Aussie FTA networks comply with content rules but fail to support local kids and drama commissioning
Australia’s commercial free-to-air (FTA) networks are continuing to avoid investing in local children’s content and drama, despite meeting regulatory content compliance requirements.
The latest annual figures from regulator Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) reveal the FTA networks- Seven, Nine and Ten-have met their commercial television licensee content quotas in 2024, which require 55% Australian content in their programming between 06.00 and 00.00 on their primary channel, and 1,460 hours of local content between 06.00 and 00.00 on non-primary channels.
While all three networks exceeded the 55% minimum, Screen Producers Australia has pointed out the significant lack of genre diversity in the chosen Australian content that is programmed, specifically in the commissioning of children’s content and also in local drama and Australian film.
“The figures once again highlight the alarming drops in Australian children’s content, including children’s drama across all Australian commercial FTA channels and the sustained decline in adult drama since the unprecedented decision to suspend regulation under the ‘cover of covid’ and then deregulate, crippling business activity and employment and halting the development, production and supply of Australian content to Australian audiences,” SPA chief Matthew Deaner said.
The SPA contends that in ACMA statistics before deregulation in 2019, there were 391 hours of Australian children’s content broadcast across commercial networks, that figure has now dropped to 48 hours in 2024. In the case of children’s drama, the drop is from 98 hours to 10 hours across the year.
“It’s hard to understand how anyone can look at these dismal figures and feel any sense of satisfaction. The more you look closely at them, the worse the picture actually is,” Deaner said.
Across local drama statistics, the number of drama hours decrease from 444 hours in 2019 to 259 hours in 2024.
He said the overall effect of the local commissioning crisis was that opportunities for Australian screen producers were dwindling each year.
“When you look at series commissions in drama, children’s and documentary production (combining seasons of the same title), there have been only nine opportunities for a commission from network Ten and 10 commissions from Seven. We note that Nine appears to be doing better with more overall commissioning opportunities,” he analysed.
Significantly, networks Seven and Nine include New Zealand programming content to bolster their quotas, whilst network Ten does not.
Deaner argues that the Australian audience shift to streaming platforms and these continuing diminishing investment statistics from FTA networks in local kids and drama content, necessitate new regulations and revised local content rules in an unregulated space.
“It’s way past time for the Australian government to come to terms with the current crisis in local Australian screen content. Weak or, in the case of streamers, non-existent, local content rules are short-changing Australian audiences,” Deaner said.
Meanwhile, Free TV Australia, representing the FTA networks, Seven, Nine and Ten, countered SPA’s claims stating that commercial television was leading in Australian content delivery “with no other platform matching this extraordinary investment in local stories.”
Free TV CEO, Bridget Fair said commercial broadcasters “are the most heavily regulated of any media, and they deliver Australian content in spades – day after day, year after year, exceeding every requirement by substantial margins.”
Fair clams that the FTA networks are investing over A$1.62 billion (US$1.05b) annually in local programming from sports, news, drama series and documentaries and has resumed the fight to abolish the annual A$50m Commercial Broadcasting Tax imposed on Seven, Nine and Ten.
