Australia’s commercial broadcasters have welcomed a government plan to abolish the television licence fees they currently pay. As of the 2017/18 Australian fiscal year, channels such as Network Seven, Nine and Ten will no longer pay commercial TV licence and datacasting fees, but instead pay a spectrum-based charge. This will reduce their payments from around […]
Australian commercial broadcaster Network Ten has issued a profit warning to shareholders, claiming licence fees are threatening the local production sector. In a trading market issued to the Australian Securities Exchange today, Ten revealed it was expecting an earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBDITA) loss of up to A$5 million (US$3.85 million) for […]
SLR Productions in Australia and Germany’s ZDF Enterprises have allied to create a children’s series. The pair are attached to develop the 14-part, Australian book series Alice-Miranda as a 26x30mins drama comedy, which will go out on the Nine Network in Australia if it is taken to series. Locally the books have sold 650,000 copies and […]
Louise Barrett will leave Network Ten in June having only been promoted to her current role at the broadcaster last September. Barrett, a former Network Nine exec, is executive general manager, Sydney, for the Australian broadcaster. She was upped last year, having initially joined Ten in 2013 as chief sales officer. Barrett said she is […]
Australian public broadcasters the ABC and SBS have avoided further budget cuts. The organisations feared they would be subject to more funding cuts as part of the Australian government’s latest budget statement, but the ABC will in fact receive A$3.1 billion (US$2.3 billion), while SBS will get A$814 million. This means they will receive around […]
Australia’s Network Ten has hired former ITV Studios Australia head of entertainment Hilary Innes. She will take up a currently unspecified position “a senior member of the executive production team,” reporting to chief programming officer Beverley McGarvey, the network revealed in a press release. Innes has worked on the Australian version of formats such as […]
Network Ten’s long search for a new financial investor led to Australian pay TV operator Foxtel acquiring a 15% stake in the Sydney-based broadcaster. Foxtel is investing up to A$77 million (US$59.5 million) in 513.3 million ordinary shares at A$0.15 a share for a stake in the free TV business. An agreement has been mooted […]
Network Ten in Australia has accused rival channel Seven of having “a case to answer” relating to the pair’s clash over the hiring of a seasoned programming executive. Earlier this month on March 7, Ten announced it had poached veteran programmer John Stephens from Seven to become its director of scheduling and acquisitions. However, Stephens […]
BBC Worldwide and ITV Studios Global Entertainment are among distributors that have snapped up new high end Australian dramas, which yesterday secured multimillion dollar funding. BBC Worldwide is to distribute The Kettering Incident, which Porchlight Films is making for pay TV service Foxtel, while ITV Studios has snagged rights to Playmaker Media-produced ABC series Hiding. […]
Producers in Australia and New Zealand are creating a new wave of international-friendly scripted series for their distribution partners to take to market, but the popularity and lower cost of formats and reality shows poses a threat to the sector, report Dan Barrett and Stewart Clarke. Expectation. Its shadow carries considerable weight across Australia and […]
