Channels 7, 9 and 10’s lack of imagination and guts have failed Australians

Channels 7, 9 and 10’s lack of imagination and guts have failed audiences, and it’s an absolute shame.

Australian drama used to be a staple on Australian commercial TV.

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Between 1993 and 2006, millions of Australians spent Tuesday nights with the good people of Mount Thomas, following the adventures of a small town with a disproportionate amount of shootings, homicides and kidnappings.

When Blue Heelers ended its run in 2006, it had clocked up 510 episodes over 13 seasons. Offspring came in at 85 episodes, Water Rats at 177 and McLeod’s Daughters at 224.

When it came to Australian stories on Australian TV, audiences were well-served. Scripted dramas and comedies were staples in the weekly schedule. Even if the generally broad-appeal shows weren’t always to your taste, there was always something else.

If you didn’t want a cop procedural, there was always Secret Life of Us or Frontline or Mr & Mrs Murder.

And then TV changed. The traditional models were thrown out the window and reality TV became the only thing you can find on Channels 7, 9 and 10 at 7.30pm.

All three commercial free-to-air networks have now revealed their 2023 slate. Combined, the three networks have only eight scripted series, and none of them are comedies.

That is an embarrassment. Not an embarrassment of riches, just an embarrassment.

Blue Heelers clocked up 510 episodes.

It’s a complete failure to serve Australian audiences, instead cramming their schedules with, mostly, endless episodes of reality TV. Don’t get me wrong, some of those formats are great shows and have actually been at the forefront of sharing diverse Australian stories.

MasterChef continues to be a compelling and inspirational show which values artistry, skill and ambition – even if the show runs far too long both in individual episode lengths and over the season – while Lego Masters is properly good family friendly entertainment that highlights play and imagination.

Both shows also foster an environment of empowered competition, not nastiness.

But that’s not enough. It’s not nearly enough to sustain a healthy cultural ecosystem which – for better or worse – is still a bedrock of Australian society. It’s about the overall diet - while that doesn’t make dramas the vegetables, it does make dating shows the TV equivalent of refined sugar.

Why are Channels 7, 9 and 10 seemingly so allergic to giving time and money to scripted dramas and comedy?

Reality TV is cheaper to make and yields hours more per week – seemingly, better value. And they’re much easier to integrate advertising within the program itself so you’re forced to endure shameless mentions of whatever brand paid the most to be the tiler of choice on The Block.

That’s a lot more in your face than James Bond flashing his Omega at the camera for two seconds.

Which is all very good reasons for a TV network’s accounting and ad sales departments to get behind the reality juggernaut. But is the monotony actually serving audiences?

No.

There’s still great Australia scripted series such as Heartbreak High being made, but you’ll rarely find them on Channels 7, 9 and 10.

There’s no doubt that Australian viewers love scripted TV. We froth over Better Call Saul. We went gaga over Dahmer. We love Schitt’s Creek.

And when it comes to Australian scripted series, we’re all for it. We adored Bump, Mystery Road, Fisk, Rake, Utopia, Mr Inbetween, The Hunting, Wentworth, Rosehaven, Upright, New Gold Mountain, The Twelve, Total Control, Harrow, Love Me, The Newsreader and Stateless.

But you know what they all have in common? None of them were on a free-to-air commercial channel.

Channels 7, 9 and 10 lack the courage to really invest in Australian scripted productions – and in turn, invest in their audiences and invest in Australian culture.

There is no one out there who would be happy with Married at First Sight defining Australian TV culture, probably not even anyone who works on Married at First Sight.

The picture is a little more complex with Channels 9 and 10 because their networks have a paid streaming platform, Stan and Paramount+ respectively. So they are still doing a lot more than the topline would suggest.

Five Bedrooms made its debut on Channel 10 before the network decided to shift the second season to Paramount+ for the first-run, before later making it available on the free channel. Ditto for The Secrets She Keeps. It’s not great but it’s not nothing.

Do you get credit for “not nothing”? Maybe a smidgen.

Secret Life of Us was a huge hit for Channel 10.

We all know audiences have migrated to streaming platforms including Netflix, Disney and Binge*, and given the willingness of Australian households to pay for multiple services, it’s obvious there is a lot of appetite for exactly the kind of programming Channels 7, 9 and 10 have largely eschewed.

