TV networks forgiven for content shortfalls

Commercial networks battled to meet Australian drama and children’s content quotas as the COVID-19 pandemic hampered productions.

Commercial television stations have faced significant difficulties meeting Australian drama and children’s content quotas due to the COVID-19 pandemic hindering local production.

New annual figures released by government body, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, show the Nine Network and Network 10 both failed to met their annual quota of first-release Australian drama last year, while the Seven Network failed to produce the minimum amount of children’s programs.

Despite this, the figures show that, overall, the commercial networks broadcast more than the required amount of Australian programming between 6am and midnight every day on their main channels and multichannels.

However, they struggled to produce enough first-release Australian drama. The annual quota is 250 points. Seven met this with 255.2 points but Ten had 234 points and Nine 181.7 points.

Children’s programs also suffered last year. Nine and Ten met the annual quota of 260 hours but Seven fell well short at 87 hours.

Networks were also required to meet the quota for Australian preschool programs at 130 hours. Nine was able to do this but Ten had 102.5 hours and Seven had just 41.5 hours.

Due to the pandemic, ACMA accepted the noncompliance by commercial broadcasters, mainly due to the physical restrictions on producing content and the flow-on effects for TV networks.

Free TV Australia chief executive officer Bridget Fair said that during 2020, “Australians relied on their free television services like never before”.

“Despite the challenges posed by COVID, including many productions and sports competitions being suspended, commercial broadcasters provided viewers with the local news, entertainment, drama and sports programming they needed to get through the pandemic,” she said.

The compliance results found that all networks were able to produce the annual quota of 20 hours of first-release Australian documentary content.

A Seven spokesman said “broadcasters showed their commitment to Australian content is at the heart of their business and over-delivered in many areas”.