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Pay-TV drama, way of the future for FremantleMedia

Jason StephensFremantleMedia Australia’s creative director Jason Stephens says subscription TV is a more interesting place for producers than commercial networks.

Stephens told Encore that the license rebate the Government will offer free-to-air broadcasters to promote Australian production is “fairly gray” at this stage, but pay-TV is allowing production companies to be more creative.

“From a producers point of view, subscription TV is a great place to make TV. It has to do with the executives who are in charge of drama at those networks, and a relationship of trust. It feels to me that’s the way of the future,” he said.

“Pay TV will keep producing quality television and that would be the incentive for more people to subscribe. It’s happened in the US and the Australian networks are watching that side of the world quite closely.“

FremantleMedia Australia announced production of drama series Killing Time for TV1 this week. The 10 one-hour episodes, in conjunction with TV1 and Film Victoria, will follow lawyer Andrew Fraser’s (played by David Wenham) rise defending the most infamous criminals in Australia, and then his ultimate downfall and imprisonment for five years in maximum security.

Fraser wrote two books based on his experience and approached Stephens, pitching him the idea of a factual series. Stephens saw more potential as a drama series, optioned the books and began the year-long development process, working with writer Ian David and Fraser himself.

“Ian likes to work as close to the truth as possible, to make an attractive project for people watching. Fraser has also been a story consultant from day one, as well as his ex-wife, ex-colleagues and family members, but from day one we made sure that he is clear that it won’t be a propaganda piece, we’re going to make sure that the real story is told,” explained Stephens.

The series was originally developed for the Seven Network, who ultimately felt it wasn’t a good fit for them.

“We couldn’t argue that. They had issues with the Andrew Fraser character not being the hero type character that we could never make him into. They felt that it wasn’t going to work for their network given their audience and how well they know it,” said Stephens.

The team found more creative freedom with TV1, which allowed them to make “a very different program” than it would have been at a commercial network.

While pay-TV audiences are smaller than free-to-air, Stephens believes that word of mouth and DVD will turn Killing Time into a commercial success.

“Subscription TV is increasing at a great rate, and people are buying DVDs to watch quality programming such as The Wire or Mad Men. Besides, it will probably end up on free-to-air down the track; TV1 has the ability to sell it on and that’s their intention, but right now they’re making sure that we produce the best possible program for them,” said Stephens.

Depending on its success, Killing Time could potentially become a franchise like Underbelly.

“There’s the possibility that the brand could work with the template we’re setting up in the way we tell the story, with Fraser being in jail and looking back on his life. We’re thinking of other stories; there’s plenty of interesting people who have spent time in jail with great stories to tell.”

Killing Time will be shot in Melbourne over 15 weeks starting in April, with post-production still being negotiated with post houses in Victoria. It will be delivered in August, and is likely to air in the last quarter of the year.

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