TV production: small screen, big hits
Networks are still thinking big and spending bigger for quality television. Laine Lister questions the sustainability of the model.
Despite the endless talk of belt-tightening in Australian television, it was hard to notice the recession during 2009. Thrifty networks did economise by downsizing production crews and switching to up-to-the-minute technology. But it was the year that big production values reigned supreme: Network Ten unsheathed its mega-hit MasterChef, while Seven and Nine triumphed in the ratings with their respective high-end dramas Packed to the Rafters and Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities.
The public broadcasters didn’t exactly skimp either; the ABC completed a second series of East of Everything and commenced shooting yet-to-be-aired, self-funded children’s drama My Place, while SBS wrapped production on the second series of acclaimed dramas East West 101 and The Circuit.
And though people have been predicting a wane in television for more than a decade, everyone still wants to hitch a ride on the old dear; advertisers, producers and even celebrity-seeking viewers.
The free-to-air (FTA) networks cemented their faith in TV by making a promising leap into the digital arena, led largely by the ABC with its second and third channels boasting a real diversification in content. Some predict this move will create something of a diaspora of viewers as they find particular channels to suit themselves.
SBS struck out into the digital field with a second channel, Nine launched Go! with its largely imported schedule targeting a youth market, and Ten’s One HD was launched to the delight of sport enthusiasts. Only Seven was left holding its digital plans close to its chest.
Audiences have embraced the additional content and the extra slots double the likelihood of a show being picked up by a network. What matters though, is that money is spread thinner. Traditional FTAs around the world are suffering with the fragmentation of the market and as a result advertising revenue is noticeably limited.
BALANCING ACT
Fortunately, Australians have developed a particularly good model for keeping TV production at a financially viable cost and prudent producers will, no doubt, make the most of the current environment.
To get the real story of where networks and producers stand, Encore approached the market and the flood of responses confirmed our suspicion: budget constraints are very good for creativity.
Noel Price, executive producer at Southern Star (Blue Heelers, Love My Way, The Alice) was one of them.
“In times of economic strain people become quite innovative and come up with all sorts of interesting possibilities and ideas they may not have contemplated when more money was around,” he says.
Every couple of months a new piece of technology is born, helping producers to reduce costs. Producers insist that employing smaller teams of multi-taskers is the key to production efficiency – and better communication – others say technology that aids a crew’s mobility helps to save money, while some simply feed the crew less!
The Holy Grail of course is to produce a ratings hit with multiple platform usage, multiple secondary revenue streams, with minimal costs to its creators. Sounds simple, but a major challenge is to cut costs without compromising production values, according to Lisa Fitzpatrick, head of program development at Seven.
“Because the minute you do the audience is too savvy and won’t stick with you,. It’s a big balancing act,” she says.
It means the network’s investments have to be absolutely spot-on; there’s no place for mediocrity with the fragmentation of viewers. Underperforming programs are quickly relegated now. Just last month, Seven’s scripted comedy Double Take was shafted to the 10.30 PM slot with a US comedy filling the gap at 8 PM on Thursdays.
Prior to this, Nine’s crime drama The Strip suffered a similar fate when audiences tuned out.
“There has always been an appetite there for Australian production. But just because it’s Australian made, doesn’t mean audiences will watch it; it has to be a good show,” says Marena Manzoufas, head of programming at the ABC.
LOCAL FACES, BIG RATINGS
Whether it is an imported format re-jigged for the Australian market such as Dancing with the Stars or The Biggest Loser, or a home-grown program such as Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation or Underbelly, Australians enjoy stories that address them in a familiar language. And it is precisely this smart, inclusive television formula that has helped Riley Turner Productions (Kath & Kim) sell an awful lot of themselves in the past few years, turning their satiric brand of cultural reflection into international success.
“In the last three or four years all of the networks both commercial and subscription have been commissioning Australian content and the audience has responded so favourably to it,” Manzoufas says.
Bob Campbell, executive director of Screentime (Underbelly franchise) has the statistics to prove it.
“If you look at the Australian television landscape, anything from 15 to all of the programs in the top 20 [highest rating shows] are Australian. That’s not to say there’s not a place for imported programming, but viewers want to see our stories well told and well portrayed and that’s been the case for a long time now,” he says.
This resurgence, particularly true in local drama and comedy – and audience’s appetite for it – is evidence that in tough times Australians are creating clever shows; good enough to appeal to a critical local audience.
WORKING WITH ONLINE
Money can be comedy’s worst friend, according Jason Stephens, director of development at FremantleMedia.
“Comedy doesn’t have to be expensive looking or have a big set or necessarily attract big names to be funny, so in some ways [financial restrictions] could work for comedy, particularly niche comedy that we might see online or some of the smaller platforms,” he says.
As Matthew Weiner, the multiple Emmy award winning auteur of the AMC television series Mad Men once said: “I
think people having unlimited amounts of money makes you really lazy”.
Weiner’s work (he also wrote for the final three series of The Sopranos) is the latest in a string of US television programs, compensating for the narrative shortcomings of Hollywood. And audiences are migrating in droves.
The revitalisation of television began a decade ago in the States when cable networks produced their own content, free from the limitations of the ratings-oriented FTAs. Suddenly, smart TV shows dealing with a number of previously taboo topics (Sex and the City, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under) or re-visiting familiar genres (cops – The Wire, western – Deadwood) made TV cool again. That trend eventually spread to the FTAs when Disney/ABC (US) pioneered a ‘smart TV’ movement with Desperate Housewives and Lost and now high quality TV is in strong demand both online and on DVD.
