Aussies debate local TV content
SPAA, Free TV Australia wage public battle
SPAA on Monday accused Free TV Australia of releasing "inconsistent and misleading" figures on local drama content.
Accusation comes after a negative National Drama Survey from the Australian Film Commission in August showed total TV drama spending was down. Free TV Australia responded by releasing its own figures, taken from industry regulator the Australian Communications & Media Authority, which showed spending on Australian adults and children's drama in 2003-04 was $95.8 million, rather than the $74.5 million cited in the AFC report.
Free TV topper Julie Flynn also wrote to the Australian Financial Review newspaper, saying networks' overall expenditure on Oz content had increased 13.1% since 2000.
SPAA took issue with these figures and said it had written to the Minister for Communications Helen Coonan to complain.
"Free TV's claim that local-content expenditure by broadcasters has increased by 13.1% needs to be questioned," said SPAA topper Geoff Brown. "What kind of expenditure?"
SPAA also accused the commercial webs of skewing Oz content to early-morning skeds and insisted on more detailed figures to back up the commercial broadcasters' claims.
"It's like comparing apples with oranges," Brown told Daily Variety. "The figures Free TV uses to defend the drama production record of commercial television networks are inconsistent and misleading."
Flynn countered that her organization used the figures from ACMA because it is the government department that oversees local content laws. By law, networks must show 55% Australian content between 6 a.m. and midnight.
"Our position is simple: We are legally obliged to report the expenditure on local content to ACMA," Flynn told Daily Variety. "We have two government bodies here (ACMA and the AFC). One we are legally required to report to, so we take those figures."
Free TV Australia said in a statement: "The figures recently released by the AFC give an inaccurate picture of the total contribution to TV drama production by commercial broadcasters. But even by its own measure, the AFC figures show the expenditure by networks has generally been increasing -- up 6% in 2004-05 to $78.7 million."
