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Series/serial production: Genres

Number and proportion of Australian and co-production series/serials by genre, 1997/98–2008/09

Next update November 2010

Since 1997/98, the ‘real-life/contemporary drama’ genre has tended to account for the highest proportion of Australian and co-production series/serials.

As a whole, 25–40 per cent of Australian and co-production series have been comedies, although since 2005/06 comedies have comprised more than half the slate.

Police dramas also feature significantly.

	No. Australian and co-production series/serials by genre
	97/98	98/99	99/00	00/01	01/02	02/03	03/04	04/05	05/06	06/07	07/08	08/09	12-year annual av.
Comedy
Sitcom	3	3	5	6	7	4	2	3	4	6	9	7	5
Sketch comedy	3	2	0	3	1	4	4	1	4	5	1	2	3
Total comedy	6	5	5	9	8	8	6	4	8	11	10	9	7
Drama
Medical	2	1	1	1	2	2	1	2	2	1	1	1	1
Police	6	4	3	3	5	3	2	1	1	1	2	2	3
Real life/ contemporary¹	5	5	8	8	7	7	7	7	4	7	5	5	6
Historical²	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Sci-fi/fantasy³	0	3	3	2	2	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	1
Total drama	14	13	15	14	16	12	10	11	8	9	8	8	12

	Proportion of Australian and co-production series/serials by genre (%)
	97/98	98/99	99/00	00/01	01/02	02/03	03/04	04/05	05/06	06/07	07/08	08/09	12-year annual av.
Comedy
Sitcom	15%	17%	25%	26%	29%	20%	13%	20%	27%	30%	50%	41%	26%
Sketch comedy	15%	11%	0%	13%	4%	20%	25%	7%	25%	25%	6%	12%	13%
Total comedy	30%	28%	25%	39%	33%	40%	38%	27%	50%	55%	56%	53%	*38%*
Drama
Medical	10%	6%	5%	4%	8%	10%	6%	13%	13%	5%	6%	6%	7%
Police	30%	22%	15%	13%	21%	15%	13%	7%	7%	5%	11%	12%	15%
Real life/ contemporary¹	25%	28%	40%	35%	29%	35%	44%	47%	27%	35%	28%	29%	33%
Historical²	5%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	<1%
Sci-fi/fantasy³	0%	17%	15%	9%	8%	0%	0%	7%	7%	0%	0%	0%	5%
Total drama	70%	72%	75%	61%	67%	60%	63%	73%	53%	45%	44%	47%	*61%*

Source: Screen Australia.

Notes:
Annual average figures are based on unrounded totals.
1. Series set in present day, depicting real life or contemporary situations with the story focused on personal dramas of characters.
2. Series in a historical setting.
3. Fantasy-based series such as Farscape or The Lost World.

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