SPAA boss on TEN drama: “They can’t have their cake & eat it too.”

EXCLUSIVE: The Screen Producer’s Association of Australia has questioned TEN’s approach to the debate on local content on multichannels, following industry lobby groups asking the government to approve the recommendations of the Convergence Review.

Since early 2011 TEN has played 240 hours of Neighbours on ELEVEN, none of which has attracted Drama sub-quota points. Yet TEN does not support the Convergence Review findings to add 50% sub-quota to multichannels. Instead it is siding with Seven and Nine as part of Free TV Australia’s argument that it is already investing heavily in local production at a time when advertising has declined and there are competing interests.

SPAA President Geoff Brown told TV Tonight, TEN was trying to have it both ways.

“You can’t have your cake and eat it too,” he said.

“You can’t say it counts as quota on the new digital multichannels and then say we don’t want any more. There’s an inherent contradiction in that.

“TEN have got to realise they’ve got to meet what we would call their public service obligation of having free spectrum.”

A TEN spokesperson told TV Tonight, “TEN’s consistent position has been that we should have the flexibility to program Australian drama, documentaries and children’s programs across our three channels and still count them toward our local content obligations.

“This will allow us to program content in the best way to meet our audience’s needs and give the programming the best chance to succeed.

“The current rules penalise TEN for putting first-run Australian drama on a digital channel.

“TEN is the only commercial free-to-air network to have invested in first-release adult drama for a digital channel.”

If implemented, the Convergence Review recommendations would mean another 40 hours a year of new Australian drama for each network.

Brown says, “We know it’s not going to be Underbelly, because the economics of the multichannels are different from the main channels, at least at this time. But it could be Drama done at $350,000 – $400,000 an hour. It could be situation comedy, sketch comedy, experimental drama.

“It’s a place where the networks can develop programmes which might take and be used on the main channel.

“We just don’t understand the resistance to it.”

SPAA also has a message for TEN if it hopes that running Neighbours on ELEVEN will fulfill any new rules.

“In any new regime we’d be asking that it’s only for new programming, not existing programming. In other words, you don’t slot Neighbours over onto ELEVEN and expect it to pick up any new obligation,” Brown said.

“There might be a ‘grand-fathering’ arrangement that we’d come to, but we’re not going to allow TEN to meet their new obligation, whatever that obligation is, by way of a programme that’s been running for 25 years.

“Sorry. It’s not in the spirit of what this is all about.”

TEN moved Neighbours to ELEVEN in January 2011 when it launched the channel aimed at youth while seeking to re-align TEN to a broader audience. Brown thinks it was a bad move.

“I think it was strong enough to stay on the main channel and I think they’ve marginalised it by putting it on ELEVEN,” he said.

“I think it was a cow of a thing to do to a great programme. I don’t think it did anyone any favours and I don’t think it did TEN any favours in the long run. They replaced it with a terrible News programme and lost their demographic in the process!”

But TEN defends that the move helped drive digital take-up and says critics should be looking at new players in the industry such as IPTV, who aren’t under any of the same obligations or investment.

“Neighbours embodies the reason we have drama quotas: it reflects Australian culture and lifestyle; it has been a training ground for numerous talented people on and off-screen for more than 25 years; it employs around 200 people over the full year; it has a younger audience; and it showcases Australian production skills globally,” the spokesperson said.

TEN also has also comedy project Micro Nation for ELEVEN but is yet to announce an Airdate.

UPDATE:

TEN’s Director of Corporate and Public Communications Neil Shoebridge has since responded to Geoff Brown’s comments:

“Geoff Brown’s comments are extraordinary and uninformed. Is he speaking for every member of SPAA? Has he polled every member of SPAA and then formed a consensus view, or are these simply his personal views? If they are the latter – which we assume they are – how is Geoff qualified to comment on Ten’s strategy and programming decisions? How is he qualified to comment on the quality of programs on Ten or any other network. How does he justify making sweeping statements about Ten’s programming content and audience performance? To our mind, his comments are outside his brief at SPAA and are based on false assumptions.

“In terms of Neighbours, is Geoff suggesting that the most successful local drama series Australia has ever produced is not worthy of drama points? What an insult to the hundred or so industry professionals who work on the show – the cast, the writers, the directors, the crew and the production company – the same proud professionals SPAA is meant to support. Do we infer from this that success is a bad thing, and that longevity and overseas sales are a problem? Ten continues to lead the way with bold and innovative drama programming, and it is enormously proud of everything that Neighbours achieves on a daily basis, both here and with its vast audience overseas. Twenty-seven years of consistent production, employment, and engagement for audiences should be something to shout from the rooftops, not belittle.

“Geoff says we cannot have our cake and eat it too, suggesting our positions are contradictory. There is absolutely no contradiction in Ten’s position: we stand by the existing content obligations, but in order to program drama, documentaries and children’s content to its best advantage we need to be able to put it on the digital channels. To argue that the only way we can put drama or children’s programming on the digital channels is if we do 50% more of it is just nonsensical.

“Everyone needs to realise we are not living in 1988. The free to air television industry’s piece of the cake is much smaller than it was and yet we continue to front up to our content obligations, which are the heaviest globally. It is because of those obligations that the local production sector is flourishing, Screen Australia called it a renaissance a couple of weeks ago.

“People who have no understanding of how the business of content production and distribution has changed should think twice before they enter the debate about content quotas and digital channels.”