Mix Tape bridges the international and generational divide

Against the backdrop of an ongoing debate about local content quotas for streaming platforms, some high-quality Australian drama is being produced for paying subscribers.

Teresa Palmer who plays Alison on MixTape. Picture: BINGE

With the three commercial networks having abandoned any serious commitment to Australian adult drama – and the ABC and SBS also spending significantly less on the genre in recent years – the business of selling homegrown stories to audiences both here and abroad now largely rests with the streaming platforms.

A downturn in advertising revenue on free-to-air television has tightened the networks’ margins on investment in local drama – which is generally more expensive to produce than reality shows – and consequently fresh Australian stories on commercial channels have become scarce.

But against the backdrop of ongoing debate about the introduction of local content quotas for the internationally-owned streaming platforms, some high-quality Australian drama is being produced for paying subscribers, with the lucrative overseas market never far from mind.

The latest offering from the Foxtel Group’s entertainment platform BINGE, the four-part drama Mix Tape, is a case in point.

Commissioned by Foxtel, the Australian-Irish co-production – which was filmed in Sydney and Dublin – has already been acquired by the BBC.

Lana Greenhalgh, the Foxtel Group’s director of scripted originals, says the days of costly Australian drama productions that serve only the local market are a thing of the past.

“We need to be agile. We need to be appealing to the international audience,” Ms Greenhalgh said.

“Audiences from around the world are getting content from everywhere. It’s not siloed into territories, or from country to country.

“But I think a big part of the successful shows that come out of Australia is the fact that they are distinctly Australian. They offer the international audience an element of escapism and intrigue.

“I’m in constant contact with the international market, in the UK and the US primarily, to really understand audience strengths and where the gaps are, and how we can work together to create co-production opportunities like Mix Tape.”

Other Foxtel-commissioned series to achieve recent commercial success in the international market include the comedy Colin From Accounts, and courtroom drama The Twelve.

Mix Tape, which stars Teresa Palmer and Jim Sturgess, is set in the late 1980s and the modern day and is a tale of first love, lost love, and reconnection, with the musical soundtrack at the heart of the story.

“Part of our commissioning strategy is to always appeal to a broad demographic,” Ms Greenhalgh said.

“And one of the ways that we do that is by finding or identifying intergenerational and multi-generational stories. Mix Tape taps into the nostalgia of Gen X, but also it’s got these beautiful, young characters at the core who are playing 17-year-olds falling in love for the first time.

“There have been studies that show the power of music and its connection with memory. So I’m very excited for audiences to be taken away, not just by the story that we’re showing, but when they hear the musical tracks, that it maybe sparks their own memories.”

Foxtel is owned by DAZN. News Corp (publisher of The Australian) has a six per cent stake in DAZN.