In 2007 there was a fundamental shift in the way the Australian Government backed the Australian screen production industry. The Producer Offset was created as part of the Australian Screen Production Incentives, along with the Location and PDV Offsets plus Screen Australia itself.
The Producer Offset is now the backbone of the domestic screen production industry, contributing around $200m of production finance each year. Screen Australia will be launching a research report in November 2017 to mark this milestone. The report will look at the ways in which the Producer Offset is being used in the marketplace and whether it is still doing what it was intended to do – placing the producer at the centre of the incentive.
The report will address business confidence and attitudes since the introduction of the Producer Offset. It will also measure the effect that the Producer Offset has had on business models and production levels. A number of indicators will be used to tell this story including business sustainability, raising finance and the equity held by the Australian producer.
Tim Phillips, Head of Producer Offset and Co-Production at Screen Australia said,
“To mark the Producer Offset’s fifth anniversary, Screen Australia released Getting Down to Business: The Producer Offset Five Years on. The ten-year mark presents the perfect opportunity to again take stock. Our ten-year review will detail how the incentive is affecting the industry in a continually changing production and distribution landscape.”
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A summary of Government support and interventions in the Australian screen industry is available here.
Image Caption: Ryan Corr and Russell Crowe in The Water Diviner which utilised the Producer Offset.