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“We don’t want quotas at the ABC.”

ABC Drama boss says quotas on ABC could impact on the level of quality of its premium dramas.

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ABC has again argued against local quotas being enforced upon the public broadcaster.

ABC Head of Drama, Entertainment and Indigenous Sally Riley, told the Screen Forever conference this week a requirement to meet minimum hours would impact on the quality it maintains with premium drama commissions.

“I’m not an expert on quotas and all that stuff ,and we certainly don’t want quotas at the ABC. Because then if they set a quota of 200 hours of drama, then we’ll be back to making, shows like Blue Heelers or Police Rescue.

“We want to make those really standout shows… it would be all about the hours and they’ll be low quality. That doesn’t work for us.

“But I do think there is a place for quotas on the commercial channels. We don’t get commercial funding, we get government funding, and I feel like the streamers get off easy a bit in this country.”

Communications Minister Paul Fletcher has previously pledged support for minimum Australian content obligations for ABC and SBS, also supported by Screen Producers Australia.

Quotas on Streaming platforms was a frequent talking point at the conference this week.

“At the moment I feel like we do the shows we want to make, so I don’t feel like we’re missing out on anything. We’ve been hammered by the government. We’ve had our budgets cut so we can’t do as much as we want. I don’t think we’re missing out on telling the stories we want to tell,” Riley continued.

“But I do feel like we will be getting to a time if the streamers are doing more and more content here that we won’t be getting the best shows.”

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  1. I commend her speaking out against quotas, which in turn only forces mass low-quality content output. However her judgement of Blue Heelers and Police Rescue couldn’t be more misplaced. Blue Heelers especially was one of the most commercially and popularly successful shows our country has ever produced.

    1. … yes, but there are people at the ABC who consider “popular” to be an anathema … there’s the (probably apocryphal) story of the RN producer who, upon discovering that the ratings for her program only managed an asterisk, congratulated her team for producing something that only “discerning” people listened to !!!

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