“Neighbours could most certainly be at risk”
Producers speak out int he tug of war over the future of local quotas.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News
Long-running soap Neighbours has entered the fray in the tug of war over local quotas.
In an article with ABC, Fremantle chief executive Chris Oliver-Taylor said, “I think in the free-to-air environment Neighbours could most certainly be at risk if the quotas were to change.”
The 10 Peach currently comprises a hefty slice of 10’s annual local drama quota, although they have been suspended for 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But the independent production sector is pushing the government to confirm their restoration for 2021 so that local commissions and production can ramp up now.
Suzanne Ryan, founder of SLR Productions, which makes children’s shows such as Lexi and Lottie: Trusty Twin Detectives, and Berry Bees ,said producers are on tenterhooks.
“We are in production now but we don’t know if we will have any productions next year. And until we know that we can’t keep anyone employed after our current productions finish,” she said.
FreeTV Australia CEO Bridget Fair said, “These rules are a bit like stepping into a time machine back into the 1980.
“That’s when most of the rules that we’re currently living with were dreamt up — at a time when we had three commercial television stations, we had no internet and no pay TV.”
There is also an ongoing push for streaming services to meet local quota minimums.
“We want Netflix, Amazon … Disney Plus to commission Australian content [and] to want to,” Oliver-Taylor said.
“It’s with those sorts of quotas that we will see a strong production.”
Both points are currently under consideration as part of the government’s Supporting Australian stories on our screens options paper.
Oliver-Taylor also questioned the $400m allocated to lure international production to Australia when local producers were suffering.
“To hand over $400 million to international production, which effectively now favours international over domestic, can’t be good screen policy,” he said.
Share
- Tagged with Neighbours
6 Responses
Although Neighbours does not rate that well in australia in England it is an institution and channel ten get paid a fortune for each episode, so ten won’t be getting rid of it soon.
Just on the ‘we want Netflix, Amazon, Disney Plus to commission Australian content and want to’ comment, they better hope that doesn’t happen or we will all flock to those even more as what differentiating factor will the networks have then, lots of advertising and tired reality formats, lol be careful what you wish for you might be just negating the only competitive advantage you have left.
Gee I thought Neighbours was mostly made for the overseas market now anyway and most of its success and funding would have come from there, so 10 would really drop that money making effort due to quotas they’d have to be mad to do that, especially with it on Peach I don’t think Australia would be the audience they’re making this for anymore anyway. What a bizarre rant from Fremantle.
What a load of utter dribble.
The CEO of a foreign owned production company crying out for protectionist govt support based on a production that receives the lions share of it’s revenue from overseas distribution.
Neighbours is actually the model of how local productions need to perform in a global market.
In the same way that new competition is squeezing the local market, it is also providing opportunities in global markets. You can’t have it both ways.
If a production can’t compete for viewers then no amount of protection is going to make it a viable business.
Lift your game guys,,,it’s that simple
If we are talking about Independent Producers why are we listening to Fremantle one of the largest global media empires owned by Bertelsmann RTL Group in Germany. They operate in Australia because they swallowed up Reg Grundy Productions decades ago, which used to make game shows and soaps here, operating out of the tax haven of Bermuda.
Ten slashed the amount they paid for Neighbours when they moved it to Eleven, halving the ratings in the process, and it’s now fall to 100k viewers. Channel 5 is now the major broadcaster but it’s sold to over 60 countries. A Global media companies will decide Neighbours fate not Ten or quotas. It isn’t even covered by the Premium Drama Quota because it’s a soap airing on a secondary channel. It counts for local content there, but so would repeats of Sons and Daughters.
I thought the deal with UK networks had a large contribution to keeping Neighbours well funded and in production? Which I assumed safe guarded it from much Australian interferences, so to speak.