MEDIA RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
09 May 2008
2006/7 Screen Industry Statistics Show Consolidation
While 2006/7 was a year of tightening conditions for the domestic screen industry in New Zealand the latest statistics
from the Screen Industry Survey by Statistics New Zealand do not show any significant decline or long term trends for
the industry, according to SPADA, the Screen Production and Development Association.
“The number of active businesses has remained stable, even showing a small increase from 2,052 businesses in 2006 to
2058 businesses in 2007,” says SPADA CEO Penelope Borland.
The figures show that there were 1935 businesses involved in production and post-production, a small decrease of 1.4%.
Contractor activity remained relatively stable, decreasing by 27 businesses. While the number of screen production
companies decreased by 108 to 480, this is in part likely to be due to the trend towards consolidation of screen
production companies that is evident around the world, says SPADA.
“Quite a number of smaller companies also sprang up several years ago in New Zealand when TVNZ was commissioning a wave
of new programming with newly gained Charter funding from the Government and with Māori Television Service going to air.
There has been a trend for smaller players to go to work with larger companies in the last couple of years, with larger
companies acting as mentors and executive producers for other producers. Consolidation has also come about, according to
SPADA, because broadcasters have found it more convenient to deal with established and medium to larger companies
because the delivery and commercial requirements for screen producers are becoming tighter more complex. Television
broadcasting gross revenue showed a slight increase – up to $1,081 million compared with $1,071 million in 2006,” says
Penelope Borland.
In terms of activity around key genres, which is not covered by the latest survey figures, SPADA understands that there
is a considerable level of development activity in television drama. “Drama requires considerable development time and
investment compared with some other less costly genres,” says Borland. It takes much longer to get it into production
and a lot of investment in development by screen production companies and New Zealand On Air. “Larger companies are
better placed to be able to afford to put some of their own money into the development of drama. We understand that both
TVNZ and TV3 have been seeking new drama projects, some of which are in development and pre-production and there are
some good new stories out there,” says Borland.
The only genre in which there is an evident downward trend, and it is worldwide, is in one off documentaries, says
SPADA. Broadcasters have been commissioning documentary “strands” or series, however there is definite concern in the
production community about the loss of opportunity for commissioning of single documentaries.
ENDS