2024 is almost done and it’s been an exciting year for the ASSG and the wider Australian screen sector.

The ASSG Awards in Radelaide were a huge success, we’ve had nothing but great feedback from everyone who attended, a big thank you to everyone who made the journey and congratulations to all the nominees and winners on the day. The standout event of the day was Liam Egan’s acceptance speech that was moving and informative, particularly Liam dedicating his Lifetime Achievement Award to Lorna Coates, an Adelaide woman who could be considered Australia’s first ever Sound Designer.

Screen Australia just released its annual Drama Report, citing that 36 Australian features and 55 drama series were produced in 2023/24. Overall investment in film was down, mostly due to fewer very high budget productions, but spend on series drama was up.

Despite the promised streaming quotas not being legislated the subscription and streaming sector invested $467M on 27 drama titles, a 17% spend increase and a 29% increase in titles.

The Free-To-Air broadcasters produced 15 drama titles with a spend of $188M, down 32%.

Children’s content, however, was significantly lower with only 8 drama productions made, down from 12 in the previous period with expenditure reduced by 29%.

Prominence laws were recently introduced to ensure Australian screen content is front and centre on all new smart TVs sold in Australia and to also ensure that Australian sporting fixtures are made available firstly to Free To Air (FTA) before rights are sold to streaming and cable services. To further support Free To Air TV, the broadcasting tax has been suspended pending possible permanent abolishment, which particularly helps regional broadcasters stay viable in the face of competition from streaming services who aren’t levied in the same way.

In short, we’re producing and watching more drama on more platforms than ever, overall producing more Australian stories but with less for Aussie kids.

It’s a challenging and evolving time and the ASSG continues to lobby and advocate for Australian sound practitioners and story tellers in every way that we can and will continue to in 2025.

I hope all our members take time to recharge over the holiday season, rest those ears (try not to be deafened by cicadas) and enjoy time with loved ones. For our location based members I hope you get some to chill inside with the AC and for our post members, get outside for some vitamin D!

Have a great Christmas and New Year, see you in 2025!

Nigel Christensen
ASSG President