Finding an Australian voice within children’s television production
In recent decades Australia has built a global reputation for its children’s television content. Anna Potter warns that increasingly the Australian voice in much of that content is being lost due to a variety of global factors.
The Australian children’s movie Paper Planes has taken more than $8.3m dollars since its January 15 opening.
That success with local audiences is a reassuring sign that parents will still fork out for their children to watch quality Australian screen content, especially when it’s released in school holidays.
Anna the commercial free to air networks still have a minimum children’s quota for Australian drama. But they pay as little as possible and if they can help it won’t pay the minimum licence fee that Screen Australia sets as a precondition to equity investment. The commercials have for decades now looked for any means possible to pay as little as possible. Official co-productions fulfil the quota and animation is driven by subsidy money from European and Canadian countries and creatively they drive the productions. Local commercial networks don’t give a toss. The only way to ensure some live action drama is to introduce a sub quota so these animated euro puddings don’t dominate. There is no political will to do this from the Coalition or Labor. Great shows such as the fabulous Round The Twist will become a memory. It is sad.
Anna Potter makes some good points here.
Children’s television is a disaster area in Australia. By contrast, internationally it is a busy time for Kids’ producers. In many countries there are channels, laws or incentives for the production of media for this demographic. In Australia there is the ABC – the other players are enforced and unwilling partners in the production of kids TV. There are around twenty live action kids programs being produced in Canada annually. The list of dramas above, while certainly not comprehensive, does indicate the paucity of material that is produced in Australia.
What we currently have is not really an industry which is ridiculous as Australian kids producers are well regarded internationally. There are some reasonably successful producers, particularly in animation, but no one is making a motza out of this.
Sadly, without properly legislated demands on the commercial broadcasters and additional funds for the ABC, the kids TV industry will virtually disappear and the export revenue, jobs and knowledge with it.
Too many players, too few slots, too little money.
Anna Potter highlights the critical need for the Australian Government to strengthen its policy and target Screen Australia Funding to support local Australian television producers over US conglomerates such as Matchbox and any other overseas corporations.
As Anna rightly points out, “Australian children deserve to see high quality locally made screen content including television that reflects their country, its voices and its stories back to them, allowing them to ‘dream their own dreams’. This kind of television is general too expensive to make without some form of subsidy; fortunately the democratic will to fund it indirectly through taxation exists”.
The alarming thing is how DIFFICULT it is for local production companies such as SEA EAGLE PRODUCTIONS Darwin to access television production funding. We have a full television license 4 channels including Aboriginal TV, Education TV, Tourism TV and TV NT. We have a proven track record and have a full staff of Indigenous people in every area of radio, television, and production but we cannot get funding and have tried for years – the lion’s share goes to ABC, SBS and NITV ($75m plus). I don’t begrudge this however there should be even distribution across Australia and an increase in Australian Government funding for locally produced television content.
We have countless opportunities to produce and televise children’s television content but no opportunity to do so. We need to