Overview of TV drama production

The TV drama slate – Australian, co-production and foreign telemovies, mini-series, series and serials – grew significantly during the 1990s, with total production budgets peaking at $495 million in 2000/01. In the four years that followed, total budgets fell, reaching a low of $223 million in 2004/05. However, since then, total production budgets for the TV drama slate have increased slightly and in 2008/09, the total was $330 million.

The TV drama production section of Get the Picture is based on the annual drama production survey, previously undertaken by the Australian Film Commission and now by Screen Australia. It covers Australian programs, both in-house and those produced by the independent sector, as well as co-productions and foreign programs shot here.

During the 1990s, 505 TV drama programs (Australian, co-production and foreign mini-series, series and telemovies) with total production budgets of over $2.7 billion were shot in Australia – an average of 51 programs with total budgets of $274 million each year. Most of these programs were Australian, with an average of 41 programs per year and total budgets of $180 million. In the nine years since July 2000, the full TV drama slate has averaged 47 titles and total budgets of $338 million per year, including an average of 37 Australian programs with total budgets of $219 million.

Co-production activity increased during the 1990s, from four programs annually with total budgets of $25 million early in the decade to seven each in 1998/99 and 1999/00 with total budgets of $142 million and $150 million respectively. In both 2000/01 and 2001/02 total budgets exceeded $100 million, but dropped sharply in 2002/03 to $27 million and have since remained under $100 million; they totalled $27 million in 2008/09. High-budget co-production programs shot in Australia since the 1990s include Farscape (four series), Beastmaster (three series) and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Lost World (a telemovie and three series). Since 1990, Australia’s main TV drama co-production partners have been Canada (30 titles), the UK (19 titles) and the US (8 titles).

Foreign TV dramas shot in Australia during the 1990s averaged six titles a year with total budgets of $46 million. Of the 64 foreign titles shot here during that period, 51 (80 per cent) originated from the US, four from Japan, four from the UK, two each from Canada and Germany, and one from Korea. In the nine years since then, 50 foreign TV dramas have been shot in Australia, of these, 32 (47 per cent) have originated from the US, seven from the UK, three from Germany, and one each from Belgium, China, Greece, India, Japan, Korea, the Philippines and Sri Lanka.

The level of foreign TV drama production is mainly impacted by fluctuations in the number of telemovies made here. The peak of 16 titles in 2000/01 was the result of 14 foreign telemovies starting production, due in part to the acceleration of production schedules by US companies to avoid strike action in that country. Since 2000/01, annual spending in Australia on foreign TV drama has ranged from $1 million to $56 million, with most years around $30 million, with the notable exception of 2007/08 when a single title, the HBO/Playtone/DreamWorks mini-series The Pacific, allocated $134 million to expenditure in Australia, the highest since this indicator has been recorded.

Production spending in Australia has been tracked since 1994/95. During those 15 years, local TV drama programs have spent 98 per cent of their total budgets in Australia, co-productions 63 per cent and foreign programs 68 per cent.