A ROW has erupted over the size of the production windfall the Australian TV
industry can expect to receive if quotas on drama, documentaries and children’s
programs are imposed on free-to-air TV networks. Under proposals before the
Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, the TV networks will have to increase
the number of hours they devote to those genres by 50 per cent a year.

They already exceed their quotas in documentaries – airing 90 hours between them
each year – and face an extra $40 million to $60 million in programming costs to
make up for the shortfall in children’s and adult drama. The production funding body
Screen Australia estimates an additional $10 million is needed to reach their quota of
144 hours of children’s programming a year, and an extra $30 million to reach the
new target of 540 hours of adult drama.

One hour of Australian drama can cost between $350,000 and $1.4 million to
produce – roughly three-and-a-half times as much as an hour of imported American
TV, Screen Australia says. But the commercial TV networks say they already spend
$1.2 billion a year on the production of Australian content – about a third of their
revenues – while their profits are falling.

”As far as I am aware we are the only country where quotas are being increased on
broadcasters,” said Julie Flynn, the chief executive of TV lobbying group FreeTV
Australia. She said Screen Australia’s analysis was ”simplistic” because it ignored

increasing production costs, yet her body does not have figures of its own to support
its argument.

The body representing the production industry, Screen Producers Association of
Australia, predicts the content quotas will be one of the first recommendations from
the Convergence Review that Senator Conroy will implement.

The SPAA executive director, Geoff Brown, estimates it will cost the networks an
extra $60 million a year which, he said, is negligible given that at some point in the
future the networks will be relieved of the $280 million licence fee. ”They are
whingeing but they’ve had a lot of upside in all this,” he said. ”This is the economics
of television. They are getting released from hundreds of millions of dollars in licence
fees so this is an obligation on content.”

The Screen Australia chief operating officer, Fiona Cameron, stood by her figures and
said: ”This is sensible progressive regulation that has an eye on the reality of the
market – that is who is watching now and who are the most influential players.”

Julian Lee – SMH – May 2, 2012