The Drama Report covers the production of feature films, TV drama (mini-series, telemovies and series/serials) and online drama programs by financial year.

The report incorporates data gathered through surveys and publicly available sources to give a comprehensive view of drama production activity in Australia. Data is presented for the past five years, 2012/13 to 2016/17.

Foreign titles are included if they are shot (or substantially shot) in Australia, or have post, digital or visual effects (PDV) work carried out in Australia without shooting here.

OVERVIEW

DRAMA EXPENDITURE IN AUSTRALIA

• $1.3 billion total Australian expenditure – a record year, driven by the highest level of foreign spend in this country of $610 million and a healthy Australian slate of $667 million.
• 29 foreign projects $610 million

1. Record year, driven by highest ever spend of $557 million from 6 features and 3 TV dramas that commenced shooting in Australia
2. PDV-only spend totalled $53 million from 16 features and 4 TV drama titles, down 17 per cent on 2015/16.

• 41 Australian features $284 million – 45% increase on last year and above the 5-year average, due to the US studio-financed film, Peter Rabbit and strong domestic and co-production activity during the year.
• 46 Australian TV drama titles $321 million – with expenditure and the number of titles produced at record levels. The volume of hours was also up on last year, with a resurgence in series production along with a strong mini-series slate.
• 13 Australian Children’s TV drama titles $48 million – significantly below the five-year average. Hours produced were down slightly on last year, however when combined with hours for children’s programs made for online, show a slight increase. As a result of the 3-year children’s broadcast quotas required of the commercial free-to-air broadcasters, children’s TV drama production tends to be cyclical with the third year in this cycle still to come.
• Australian online drama contributed $14 million to overall expenditure and is separately measured for the first time in this report.

EXPENDITURE BY LOCATION

• NSW 36% accounted for the greatest share of total expenditure, supported by
• Australian TV drama production.
• QLD 33% had the second highest share, boosted by strong foreign shoot expenditure.
• VIC 25% had the third largest share, with the majority of the spend coming from
• Australian TV drama titles.