The SPA bath that will steer what we see

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This was published 8 years ago

The SPA bath that will steer what we see

By Debi Enker

For the uninitiated, a SPA conference might conjure images of delegates lounging in hot tubs and enjoying relaxation massages. Yet the annual gathering of the Screen Producers Australia (SPA), the organisation that represents the country's film and television producers, is more likely to feature intense discussions about the priorities of government funding authorities and the intricacies of the Producer Offset tax rebates.

Players large and small, hopeful and cynical, come together at the conference to discuss, debate, posture and fret about issues affecting their industry. Yes, there's also networking and socialising, but if hot tubs are involved, the participants have managed to keep a discreet low profile.

John Edwards told the conference there was a case for the return of the long-form drama series.

John Edwards told the conference there was a case for the return of the long-form drama series.

The recent SPA conference took place towards the end of a particularly turbulent year, given the arrival of the SVOD (subscription video on demand) services. The once-dominant free-to-air networks now have an additional competitor vying for viewers' attention.

As Richard Finlayson, director of television at the ABC, notes, "Low-cost SVOD players have changed audiences' expectations of price, quality, convenience, mobility and user experience – forever."

Here are some of the issues from the SPA conference.

Old guard v young Turk

Modelled on the ABC's Q&A, the panel that kicked off the event featured some cheerleading for a local industry that "punches above its weight" globally, furious agreement that "beige" productions were not desirable on any screen, and consideration of local relevance versus international appeal. There was also contemplation of cold, hard commercial reality given that a home-grown drama might cost $250,000 an episode, while a network can buy an episode of The Big Bang Theory for $80,000 to $100,000. Then there was the showdown between Russel Howcroft​, the Ten Network's executive general manager, and Dana Brunetti, president of Trigger Street Productions (House of Cards) about the value of commercial broadcast TV versus SVOD. Seated at opposite ends of the desk and representing different ends of the TV spectrum, the two argued about whether or not FTA networks were dinosaurs (Howcroft disagreed) and how much viewers hated ads (Brunetti reckons they'd pay not to see them).

John Edwards' starring role

One of the country's most successful and prolific TV producers (Love My Way, Offspring, The Beautiful Lie, Police Rescue), Edwards is a voluble ball of energy, a creative force who fizzes with ideas and opinions. Delivering the annual Hector Crawford Memorial Lecture, he presented a cogent case for the return of the currently unfashionable long-form drama series – say 40, 22 or even 13 episodes against the current trend for six or eight – proposing it as an economically advantageous model that has the bonus of offering a training ground for fledgling directors and writers. He also suggested that scheduling dramas to screen twice a week might make sensible counter-programming against the reality TV contests that dominate prime-time.

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Significant statistics

• Consumers' free-to-air TV viewing hours have dropped 4 per cent in five years.

• Netflix signed up more than 1 million subscribers in its first six months in Australia.

• TV viewing sits at more than 90 hours a month; online video viewing has increased to 18 hours a month.

• Sixteen to 24-year-olds now spend more than 50 per cent of their viewing time online: 14 per cent of them never watch TV.

• In the past decade, Australian drama production has dropped 24 per cent, from 527 hours in 2004-05 to 401 hours in 2014-15.

• SVOD penetration is predicted to reach 50 per cent within five years.

Aunty's plan

Finlayson's session about the ABC noted that, over the past five years, first-run, original content hours on the national broadcaster shrank from 53 per cent to 42 per cent. He announced an Australian Content Plan, "a collection of productivity initiatives" aiming to achieve 60 per cent first-run content in prime time, or 1300 hours, and pledged that new episodes of Australian drama will run every Thursday of the 2016 ratings year.

The sweet spot

No account of the SPA conference would be complete without mention of Ten's well-patronised and generously stocked free lolly table, a sugar-hit confected in the network's blue-and-white corporate colours. It certainly lifts the spirits and blood-sugar levels of attendees who are possibly inspired to think happy thoughts about Ten, even as they might question the network's proposed level of investment in local drama.

Postscript

In the wake of the conference, I'm convinced that the ascendant SVOD services should be required to contribute to local industry, either through investment in a minimum level of original local content, or via contributions to a content fund. So far, they've been immune to the quotas that apply to commercial networks and pay-TV operators. They can choose to invest, as Stan has done with the excellent No Activity, but there's no imperative for them to spend a single red cent.

That should change.

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