SUMMARY OF FINDINGS


INTRODUCTION

This publication presents results from the Film, Television and Digital Games Survey in respect of the 2011-12 reference year. The scope of the survey includes businesses primarily engaged in any of the following activities:

• the production or post-production of film, television and video.
• the development of digital games.
• the broadcasting or provision of television channels.

The survey measures two distinct types of activity for these businesses:

• Financial activity - including measures of income, expenditure, profit, employment, and contribution to the overall economy.
• Production activity - including the volume and type of productions undertaken during the 2011-12 reference period.

More detailed estimates are included in the data cube tables accompanying this publication on the ABS website.


FINANCIAL ACTIVITY

This section summarises the key financial data of the industries surveyed, with comparisons to results from the previous survey in 2006-07 where applicable. These data can be found in Tables 1-4 in the pdf.


Film and video production and post-production businesses

Film and video production businesses employed 13,414 persons at end June 2012. During 2011-12 these businesses generated $2,194.2m in income and incurred $2,012.0m in expenses. Industry value added was $929.9m which was an increase of 47.2% since 2006-07.

Film and video post-production businesses employed 2,346 persons at end June 2012. During 2011-12 these businesses generated $329.6m in income and incurred $331.2m in expenses. Industry value added was $180.8m which was a decrease of 28.9% since 2006-07.

At end June 2012, the combined activities of Film and video production and post-production businesses employed 15,760 persons across 2,773 businesses. During the reference period these businesses generated $2,523.8m in income. Operating profit before tax of these businesses was $178.0m.

The largest source of income for Film and video production and post-production businesses was production income and royalties ($1,813.6 or 71.9%), followed by post-production, digital and visual effects services income, with 13.9% (or $349.7m) and production services income, with 10.5% (or $264.1m).


Commercial broadcasters and channel providers

Commercial free-to-air broadcasters employed 7,856 persons at end June 2012. During 2011-12 these businesses generated $4,657.9m in income and incurred $3,660.4m in expenses. Total industry value added was $2,232.9m.

Subscription broadcasters and channel providers employed 5,474 persons at end June 2012. During 2011-12 these businesses generated $4,654.3m in income and incurred $4,157.4m in expenses. Total industry value added was $1,568.3m.

Commercial free-to-air broadcasters derived the majority of their income (79.0% or $3,681.5m) from gross sale of airtime. The main source of income for Subscription broadcasters and channel providers was subscription fees ($3,775.0m or 81.1%).


Digital game developers

Digital game developers employed 581 persons at end June 2012. During 2011-12 these businesses generated $89.4m in income of which end-to-end digital game development income accounted for 49.6% (or $44.4m) and digital game development services income accounted for 48.5% (or $43.4m).


PRODUCTION ACTIVITY

This section summarises the production of film, television, video and digital game content that occurred during the reference period. These data can be found in Tables 5-8 in the pdf.

The volume of production activity is measured as follows:

• Number of broadcast hours (for television programs).
• Number of productions (for film and video other than television programs, and for digital games).
• Total cost of production (for all types of production).

It should be noted that total production costs are not equivalent to total expenses. Refer to the Glossary for details.

The following chart summarises the costs for types of production and shows television programs having incurred the largest production costs ($2,099.5m).

Production of film, television and video

During 2011-12, all businesses (excluding Digital game developers) incurred $2,974.1m in production costs for film, television and video content. These costs included development, pre-production, shoot and post-production costs.

Of these production costs, television programs and feature films accounted for 70.6% (or $2,099.5m) and 18.2% (or $540.4m) respectively.

Broadcasters and channel providers incurred 44.0% (or $1,308.1m) of the total production costs for film, television and video content. For the production of television programs, Broadcasters and channel providers contributed 60.6% (or $1,271.4m), and Film and video production businesses contributed a further 39.4% (or $828.1m).

During 2011-12 there were 78,622 commercial broadcast hours for first release television programs. News and current affairs programs accounted for the largest proportion of these hours with 36,471 (or 46.4%).

The Average Cost Per Hour graph below indicates the variability in the average cost per hour by production type. Drama and Children's drama incurred the highest average cost per hour with $560,700 and $550,400 respectively. By contrast, average production costs per hour for news and current affairs was $14,000.

Light entertainment and variety programs incurred the largest total production costs ($555.4m), however the Average Cost Per Hour graph indicates that this type of production was relatively cheaper to produce ($70,000) than Drama productions.

During 2011-12 all businesses (excluding Digital game developers) created 7,469 film and video productions, other than television programs, and incurred $645.5m in related production costs. Feature films accounted for the majority of these costs with 83.7% (or $540.4m). Online productions accounted for 419 (or 5.6%) of these productions, at a total cost of $5.5m.


Production of digital games

During 2011-12 Digital game developers produced 245 digital games and incurred $49.9m in related production costs.

The average cost per production of digital games varied by format. Games produced exclusively for consoles (including handheld consoles) incurred the highest average cost per production ($1.2m). By contrast, games developed exclusively for mobile and web platforms had the lowest average cost per production ($74,000). These figures exclude titles developed simultaneously for multiple platforms, which incurred an average cost of $845,800 per production.