Overview of mini-series production

Production of Australian mini-series for adults declined significantly from the 1980s, when an average of 12 titles with total production budgets of $41.8 million ($90.8 million in 2009 dollars) were produced each year, to the 1990s, when the average was three titles with total budgets of $14 million ($20.9 million in 2009 dollars) each year. However, mini-series production has risen again, from an average of two titles with total budgets of $13.1 million ($16.5 million in 2009 dollars) in the years 2000/01 to 2005/06, to an average of seven titles with total budgets of $55.3 million ($57.8 million in 2009 dollars) in the three years since then. Total budgets for Australian mini-series in 2008/09 were the highest since the 1980s.

In terms of sources of funding, most Australian mini-series in the 1980s – both adult and children’s – were financed under the 10BA tax incentive scheme, and most of the top-rating Australian mini-series of all time – A Town like Alice, The Dismissal, Bodyline and Return to Eden, for example – were produced in this period. From 1980/81 to 1987/88, an average of nine mini-series raised $32.8 million a year under 10BA (see Production incentives: Overview).

In the 1990s, the main source of finance was the Australian Government. Nine out of 13 adult mini-series made between 1995/96 and 1999/00 were financed by the Film Finance Corporation Australia (FFC). The remaining four received funding from the Commercial Television Production Fund, or from the public broadcasters (ABC and SBS). During this period, the level of 10BA-financed mini-series production dropped to an average of two titles a year raising $10 million. In the last nine years, 28 out of 33 adult mini-series were financed by the FFC (which became part of Screen Australia in July 2008). The other five were financed by the commercial and public free-to-air broadcasters, and none was financed under 10BA. From 2007/08, contributions have been made by producers via the Producer Offset, cashflowed in various ways.

Co-production activity has been reasonably significant: 12 co-production mini-series were shot during the 1990s, with total budgets of $118 million, and another three, totalling $25 million, have been produced since then. No foreign mini-series were shot here in the first half of the 1990s, but there has been an average of one made each year since 1995/96. In 2007/08 that single title, the HBO/Playtone/DreamWorks mini-series The Pacific, had a total production budget of $150 million, making it by far the most expensive TV drama production ever made in this country.