Studio space very tight in Sydney
International players are booking up premium studio space, blocking out TV networks, even when they aren't using them.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under News
TV networks are finding it increasingly hard to film ‘shiny floor’ shows in Sydney with high demand for studios, due to international players.
Seven Chief Content Officer Brook Hall said, “The hardest thing we’ve got with some of these shiny four studio shows now is studio availability. Some of the global giants are hiring out Studios for huge periods of time, even when they’re not using them, and they block us out. So we have to film these shows in two and three week windows, which then causes conflicts with talent.”
Outside of newsrooms networks have around one or two studio spaces on site, but none big enough to film The Voice, previously filmed at Carriageworks or Dancing with the Stars at Disney Studios (formerly FOX Studios).
“That’s why Australian Idol is filmed out in the suburbs (Rooty Hill). It’s something that’s all the free to air broadcasters are finding very hard.”
Seven also films Home & Away on site at its Eveleigh base.
- Tagged with Australian Idol
13 Responses
I really hope they’re able to make more studios in Sydney or just…force the big international players to go somewhere else
Can’t we make more film studios in the country?
I don’t think that networks or local production companies can really lay the blame at the feet of international players. The studios are a business, and they will be always seeking to have their facilities booked out and generating revenue. They probably don’t care where the hire fees are coming from, I can’t see them turning away income to make sure that local producers can access their services. I think if Australian producers are having problems securing facilities, they need to start coming up with innovative solutions. Maybe approach the international production companies to see if they might sub-let space when it’s lying dark. Maybe invest in OB equipment – why not film Dancing With the Stars in traditional dance halls, bring in community engagement. Maybe this would be cost prohibitive, but television has always found ways to reinvent the wheel.
If only there were at least one other capital city that offered studio space…..
When the bean counters moved almost everything made in Melb to Syd during Covid what did they think would happen?
Yes they are looking at Melb. You make a fair point.
… “other capital city”? there are two studios sitting largely empty at the ABC in the Adelaide suburb of Collinswood …
Yes I was using sarcasm. There are plenty of facilities around the country but everything got centralised to Sydney during Covid and now they’re struggling for space.
… “everything got centralised to Sydney” looooong before Covid …
Are they laying the foundations for axing the Idol live shows and like Dancing with the Stars and The Voice pre-recording the lot, blaming a “lack” of studuo space when in reality their accountants don’t want to book out a space for 2 months if it can be pre-recorded in 2 weeks.
No?
That’s exactly how I read the article. Laying the blame for “not so live” blockbuster TV, which has to now be all pre recorded.
But why would they bother laying the groundwork for an excuse? It’s not something that matters to the vast majority of viewers.
… in “the old days” everyone had studios, then the beancounters and journalists took over and decided that news was the only important thing so studios were bulldozed and replaced by apartments everywhere … more important is to look at the age of the cameramen on these shows, without the in-house studios there are no studio crews and the freelancers who operate on everything are those that grew up when there were studios and crews to learn the ropes … a few weeks ago on the ABC Gore Hill Fakebook page there was the story of a couple of cameramen who started at the ABC in the seventies, were made redundant when Mark Scott declared that the ABC was merely a “news organisation” and outsourced virtually everything else and have freelanced back for ABC studio productions ever since with a combined experience now of over a hundred years … who is going to replace them?
Maybe Seven should have factored that in when moving their premises. They could have had a large studio space of their own they could have rented out when they didn’t need it themselves. But reinforces the short-sightedness of the business that continues to plague them.