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Industry questions ABC3 deals

Some children's producers are unhappy about ABC3's deals but unwilling to go on the record.

abc3 25Ahead of the ABC3 launch this Friday there is industry discontent about the way the broadcaster has sewn up its deals for new children’s content.

KidsCo managing director Paul Robinson, who spoke to TV Tonight earlier this month, has criticised the ABC for using public funds to increase bidding rights for children’s content and says the broadcaster should be focussing on programming that differs from the commercial marketplace.

“I think the ABC is acting more aggressively than the BBC. The BBC have always been fairly good at their accountability role. They understand that, because it’s public money, they have to be more careful in how they use their money,” he told The Australian today.

“It’s not about squeezing commercial deals.”

The newspaper reports there are some unhappy producers and channel heads unwilling to go on the record for fear of alienating the public broadcaster.

But one producer said, “When Nickelodeon and Disney bring serious money to the plate, they can start complaining about the ABC.”

TV Tonight has also spoken to children’s producers unhappy that their back catalogue of Australian content has been largely overlooked while the broadcaster goes and picks up cheaper acquisitions from overseas.

Recently, Director of Television Kim Dalton said, “One of the issues is we have about Australian drama is that the producers have to go back and pay residuals on the performing rights. There’s a much more complex rights equation that goes on when you re-license Australian content than if you’re simply picking up acquired material internationally.”

ABC also asked all children’s producers to pitch their content through a gateway website, effectively putting established producers on the same playing field as inexperienced producers who had never produced anything.

The channel launches at 6pm this Friday.

Source: The Australian

9 Responses

  1. Kirben: Your knowledge is obviously better than mine on some of these things. I work in the industry but I’ve been in Europe for some time now and the only thing I can tell you for sure is that the perception of Oz children’s programs is generally pretty positive from over here.

    While I’ve kept in touch with Oz ratings, drama and entertainment programming I’ll admit that my knowledge of kid’s programs is kinda dated. The last I knew we were making some terrific things and I’m quite disappointed to hear that is apparently no longer the case. If it’s true, then I can agree that maybe quotas are hard to justify right now.

    Thank you very much for taking the time to explain the situation to me.

  2. Shintaro: Do you actually watch Australian kids series on (free to air) TV? or are you part of the industry?

    Recent animated (Animalia, Dogstar, Master Raindrop, Pealie, Pixel Pinkie, Zeke’s Pad) and live action series (Blue Water High, Mortified, Street Smartz, Wormwood) shown on (free to air) TV are very poor quality, compared to what is available overseas.

    Dogstar by Media World would be a perfect example, listed as a comedy, but a humorless and literary stupid (characters, story and world) series. I still can’t believe Dogstar got a second series, which will basically repeat the same basic story again. The worse part is Media World actually produced good cartoon series (New Adventures of Ocean Girl, Silver Brumby) in the distant past.

    Why should Pay-TV (or even free to air) TV networks even be forced to show a quota of Australian series ? I see this as nothing more, than protectionism of the local industry. I would like to see an Australian company produce a series as good as Avatar – The Last Airbender (Nickelodeon) or Oban Star-Racers (Jetix/Disney).

  3. Most Australian children’s programs are definitely Not poor quality and many of them distribute very well overseas. I think a small quota, based on the budget of the channel concerned, would be a great idea.

  4. That Paul Robinson is just trying to get publicity for his channel by putting the competition down…as if no one is going to see right through his ‘criticisms’.

    I hope the abc does well – it sounds good

  5. I agree with Kirben. Most Australian content is at poor quality. I’d much rather watch what the rest of the western world is watching. Australia is becomming to Australian, on free-to-air anyway..

  6. I swear Nick had more Oz content in 1999 than in 2009. Remember, it had stuff like Nick Takes Over Your School, reruns of kids stuff from the FTA’s, plus strong scheduling, who remembers the old school Nick opener at 6am?

    Now, there is nothing from the FTA’s on Nick, Nick at Nite is gone, not even the 90’s reruns. It’s as if the channel’s become the iCarly/Spongebob channel.

    I honestly think, that Nick and Disney (CN don’t need local content, other than introductions for special events) should be given a “10% local content by 2011” policy by Foxtel, otherwise they don’t get their badly needed expansion (i.e Disney XD, Nicktoons, timeshifts for their main channels).

  7. I don’t see a problem with having experienced producers lowered to the same level as those that are just starting. What should count for everything is the quality of content they produce, not how long they’ve had time to make connections with people in the business.

    If ABC3 didn’t go for the jugular when acquiring content, they would have been left with a whole lotta nothing. People have to realise that the TV business, be it public or private, is not pretty at all.

  8. Why shouldn’t kids be able to watch similar shows, if they don’t have pay-tv? the amount of new kids programming on (free to air) TV has really suffered, since the start of Pay-TV, but no one seems to care at all (as usual).

    Why do TV networks have to bid against each other, forcing up the prices though? are they all trying for exclusive rights? many kids series have been shown on (free to air) TV, and Pay-TV at the same time before.

    The ABC already has a clear bias for Australian content, no matter what the quality, and shows far too much Australian content already. Frequently buying Australian series, already been shown by the commercial TV networks.

    Producers of older Australian content just want to make easy money, from their older content. Most of which is terrible, and wasn’t even worth watching the first time around.

    The ABC should be spending more money on decent new content (ie Danny Phantom, Redwall), new seasons of regular series (ie Arthur, Fairly OddParents, Wolverine and the X-men) or even bringing back some timeless classics (ie Adventures of TinTin, Little Lulu Show, Mysterious Cities of Gold, Rupert). Instead of wasting even more money, on poor quality Australian content.

  9. Not sure what all the fuss is about from
    people complaining. Of course new original Australian content costs money. And yes ABC3 is publicly funded.

    ABC3 is launching with 40% Australian content.
    After more than 10 years in this country Nickelodeon, Disney Channel and Cartoon Network would be lucky to have 1% Australian content. Disgusting. Likewise Nick Jr, Playhouse Disney, Boomerang, Cbeebies And Kidsco.

    Thank god for ABC3. I hope it dominates all the foreign kids channels in the ratings.

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