Some of those audiences may never come back – except maybe for the occasional live sports, especially given the federal government is currently reviewing the anti-siphoning list, a scheme designed to protect free access for culturally significant sports broadcasts.

Maybe there’s an argument that scripted programming is not economically viable for Channels 7, 9 and 10 but neither are the legion of failed reality shows such as The Real Love Boat, Celebrity Splash, Restaurant Revolutions and Yummy Mummies.

Why does Channels 7, 9 and 10 have to make scripted series when the format is being served elsewhere on streaming services and on the ABC and SBS? Can’t they just be one thing if that’s what they’re interested in doing?

Not according to Matthew Deaner, the chief executive of Screen Producers Australia, who makes the argument that 7, 9 and 10 are really ‘public service’ broadcasters given the taxpayer support in the form of reduced licence fees, access to public spectrum and the anti-siphoning scheme.

“These guys have had subsidy after subsidy, and these other protections that have been a way to help them become billion-dollar businesses courtesy of the Australian public.

“They reframe themselves as commercial TV which is fair enough but then that seems to give them a licence to not be held under any sort of serious scrutiny.

“They’re not the same as a private enterprise that’s doing all of this individually. They’re delivering a service that is very important for the Australian public courtesy of the privileges they receive as businesses and with this great privilege and power should also come great responsibility.”

The Morrison Government significantly reduced the obligation of TV networks to invest in Australian dramas and all children’s content when it cut the quota.

Less of this please, much, much less.

At the time of the announcement, each network parroted that the decision was a win for the production sector and for audiences.

We’ve seen now that it certainly has not been for audiences on Channels 7, 9 and 10.

“Channels 7, 9 and 10 sit in a privileged position in our content ecosystem,” Deaner said. “They have an ability to talk to a lot of people and provide people who can’t necessarily afford one or multiple subscriptions quality, Australian content.

“[SPA] has a strong membership that includes businesses that deliver lot of great reality programming that does very well for them. We know that various forms of content like this are naturally easier for them to monetise and therefore commission.

“However a decent amount of well made Australian drama and children’s content should be available to the public on these services as options in among all the foreign content they are supplying. They don’t do this because they can buy already-made – mostly US content – cheaply.”

Deaner argued since the regulatory “relaxation”, there’s been a collapse in the diversity of commissioning from the commercial players.

Deaner said that while 9 and 10 are increasingly commissioning scripted for their streaming services, with some of those programs potentially ending up on the free-to-air channels, “7 is probably a stand-out where it hasn’t got a real strategy to continue to have Australian drama other than Home and Away, which is such a pity for a brand that used to do such great Australian drama over so many years.”

For Deaner, whose lobby group is also going hard on trying to have a content investment obligation introduced against the streaming services, free access to drama and children’s programming is just as important as sport and the anti-siphoning scheme.

There’s no reason why Fisk couldn’t have been on a commercial network.

And, of course, there’s scripted comedy, which the free-to-air commercial networks have none of in 2023.

While comedy can be more of a gamble or a little harder to sell to a broad audience, there’s no good faith reason why Channels 7, 9 and 10 are not playing in the space.

Look at Kitty Flanagan’s Fisk, an ABC comedy about a divorced lawyer trying to restart her life. It’s been rating well on the ABC and iview, it’s earning awards and praise and it’s also very funny, starring familiar faces such as Marty Sheargold and Julia Zemiro.

Why couldn’t that show be on a commercial network?

Australians love comedy. Have You Been Paying Attention has been one of the most successful programs for the past few years while – whether or not you get why – American sitcoms such as Big Bang Theory were huge. We’re clearly up for a laugh.

And if you make a good one, you don’t only share Australian stories with Australian audiences, you attract a global one too. Heartbreak High is an absolute hit around the world. That’s not just great for our cultural cachet or industry, it’s a money spinner too.

If the commercial networks land a banger, there’s pretty decent cash in licencing that title to overseas markets or streamers.

There’s no reason why Channels 7, 9 and 10 aren’t making more scripted comedy and drama except an abject failure of imagination and guts.

*Binge is majority owned by News Corp, publisher of news.com.au