The updated location offset is credited with contributing to a 43% year-on-year increase in drama spend nationally, with Screen Australia’s annual drama report showing $2.7 billion was spent on 174 Australian and international titles in 2024/25.
The report, released this morning, provides an overview of the production of domestic and international feature programs, TV/VOD, children’s drama titles and PDV activities.
Of the total, $1.3 billion came from 22 international projects, an increase of 163% from the previous year. This included $1 billion from 20 international productions (up 113 percent year over year) and $302 million from two international TV/VOD titles (season 2 of AppleTV’s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters and Peacock miniseries All Her Fault), up from $23 million. PDV spending on both Australian and international titles also increased by 33% over last year to $762 million.
State-level spending was highest in Queensland (34%), New South Wales (31%) and Victoria (27%). Victoria’s $731 million haul, led by All Her Fault, set a new state record and was an 18% increase on last year. Meanwhile, Queensland saw a 16% increase to $925 million thanks to Monarch: Legacy of Monsters.
This comes after Australia’s international production certification was strengthened mid-last year with a permanent increase in location offsets from 16.5 per cent to 30 per cent, with the new grant backdated to 1 July 2023. The federal government has also lowered Qualified Australian Production Expenditure (QAPE) to $15 million, which was originally raised to $20 million as part of the reforms.
Ausfilm CEO Kate Marks said increased international activity was “helping maintain the ecosystem that supports Australian stories by keeping our staff working, funding training, enabling investment in our film business and building capacity.”
Source: Screen Australia
“At a time of global industry disruption, the continued mix of domestic and international jobs makes our screen industry resilient, sustainable and globally competitive,” she said.
For Australian productions, the increase was even more modest, with Screen Australia estimating it at $1.1 billion across 71 titles, accounting for 40% of overall spending, down from 50% last year. The overall total is up 14% from last year, when $937 million was spent on 89 titles.
Spending on subscription TV and SVOD was $492 million across 18 titles, up 5% from last year’s $471 million (28 titles). Although the number of hours decreased from 135 hours to 105 hours this year, the average budget per hour increased by 44% from $3.6 million last year to $5.1 million this year.
Stan, Paramount+, Netflix, Binge, Amazon Prime, Disney+ and Apple TV contributed $238 million (73% of the treasury), an increase of 42% year over year, with investments spread across 15 titles, down from 27 titles last year. Stan contributed six titles, Netflix contributed three titles, Apple TV and Paramount+ each contributed two titles, and Acorn and Adult Swim each contributed one title. Foxtel has invested in three titles, up from one last year.
From January 1, the federal government will require streaming platforms with more than one million subscribers to invest 10% of their total Australian programming spend, or 7.5% of local revenue, in new local content such as drama, comedy, children’s, documentaries, arts and educational programming. This mandate does not specify the number of titles covered.
The bill, passed by Parliament last week, commits the ABC to $50 million in funding for Australian children’s programming and drama. The report says spending on children’s TV/VOD titles in Australia in 2024/25 will be $34 million, down 41 per cent on last year, with the number of children’s titles dropping from seven to five this year. Four of these were commissioned by ABC.
And by Stan.
Source: Screen Australia
The end of the long-running drama Neighbors, which ends airing this month, impacted FTA’s overall hourly and average cost per hour, with spending down 14% from $189 million a year earlier.
$162 million from 2023/24 to 2024/25. Production output also decreased, with 14 titles delivered compared to 16 the previous year, and total hours reduced from 276 hours to 191 hours. The average production cost for an hour of FTA TV drama was $860,000.
Public FTA broadcasters (ABC, SBS, NITV) contributed $38 million. This represented 11 percent of the initial release platform funding and reflected a 25 percent year-over-year decrease. This investment supported 14 titles, down from 18 last year. The contribution of commercial FTA broadcasters (Seven Network, Channel 9, Network 10) was $36 million (11% of funding), down 17% from last year. Investment in 4 titles is the same as last year.
Despite a decline in the number of titles (from 38 last year to 34 this year), total spending on Australian theatrical productions in 2024/25 rose 76% to $379 million, driven by a limited number of big-budget films above $50 million.
The number of titles over $20 million increased from one to four, titles in the $10-$20 million range decreased (five compared to eight last year), and titles in the $5-$10 million range increased from seven last year to eight in 2024/25. The number of films made for less than $1 million was half that of last year, but Screen Australia notes that more titles will be eligible over the next year, and will be retroactively included due to theatrical release or screening at major festivals.
In terms of funding, government sources gave $179 million to Australian theatrical productions and $251 million to TV/VOD projects starting production in 2024/25, accounting for 44% and 34% of the total funding respectively.
Source: Screen Australia
In terms of features, it consists of producer offsets ($137 million), funding from Screen Australia ($12 million for 12 titles), state government agencies ($28 million for 27 titles) and other government investment ($1.8 million for eight titles). It also received support from international investment ($146 million), Australian screen industry ($59 million) and Australian private investment ($23 million).
For TV/VOD, Australian producer offsets accounted for 24% at $180 million, followed by Screen Australia funding ($19 million for 21 titles), state agencies ($44 million for 32 titles), and other government funding ($5 million for four titles). Foreign investment accounted for 21% of the total, at $155 million, the same level as last year, while Australian private investment also accounted for $1 million.
Reacting to the report, Screen Australia CEO Deirdre Brennan said the “strong results” were a testament to the hard work and creativity of the country’s screen stakeholders as they navigated a rapidly evolving situation.
“These numbers reflect a complex story of production value and content volume,” she said.
“Although local drama spending is increasing modestly, fewer TV titles have gone into production across free-to-air, subscription video-on-demand and children’s content, demonstrating a continuing shift in commissioning behavior. This poses a challenge for the industry, but also an opportunity to explore new areas of collaboration and innovative production to ensure we continue to elevate Australian storytelling.”
View the full report on the Screen Australia website.
