Local and Global Television

Competing Content, July 1995

When science fiction writer and engineer Arthur C. Clarke proposed the idea of global communications satellites in 1948, there were already trans-Atlantic cables carrying financial information, news and telephone calls around the world. The next thirty five years seemed to bring the late media visionary Marshall McCluhan's dream of one global connected "village" even closer.

Today, our streets and backyards will almost glow faintly at night, lit up by the many new satellite channels soon to beam down on us. Cable will also bring its many offerings of programs and specialised channels down the wire to our living rooms. And not a lot of what we are destined to see or hear will be made here, but rather in the giant programming "factories" of Hollywood, Europe, India and South America.

But are our local lifestyles and cultures under threat because the cheaper overseas programs and channels will push local material off the screen? And can our local industries, making programs that are themselves shown around the world, stand up to the challenge?

A good indication of what could happen here is the complicated game happening in the television markets of our near Northern neighbours in the Asian-Pacific region. Murdoch's Star TV, after several difficult years, is now making inroads into a market with potentially over one billion viewers. Ted Turner of CNN, also brings his two channels, TNT and the Cartoon Network to Asia. Frank Biondi's Viacom, delivers regional versions of MTV, Home Box Office and Nickelodeon. All will soon be available locally.

These three international media conglomerates had to change their programming to conform to local languages, government concerns over "western influence" in their developing countries and the very different local cultural environments. Now Asian-Pacific channels are increasingly featuring local presenters, documentaries, soaps and sports to attract audiences less than impressed with a glut of foreign programming. Correspondingly, audience uptake of the services has grown tremendously.

Television executives now talk glowingly of cheaply "re-versioning" channels and programs to suit local audiences, from more subtle touches like subtitling and dubbing pre-made programs, to more directly inserting a local language-speaking identity in place of the overseas announcers. Some countries, most notably China, require operators wanting access to their countries' audiences to set up local television production facilities and to carry a proportion of locally made material.

In Australia, we'll mostly see overseas programming because of the high cost of producing local programs - over 50,000 dollars per "television hour" for the cheapest programs and over 200,000 dollars per hour for drama. Even with the many government financial support schemes for Australian film and television and the healthy profits of our local television stations it is inevitable that home made Australian programs will suffer.

In the fiercely competitive pay television market only Australian audiences wanting to see Australian programs, and willing to put their point of view strongly to government and broadcasters, can ensure our local producers and programs survive and prosper.