SYDNEY -- No gain and, in the medium-term, some pain. That's how some Aussie producers and pay TV broadcasters view the impact of the U.S.-Australia free trade agreement concluded last week.
Producers are dismayed that the Oz government has agreed to fix the present 55% limit on local content for free-to-air channels.
Drama pay channels, already struggling to find enough Aussie films to merit primetime slots, are alarmed that the government has reserved the right to demand they up their annual investment in local programming from 10% to 20% of programming budgets.
A 10% budget quota could also be imposed on other genres including the arts, children's TV, educational and docu feevee channels.
"That would force us to spend money on expensive productions that may or may not be in accord with what consumers want," says one pay TV exec, who also argues quotas would not be sustainable for many channels that are losing money while investing considerable sums to switch to digital.
Screen Producers Assn. of Australia exec director Geoff Brown fears the trade pact will eventually mean a drastic drop in Australian programming across the broadcasting spectrum.
"The impact will kick in in three to five years as pay TV penetration picks up, multichanneling (from the terrestrial webs) rolls out and there is less reliance on free-to-air channels," he says.
"In 10-15 years we could see the level of Australian content drop by as much as 50% because of the minimum caps agreed to by the government."
Communications and Arts minister Daryl Williams insists the agreement ensures the government will keep the power to regulate Australian content in existing and new forms of media.
The government says it will be able to apply the 55% local content standard to as many as three channels launched by each commercial web if, as is widely expected, multichanneling is permitted.
That may prove an onerous burden for the nets, which see extra channels as a relatively low-cost way of gaining viewers.
The industry's arguments either way are academic: The government already faces a battle to win Parliament's approval for the agreement, which covers all aspects of trade.
The farm lobby is angry that sugar is excluded and that there will be a small, slow cut in U.S. beef and dairy tariffs.
On top of that, the Labor Party, Democrats and Greens, who control the Senate, have criticized key aspects of the deal and seem unlikely to pass it.
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