’s $43m.
Screen Australia provided $24 million to 20 titles, well above the $14 million in nine titles last year.
Series and Serials for Adults (includes sketch comedy):
Crownies Screentime Pty Ltd
Danger 5 Dinosaur Pty Ltd
Home and Away series 24 Seven Network Operations Limited
Housos Antichocko Productions Pty Ltd
Neighbours series 28 FremantleMedia Australia
Outland Princess Pictures Pty Ltd, Outland Productions Pty Ltd
Packed to the Rafters series 4 Seven Productions
Rescue Special Ops series 3 Southern Star Entertainment Pty Ltd
Rush series 4 Southern Star Productions Number 7 Pty Ltd
Slide Slide Films Pty Ltd
Small Time Gangster Boilermaker Burberry Entertainment Pty Ltd
Twentysomething High Wire Films, Electric Living Productions
Winners & Losers Seven Network
Woodley Bucket Tree Pty Ltd
Mini-series:
Conspiracy 365 Circa Entertainment Pty Ltd
East West 101 series 3 East West 101 Season 3 Pty Limited
Laid series 1 Porchlight Films Pty Ltd
Offspring series 2 Southern Star John Edwards
Paper Giants Southern Star John Edwards
Sea Patrol series 5 – Damage Control Sea Patrol Productions (Mini-Series 5) Pty Ltd
The Slap Matchbox Pictures Pty Ltd
Spirited series 2 Southern Star Entertainment Pty Ltd
The Straits Matchbox Pictures Pty Ltd, Bala Pictures Pty Ltd
Tangle series 3 Southern Star John Edwards
Underbelly: Razor series 4 Screentime Pty Ltd
Wild Boys Southern Star Entertainment Pty Ltd
Telemovies:
Blood Brothers Playmaker Media Pty Ltd
Panic at Rock Island Goalpost Pictures Australia, Gibson Group
Underbelly – The Movie Files: Infiltration Screentime Pty Ltd
Underbelly – The Movie Files: Lucifer Screentime Pty Ltd
Underbelly – The Movie Files: The Man Who Got Away Screentime Pty Ltd
Children’s:
The Adventures of Figaro Pho Chocolate Liberation Front, Ambience Entertainment
Dance Academy series 2 Werner Film Productions
Ghosts of Time Three’s A Company P/L (Australia)
Lightning Point Jonathan M Shiff Productions Pty Ltd
Mal.com Animazing Productions Pty Ltd
My Place series 2 Chapman Pictures Pty Ltd, Matchbox Pictures Pty Ltd
Shezow Moody Street Kids Pty Ltd
The Woodlies Flying Bark Productions, The Woodlies Pty Ltd
Co-Productions:
Children’s:
Guess How Much I love You SLR Productions, Scrawl Studio (Australia/Singapore)
Foreign TV Drama:
Cruise to Happiness (AKA Kreuzfahrt ins Glück, Germany) Polyphon Film und Fernseh GmbH
Terra Nova (US) 20th Century Fox Television, Amblin Television, Chernin Entertainment, Kapital Entertainment
(Including film and post-production) NSW accounted for 41% of drama production activity in 2010/11 up from 26% in 2009-10, mainly due to dramas such as Wild Boys, Underbelly: Razor, Rescue Special Ops and Crownies.
Queensland was 28% (down from 31%), due to co-productions Terra Nova (US) and Cruise to Happiness (Germany), as well as local TV dramas Sea Patrol, The Straits and Lightning Point.
Victoria was 25% (down from 37%) with dramas including Offspring, Rush, Winners & Losers and The Slap.
Production in South Australia rose from 3% to 4% while West Australian, Tasmania, ACT and Northern Territory totalled 2%.
To compare with last year’s report go here.
12 Responses
Cloudstreet was 2009-10.
http://tvtonight.com.au/2010/11/2010-drama-report.html
Where’s Cloudstreet?
I think Aussie networks do relatively well for drama – indeed we were trying to work out overt at Digital Spy where the UK networks stand this year and although we’re probably at double the number of shows produced, many of them are 3-6 parters – so hour for hour it’s probably much closer than that.
Less children’s drama being produced? That would please Kirben.
Wish they’d schedule Outland already 🙁 Can’t wait for it!
Never realized that there was so much Aussie drama produced this year. That’s great. Please give us more. Perhaps an Aussie drama channel maybe?
I love Australian Drama, no matter what Network it is on. I think it is fantastic that there has been so much drama made over the last couple of years. The industry is alive and employing so many good people 🙂
That certainly makes me feel better about the local industry. While I don’t like and don’t watch many of the shows listed I love that aussie actors can work at home.
I also hope ABC recommisions Crownies as it is a terrific show I reckon, even if it is a bit uneven at times it is well written.
Great article and very interesting to note the increase in production in NSW resulting in the percentage share drop from Victoria. Says it all really about Film Victoria’s abandonment of Producer support over the past few years – this is the inevitable outcome.
P.P.S. I’m glad people are employed at least. Sorry for the bad mood. It’s why I avoid thinking about it mostly.
P.S. Sorry about the length David.
I’ve watched:
– Series and Serials for adults: none.
– Mini-series: part of one i.e. Paper Giants because they couldn’t air them two weeks in a row at 8.30-10.30pm (or when they ended ) Sunday.
– Telemovies: none.
– Childrens including co-productions: none although not a child.
– Foreign: one i.e. Terra Nova.
I would of tried The Slap but not on Thursday nor 9.20pm Friday maybe if it was later at 9.33-5pm or even 10pm. I’ll admit looking at the last episodes ads I think I’m glad I didn’t see it. Also there’d be those annoying pop-ups.
The weird thing is I used to watch a lot of Australian shows in the twentieth century. Though there is one thing I look forward to and hope it’s done well and that’s Phryne Fisher I just hope it’s aired on a Sunday when and where I’m willing and desperately want to watch it. I also love the docu-dramas on the ABC.
I’ll admit one reason I don’t miss Australian TV shows on the commercial networks is that they can’t be bothered to air them at 7.30pm or 8.30pm or 9.30pm. I wouldn’t mind as I’ve said before if they were all 1-3 minutes late as long as they cancel each other out. But they can’t be bothered to be reliable so why should I want to bother with them? They gave up 10 years ago so I gave them up unless I’m extremely interested. I’m often happy with the alternatives. Just sometimes they’ll get me to watch. I don’t know if it’ll ever be Australian again although if it’s by Jonathan M. Shiff Productions for adults I might.