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Artists to rally for Drama, Kids TV.

AWG, ADG, SPAA & MEAA are planning action against Seven, Nine & TEN.

Writers, directors, actors, producers and crew will gather in show of support against a push by Seven, Nine and TEN to reduce obligations to local content and Kid’s TV.

Members of the Australian Writers’ Guild, Australian Directors Guild, Screen Producers Australia and the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance have marked Monday September 18 for gatherings in capital cities.

In a statement AWG President Jan Sardi said, “As many of you will know, the right to tell our own stories from our own perspective and in our own voice is not something that just happened, it’s a battle that was fought by the Guild and the industry in the Make It Australian campaign of the 1970s. The battle was won, but the war to keep it Australian has never ended and it’s now entering a new, critical phase.

“Commercial TV broadcasters want to walk away from any requirement to create children’s content and are lobbying the government to abolish local content quotas. New players like Netflix, YouTube, Stan, ISPs and Telcos are making billions of dollars from the Australian market with no obligation to create local, original content for the Australian audiences it exploits.

“If we let this happen there will be no more scripted drama, no kids’ TV and our screens will be flooded with foreign content and reality shows.

“We will lose our jobs, our unique Australian voice and our culture and because of the Free Trade Agreement, once it is gone, it is lost forever.”

The emotive language even goes as far as to say, “Our enemies are rich and powerful but together, our voices are louder.”

Sydney 6.30pm, AFTRS
Melbourne 3pm, ACMI
Brisbane 6pm, William Galloway Auditorium, QCU
Adelaide 5pm, Media Resource Centre
Perth 4pm, East Perth Fielder Street Creative Hub
Hobart 5.30pm, Fullers Bookshop

makeitaustralian.com

Updated.

5 Responses

  1. This whole “no local content for Netflix” thing has the Govt stymied. What do the Networks really want this year in exchange for retaining the content rules? And next year?
    How much the Networks get depends on the volume of “the voice of the people”.

  2. There’s no point forcing the commercial networks to lose money broadcasting stuff to an audience that is all elsewhere watching stuff on DVD, online, on cable or on the ABC. Most of commercial TV’s local children’s content is low budget quiz shows and infotainment on secondary channels. It wouldn’t be missed.

    Netflix lost $US400m last year. Stan is not predicted to break even before 2019 (and that’s optimistic), YouTube is subsidised heavily by Google’s other income, ISP’s are in trouble because they are the ones who will carry the can for the NBN debarcle and of course TV networks are all in trouble. The billions claimed are purely fictitious. Google and Facebook are sucking all the money out of the media and funnelling it into tax havens, but that has nothing to do with Childrens TV on FTA.

  3. First they got their way with licence fees now they want their way with reduced local content. Having a TV licence is a privilege but these networks seem to think they should be able to do what they want.

  4. The sooner the Australian content requirements are removed, the better. Overseas content offers better variety and quality overall, especially for animation.
    Recent TV shows rarely offer anything Australian specific, especially on the animation side. And we were already flooded by reality TV for kids in the earlier days of the ABC3.

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