Screen Producers Australia (SPA) has predicted the uptick in foreign productions shot in Australia will fall next year due to the writers and actors strikes in the U.S.
Responding to funding body Screen Australia‘s Drama Report, which published this morning, producers body SPA said “negative effects”, primarily of the ongoing actors strike, would see the AUD$1.22B ($780M) spent by overseas companies dip.
As we reported in July, the likes of Mortal Kombat 2 and Apples Never Fall temporarily stopped production as industrial action broke out in the U.S., while big budget Apple TV+ series Metropolis was canned over fears around the strikes and spiralling costs.
The Drama Report released today shows foreign investment largely offset significant falls in investment on projects originating from Australia this year, mainly fuelled by feature films such as Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and The Fall Guy. TV shows shot in the country include NCIS: Sydney.
“There’s no doubt many factors driving this changing mix from spending on Australian drama to increased foreign drama, including a significant drop in Australian feature film spend, but we know that these high figures for foreign spend are subject to global trends and many factors outside of Australia’s control,” said Matthew Deaner, CEO of the SPA.
“Next year we can expect the investment figures to indicate falls in foreign titles reflecting the negative effects of a decline in activity caused by the USA actors and to a lesser extent writers strikes.”
The writers strike ended with a deal that was ratified by WGA members three weeks ago, while SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP remain locked in talks over a new contract for actors.
Deaner said “continuing” investments from the likes of Netflix, Paramount+ and Disney+ were “welcome in their own right and as a stabilising measure” but warned they were “made in the context of the continuing conversations between the Australian Government and industry stakeholders to bring certainty of investment in Australian stories from streaming services, which was the promise to audiences and industry from our new National Cultural Policy ‘Revive.’”
Streamers are set to face the introduction of content quotas, which have largely been welcomed by producers. However, the likes of Netflix, Binge and Stan claim prescribed spend could negatively hit their ability to invest in the production sector production sector.
Deaner said: “Our overall concern is that without oversight to protect rights and intellectual property consistent with key international screen territories and in other Australian industries that are oligopsony structures such as the grocery industry, Australia is at risk of limiting itself to being a service industry for the international market.
“This is because even with investment in Australian titles, there is an increasing lack of ownership and control of our own intellectual property which is a clear pathway to losing our ability to generate our own stories and being able to benefit economically and culturally from their creation. These problems need urgent Government attention and the trend is highly troubling for the future of our industry.”
He also claimed the Drama Report figures mask “what is an increasing wealth transfer away from our creative industry caused by unchecked market behaviours in commissioning, the worse being from global streamers.”
He has previously called the global streamers “super-trawlers” who offer producers “unfair” commissioning deals.
‘Troubling trends developing’
Screen Australia’s latest drama report revealed spend on films and TV shows from Australia was AUD$1.24M, down from AUD$1.53B a year prior. That represents a fall of AUD$405M ($260M).
Australian theatrical production fell significantly year-on-year to AUD$363M from AUD$794M in 2021/22, while TV and VOD productions ordered from the country was grew just AUD$12M to AUD$680M. At the same time external investment grew. There was a major increase in foreign features (AUD$733M from AUD$336M) — though overseas TV series investment dipped to AUD$487M from AUD$569M the year before.
SPA, which represents many of the country’s film and TV production houses, noted that while the figures at first glance seem strong, there are more “troubling” trends developing.
“We are particularly concerned about the overall decline in expenditure on Australian stories noting that spending on Australian drama million is down from $1.529M to $1.124m – and is now less than 50% of the overall drama spend for 2022-23 — last year it was 63%,” said SPA CEO Matt Deaner.
“Meanwhile spending on foreign drama [TV and VOD drama and features] has gone from $905M last year to $1.22M this year, or from 37% of the total drama spend to now 52% of total drama spend.”
Overall spend on drama in Australia was AUD$2.34B ($1.51B) in 2022/23, according to Screen Australia’s annual report, which was published as interest in shooting in Australia remains high.
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Source: DLine
