I recently mingled with 800 delegates attending AIDC – the Australian International Documentary Conference – on a beautiful, late Summer day in Melbourne.
Two award-winning producers described local industry highlights:
- Industry veteran Simon Nasht (Smith&Nasht) spoke about the uncertain impact on producers of forthcoming local content quotas on Netflix and the scaled-up streamers.
- And Mint Pictures’ head of factual Dan Goldberg shared his company’s active production pipeline, commenting on the current standard funding model.
Simon Nasht:
- [0:38] – How is the shift to streaming playing out in Australia?
- [4:30] – Possible impacts on producers’ budgets of local content quotas for streamers
- [5:27] – Are the legacy broadcasters still buying documentaries? And are they paying?
- [7:00] – What funding is available for unscripted productions?
- [8:20] – The outlook for Australian doc commissions
Dan Goldberg:
- [1:00] – Mint Pictures profile, including Finding The Archibald (ABC, 2021) with Rachel Griffiths
- [3:00] – Opportunities in Arts programming
- [4:45] – Funding boutique nonfiction productions
- [5:50] – International coproduction opportunities for factual
- [8:00] – The Holy Grail: Returnable factual series
Peter’s Takeways
- I was surprised to learn at AIDC that Warner Bros / Discovery won’t launch its HBO Max streaming platform in Australia.
- When I worked at CBS International, Australia was our #1 sales territory, driven by language and cultural affinity.
- WBD’s decision to go the “arms dealer” route and license its content to Rupert Murdoch’s Foxtel signifies dramatic pushback against the global streaming model led by Netflix.
- This turn of events promotes market complexity versus “all rights, all territories” deals implied in the global streaming strategy, and perhaps signifies a shift back to opportunities for co-productions.
More
Don’t miss my revealing Case Study with Simon Nasht:
(Video: Thanks to Oliver Nasht & Ramiro Salgado. And Chris Harms.)
COME TO AIDC!
AIDC is excellently located at Federation Square, the complex seen just to right of Princes Bridge in center of the pic below. It’s such a great time to visit Melbourne. I highly recommend that friends and colleagues get AIDC ’24 on your calendars.
