Embracing multi-platform is essential: Harley

According to Screen Australia CEO, the agency’s new draft blueprints for television funding are an important step towards embracing multi-platform production.

“We need to move steadily and methodically into the multi-platform environment. We absolutely know that the audience is diversifying its consumption habits, so we need to have our content on more platforms. There’s no doubt about that,” Harley told Encore.

Harley said Screen Australia has never lost its commitment to television, but in its two years of existence it hasn’t redefined its policies for the sectors because the higher priorities were the merger for its three predecessors, and the “outstanding issues in the feature area.

“TV wasn’t broken, so we just kept funding according to the rules from the past. What we’ve done now is to bring it together as a specific Screen Australia strategy. We loved TV all along but perhaps it was time to say it,” explained Harley.

One of the proposed changes in Funding Australian content on ‘small screens’: a draft blueprint is an increase in the minimum licence fees; a proposal that aims to reconcile different industry interests – the broadcasters, who want to keep them as low as possible, and the producers, who want exactly the opposite.

“Given that licence fees haven’t been raised for a very long time. SPAA’s calculation is that in that time the CPI is 17.5 percent, but that was just too much and as a result we came up with the idea of a 10 percent increase plus an annual CPI increase into the future.

“Licence fees need to go up because all the costs have gone up, but we couldn’t do a 17.5 percent catch up. However, we don’t want to be in that position again, hence the annual CPI. We dropped a requirement which was licence fee plus a percentage of budget, and that will be quite acceptable to the broadcasters, and will make the licence fee rise not so challenging,” said Harley.

Other changes include making foreign formats ineligible, and funding only up to two series for any given project. Harley is aware that these will be issues for SBS.

“Getting a show up is a lot harder than keeping a successful show on the air. SBS would say that is very hard for them because they haven’t got any money, and we’re conscious of that, but I don’t know if we can make policy for the whole industry which is entirely based around the fact that SBS is underfunded.

“We’re very supportive of SBS getting properly funded, but we feel the need to focus our endeavours where we see the risk as the greatest,” said Harley.

At this week’s SPAA Conference Anthony Buckley suggested SPAA President Antony I. Ginnane should be elected the next chair of Screen Australia, saying the role required “someone with industry experience, for a change”.

Harley refused to comment on Buckley’s suggestion, but she did dismiss Ginnane’s comments about a need to remove the administration of co-productions and the Producer Offset from the agency and give it to the Office for the Arts.

“Screen Australia does a very good job at administering the Producer Offset. I understand that SPAA has an ideological line on it, and we just disagree about that. I don’t understand the problem that they put forward and I receive almost no criticisms of the way we administer the offset. I say ‘almost’ because they’re the only ones who see some kind of potential conflict,” said Harley.

About Ginnane’s criticism over Screen Australia seeking more funds to invest on mid-range films, Harley said: “Again, we disagree.”

“We have an excellent relationship with SPAA. Sometimes we disagree, but we have a very strong point of agreement on our commitment to the industry. They’re a very important and collaborative partner.”