Australian drama: Short and sweet wins the day
Australian viewers have embraced short-run dramas but are less receptive to new local series this year. DQ investigates the drama landscape down under. In the increasingly competitive world of television drama, broadcasters and producers are working harder than ever to retain viewers over the course of a series. Nowhere is that more true than in Australia, where ratings have shown miniseries to be the most popular form of drama on air this year, to the cost of longer-running dramas. Audiences are also relating to homegrown stories, both across free-to-air channels and on pay TV. The top-rating Oz dramas in the first eight months of this year were both miniseries. Shine Australia’s Catching Milat, which follows the police hunt that led to the arrest of serial killer Ivan Milat, attracted an average national consolidated audience of 2.46 million on the Seven Network. Meanwhile, CJZ’s House of Hancock, starring Mandy McElhinney as Australia’s richest woman Gina Rinehart and Sam Neill as her husband Lang Hancock, averaged 2.17 million for Nine Network. Some broadcasting executives acknowledge it is increasingly difficult to launch long-running dramas. Yet despite an apparent shift in audience tastes towards shorter-run fare, Seven Network director of production Brad Lyons tells DQ: “In the end, good stories well told will win out. We firmly believe there’s a place for long-running drama and will continue to pursue it with vigour as we always have.” Budget cuts imposed by the federal government have forced commissioning changes at public broadcaster ABC, which is continuing … Continue reading Australian drama: Short and sweet wins the day
