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The Kettering Incident tops drama international sales

These were the top 10 Aussie drama sales in 2017.

Foxtel’s The Kettering Incident was the top revenue earner in international sales in Adult Drama in 2017, according to data released by Screen Australia.

During calendar year 2017 Australian TV projects clocked up a total of 108 sales worth $27.8 million to international distribution platforms (excluding New Zealand).

One production company, Matchbox Pictures, had three dramas in the top 10: Deadline Gallipoli, which was produced with Full Clip Productions, Wanted series 1, which was produced with R & R Productions, and The Slap.

Every Cloud Productions had two series of the same drama, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, in the list, in the second and third spots.

Half of the top 10 screened locally on ABC TV.

Actual net returns back to investors is not reported against individual projects for reasons of confidentiality.

1 The Kettering Incident Porchlight Films, Sweet Potato Films
2 Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries series 1 Every Cloud Productions
3 Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries series 2 Every Cloud Productions
4 Deadline Gallipoli Matchbox Pictures, Full Clip Productions
5 Top of the Lake series 1 See-Saw Films, Escapade Pictures (NZ)
6 Wanted series 1 Matchbox Pictures, R & R Productions
7 Secrets & Lies Hoodlum
8 The Code series 1 Playmaker Media
9 The Slap Matchbox Pictures
10 The Doctor Blake Mysteries series 1 December Media

5 Responses

  1. The Kettering Incident was hardly a success, it was made to meet a compulsory quota. The first episode was good, then it went nowhere until a sudden dreadful ending, one of the worse ever. It was shot in 2014 and Foxtel sat on it for nearly 2 years before bothering to air it. It had guaranteed OS sales because BBC Worldwide co-funded it. The BBC didn’t want to air it so they sold it to BSkyB in 2017, but they did air on their Netherlands channel in 2017. They will just be glad they got something back on the $15m they invested in it. Note in 2017 it beat out repeats of Miss Fisher (2012), Dr Blake (2013) and The Code (2014), Top Of The Lake (2013) (a BBC Worldwide/SeeSaw NZ production that Screen NSW and Australia put money into before the ABC pulled out because it had an American actress in the lead roll (Yet the ABC was quite happy to put Gruffudd in Harrow to get funding from ABC…

  2. The Kettering Incident is a well designed Euro/Nordic noir looking show so it is a natural fit for most buyers and could even gain a niche for itself in the Pay TV market as a sci-fi show if they ever decide to make a second season. Even though Australian producers want to make unique Australian stories its the commercial products that makes the money, these shows must appeal to an international audience as Canadian production companies have successfully been doing for some decades now.

    1. Well that Canadian comment isn’t true at all. Canadian content by and large is looked at as fourth rate when compared with product from the English speaking territories.

      1. I refer mostly to shows made in Canada usually for American consumption, but Canada does make some good home grown shows and co-productions too, shows like Arctic Air and Vikings, Orphan Black and Cardinal, to name a few. Australia is not quite there yet.

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