What are our stories worth? | Measuring the economic and cultural value of Australia’s screen sector
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feature lm and drama television screen content supported by Screen Australia, but also covered broader
screen content as well. This data was particularly signicant in informing the gross revenue gures and
expenditure gures for the screen subsectors.
To supplement this data in the contribution modelling, other sources were used, including the Screen
Australia (2015a) Drama Report and data from the Screen Australia website on topics such as domestic box
oce performance, share of Australian cinema releases and Australian audiovisual royalties earned from
overseas sales.
Data was also drawn from the ABS datasets on lm, television and digital games industry in Australia for
2011-12 (ABS, 2013), from publicly available sales statistics from the Australian Home Entertainment
Distribution Association (AHEDA) and from various industry reports, such as IBISworld reports, and media
releases. This data was used to inform the overall cost structures and growth rates in key industry variables,
as well as determine the relative sizes of the Broad subsectors and Core subsectors. Finally, insights and data
provided during the stakeholder consultation process also served to validate the data incorporated and the
modelling estimates.
2.2 Contribution of screen sector
Previous studies have estimated the overall size of the Australian screen sector. For example, the Deloitte
Access Economics (2015a) report on the total economic contribution of the lm and television industry found
total value add to be around $5.8 billion in 2012-13.
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Likewise, Deloitte Access Economics (2015b) found total
value add to be $77.2 million for South Australia’s screen production subsector alone.
This report, however, goes further and isolates the economic activity into lm and TV productions under
Australian creative control in terms of the Broad screen sector and the Core screen sector. It also isolates this
activity for footloose productions and for digital game production in Australia as well.
Australian TV content encompasses a wide range of production activity – it includes ctional or drama
production (such as mini-series, drama shows, comedy shows and children’s TV shows), as well as
factual documentaries. The remainder is allocated to content such as news, current aairs, light
entertainment, reality, and sport. In 2014-15, 47 TV drama programs (517 hours) were produced in
Australia, with expenditure of $299 million. The majority of these titles (and expenditure) were associated
with domestic programs.
Likewise, feature lm content in Australia covers a range of content – from ones with large international
releases to ones that have been domestic box oce and/or critical successes to more low-budget lms
and lms with limited local releases. In 2014-15, there were 35 Australian features released (including both
domestic productions and co-productions), representing $121 million of production expenditure.
2.2.1 The Broad screen sector
From 24-hour news to a vast array of sports coverage to countless lifestyle and reality shows, Broad
Australian screen content is highly prevalent. For example, in terms of television content, under broadcasting
regulations, all commercial free-to-air television licensees are required to broadcast an annual minimum
quota of 55% Australian content between 6am and midnight on their primary channel (ACMA, 2016a). They
are also required to provide during the same time at least 1,460 hours of Australian content on their non-
primary channels (ACMA, 2016a).
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It is acknowledged that there is a dierence between the $5.8 billion gure from the 2012-13 estimates of Australian lm and
television and the gures estimated in this report. The dierence lies in two main areas: Firstly, the $5.8 billion gure covers a
larger remit of activity, including footloose as well as other content that is produced like advertising, which are not covered in
our report. Secondly, the data that was used in that modelling was older, whereas the ones in this report are considerably more
up-to-date and robust.