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TRADE IN SERVICES

The previous section provided information on trade in cultural goods (i.e. movable goods that cross Australia's customs frontier). While this is a major part of Australia's cultural trade with other countries, trade in services also contributes to Australia's trade in culture and recreation.

The term ‘credits’ is used to refer to services rendered by Australians to the rest of the world and the term ‘debits’ to describe services provided by the rest of the world to Australians.

Most of Australia’s trade in services relates to international transport, travel, education and business services. Trade in cultural services (including music royalties) is relatively small in value and therefore parts of it have been combined with recreational services and health and medical services in the collection and output of data. Trade in this broader category (referred to as cultural and recreational services in the remainder of this chapter) - rather than just cultural services - is discussed here.

Australia earned $370m from cultural and recreational services in 2005-06, approximately 0.9% of its total earnings from services in that year. This figure has remained relatively constant over recent years, with the exception of 2000-01 when the inclusion of television rights to the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games boosted it to about 4.6%.

Australia paid $1,204m to other countries for cultural and recreational services in 2005-06, with Audiovisual and related services accounting for 72% of that total, and music royalties a further 18%. This represented 2.9% of all Australia's payments for services in that year.

7.8 TRADE IN CULTURAL AND RECREATIONAL SERVICES - 1999-2000 to 2005-06
		1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
		$m	$m	$m	$m	$m	$m	$m
Service credits (earnings)
	Audiovisual and related services	217	(a)1 460	127	211	205	149	215
	Music Royalties	61	74	58	70	42	48	41
	Other cultural and recreational services(b)	87	109	153	136	88	56	114
	Total services provided	365	1 643	338	417	335	253	370
Service debits (payments)
	Audiovisual and related services	721	674	777	732	776	867	869
	Music Royalties	235	262	266	244	209	255	213
	Other cultural and recreational services(b)	77	97	93	98	130	142	122
	Total services received	1 033	1 033	1 136	1 074	1 115	1 264	1 204
(a) Includes $1,025m associated with the broadcast rights for the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
(b) Includes health and medical services.
ABS, Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, Australia, various issues (cat. no. 5302.0) and data available on request.

For Audiovisual and related services, Australia's largest earnings came from the sale of television programs. In 2005-06, television program sales amounted to $129m.

Television programs also accounted for the bulk of the $869m of payments Australia made for Audiovisual and related services, amounting to $539m in 2005-06. Payments for the right to use videotapes totalled $225m.

7.9 AUDIOVISUAL AND RELATED SERVICES, By type - 1999-2000 to 2005-06
		1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
		$m	$m	$m	$m	$m	$m	$m
Credits (earnings)
	Theatrical films	26	9	np	22	13	3	6
	Television programs - Sydney Olympic Games	-	1 025	-	-	-	-	-
	Television programs - other	134	81	93	89	130	94	129
	Video tapes	np	6	2	8	6	3	1
	Total credits(a)	217	1 460	127	211	205	149	215
Debits (payments)
	Theatrical films	144	85	90	80	76	78	85
	Television programs	444	456	532	481	526	610	539
	Video tapes	125	111	146	159	170	170	225
	Total debits(a)	721	674	777	732	776	867	869
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
np not available for publication but included in totals where applicable, unless otherwise indicated
(a) Includes Multimedia and Other (not separately identified).
ABS, Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, data available on request.