Australian networks were soon to follow, with the ABC producing some of the strongest comedy programs this decade (Kath & Kim, the Chris Lilley shows, The Chaser’s War on Everything). Seven and Nine found their strengths in drama, while Ten has been the winner in the ‘reality’ programming.
How long can this boom last? We put the question to Matt Campbell, director of television and online content at SBS, who raised these pertinent points.
“It will last but it’s a fragmented market. Is there just going to be more content but at lower quality as the advertising figures go south rather than north, and how much is that going to affect the content that we’re watching? How sustainable is the system?” he asks.
The networks of course are optimistic in their outlook, and rely on their mass appeal to attract and sustain revenue. Beverley McGarvey, network head of programming at Ten says: “The critical thing for us is that something like MasterChef would never have worked online had the TV show not been huge. That’s true for any show; people would not have downloaded Desperate Housewives [in the volumes they did] had it not first worked on free-to-air”.
On the flip side, YouTube sensation Beached Az – a short clip in which a comically-Kiwi accented whale becomes beached, spawned a short series that was aired on ABC2 from last month. It may be an isolated incident, by is it a sign of things to come?
While the incremental revenue from the other platforms is not yet significant enough to make a difference, eventually it will compete with traditional media spend. McGarvey concedes: “If it’s a huge show on Ten that does really well on Ten.com.au, the revenue of those combined probably would cover the cost of the show.
Whereas revenues from Ten alone used to cover the cost of the show; so we need to be smarter, leaner and more efficient in how we produce television”.
David Mason, head of development at the Nine Network agrees with McGarvey adding: “We are all being as careful as ever about how we spend our money, not only on the programs we commission, but on exactly how we spend money within a commission/contract”.
TV VS. FILM
We’re only scratching the surface of what those technologies are going to be, says Michael Bourhcier, executive producer of Blink Films (who was recently appointed as a SPAA television councillor). But he is confident that broadcast in its variety of forms is going to remain very powerful.
“There will be a continuing of online services, be that catch-up or pay-for-downloads and the third major one will be ‘anywhere I damn well please’ television; whether that’s on mobile or laptop or a screen in a shopping centre or whatever else people are going to devise that we haven’t thought of yet. But I think those three areas are all going to remain powerful, but I’m not predicting the death of television,” he says.
Other producers are little more cynical in their responses, some launching into the contentious issue involving a deal with New Zealand that allows our networks to purchase Kiwi product at acquisition price and have it count towards local quotas, and vice versa.
Jenny Lalor, entertainment lawyer and SPAA television councillor explained the issue.
“We did a Memorandum of Understanding with New Zealand that New Zealand [content] would count as Australian and vice versa. I don’t think it was ever intended to allow the networks to buy programming in at a tenth of the price [of locally-produced content] and put it on air as content to fill their content quota in that way,” she says.
It was intended to enable Australians to work on co-productions with New Zealanders without all the paperwork, she says. She admits that the audience in the Antipodes ultimately wouldn’t stand for their rival nation’s product dominating prime viewing. Therefore it’s not in a network’s best interest to exploit the deal.
Besides, the TV industry is far more hung up with the rivalry that exists between TV and filmmaking in this country, to lose sleep slinging mud across the ditch.
Tony Wright’s gripe is the discrepancy in the tax break allocated to film compared with TV production. The December Films managing director (makers of children’s, documentary and factual entertainment) explains that as part of the Producer Offset, filmmakers are entitled to a 40 percent rebate, twice the refund allocated to applicable TV counterparts.
“We make feature films with vast sums of public money that make very little money at the box office, which means very few people see them. Yet we make television that millions of Australians see but the stimulus to grow television audiences has been treated as it were a second cousin and it’s very short-sighted.
“It’s time for us to shift our emphasis from an obsession with making feature films to an obsession with making really great cutting edge, unconventional, quirky, dark, funny television because that’s where our big screens are now, they’re in the home,” he argues.
Producers also say that the tax rebate raises significant cash flow issues for any company doing small-to-medium
sized productions. Nick Murray, joint managing director of Cordell Jigsaw (Bondi Rescue, Recruits, Stupid Stupid Man) has lobbied the government for change to its structure.
“We’ve just done a show that we delivered in July, but we won’t be eligible to receive the offset on it until next year, which means we’re waiting months to get our profit on that show,” he explains.
He’d like the Producer Offset to be optional and for producers to have the choice to claim other forms of financial incentive independent of the rebate.
“The offset should be optional because Screen Australia discount their input into a production by the offset, so there’s no benefit to the producer. It’s an impost and some people are having trouble with it,” he adds.
Funding is tougher still if you’re in the children’s television production game, given that the networks (with the exception of the ABC) are less interested in funding kid’s programming than for adults in most cases, according to Lalor.
“If you’re making kids programming you’re lucky if you get 20 to 25 percent of your budget out of an Australian
network, so you’ve got to raise the other 75 to 80 percent either by going to the Government and asking them for
money, by finding distributors from overseas by doing co-productions where they get money out of their territory and you get money out of your territory, and through the tax breaks,” she says.
The model in Australia has changed with the advent of Screen Australia and while there is a lot to be pleased about the reality is there’s not a lot of money coming through the public sources, Blink’s Bourchier says.
Financial intricacies aside, the future of television appears bright. Perhaps it’s industry’s ability to adapt to a changing environment. Maybe it’s simply because Aussies love their tellies; after all the television has replaced the fireplace – people gather around it as a family
