Seven Network’s boss James Warburton savages Morrison government over $400m package for international filmmakers

Local TV and the broader production industries urgently ‘need a timetable’ for future government reform decisions.

Seven Network’s boss James Warburton is calling for urgent changes to the “broken regulatory regime” that is hurting the commercial television industry. Picture: Christian Gilles

Seven Network’s boss James Warburton has hit out at the Morrison government over its $400m package to attract international filmmakers, calling for urgent changes to the “broken regulatory regime” that is hurting the commercial television industry.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday unveiled a $400m location offset package, which gives tax breaks for productions to film in Australia. It is expected to create 8000 jobs across the country over the next seven years.

“While we support increasing the location offset for foreign productions it is frustrating and disappointing to see this seemingly given higher priority than fixing the broken regulatory regime for Australian content,” Mr Warburton said.

“Local broadcasters continue to bear the burden of antiquated regulatory obligations that render us unable to fairly compete with foreign online competitors,“ he said, noting it was recognised by the competition regulator in its Digital Platforms Inquiry.

The government has committed to addressing the issue, but appears to be dragging its heels.

“What is needed is for the government to act with the same urgency in implementing reforms to our Australian content obligations and production incentives for local Australian productions,” said Mr Warburton, who is chief executive of Seven West Media, which owns free-to-air TV broadcaster Seven Network.

Seven West Media counts billionaire Kerry Stokes as its biggest shareholder, who holds his 41 per cent stake in the TV broadcaster through his industrial, mining and energy conglomerate Seven Group.

Under the Broadcasting Services Act, commercial TV broadcasters must air a minimum of 55 per cent Australian content on their primary channel, plus an additional 1460 hours on secondary channels annually between 6am and midnight. The same rules don’t apply to subscription streaming players.

Australia’s peak commercial TV body Free TV is also frustrated with the Morrison government.

“Investment which supports our local production sector, cast and crews is always welcome but we are concerned that this package comes in isolation of the ongoing enquiries into local content, quotas and support for the domestic industry,“ CEO Bridget Fair said.

“These international productions come here for many reasons, financial support being one part. But the important element of using our talented local cast and crew will be missed if we don’t have a strong, dynamic local industry where these people work day in and day out, honing their skills and ensuring they are match fit to step up to the international stage on bigger bolder productions,” she said.

Ms Fair said commercial TV broadcasters, including Seven, Nine and Ten are the source of more Australian production than anyone else in this country, spending $1.6bn on local production annually and delivering 25,000 hours of Australian content.

“We are the engine room of the local production sector and yet remain saddled with an outdated framework that hasn’t been updated in almost 20 years,” Ms Fair said.

“We are in the middle of a major review of content quotas and production incentives, including the location offset, so it’s difficult to understand why the government has made a one-off decision now about a single element of the mix right in the middle of this process.”

Ms Fair said the TV and the broader production industries need a timetable for future government decisions, which would provide “some certainty on when the much-needed reforms can be implemented.”