Children's drama spend fell 41 per cent to $34 million

Expenditure on children’s drama produced in Australia fell 41 per cent in 2024/25, to $34 million.

That figure sits inside a record. Screen Australia released its Drama Report on 4 December 2025. Total expenditure on drama production in this country reached $2.7 billion across 174 titles, a 43 per cent rise on the previous financial year and the largest number the agency has recorded.

The two facts are in the same document. Only one of them was in the headlines.

The split

Of the 174 titles, 71 were Australian. Those 71 accounted for $1.1 billion, up 14 per cent.

Twenty-two were international productions shot here. Those 22 accounted for $1.3 billion.

So the growth is real and it is not principally local. Twenty-two foreign titles outspent 71 Australian ones by roughly $200 million.

Where the Australian money went

Australian theatrical features took $379 million across 34 titles, a 76 per cent lift on the $215 million spent on 38 titles the year before. Fewer features, considerably more money in each of them.

Australian television and subscription drama took $654 million across 32 titles, down 1 per cent. Within that, subscription and SVOD titles accounted for $492 million across 18 titles, and free-to-air for $162 million across 14.

Post, digital and visual effects work came to $762 million, up 33 per cent.

Children’s drama came to $34 million.

The number in context

Australian children’s television was, for three decades, an export category. It was also a training ground: a place where directors, writers, and crew learned on shorter blocks and smaller budgets before they went to adult drama.

The regulatory obligation that sustained it was removed in 2020, when the Federal Government suspended and then replaced the commercial broadcasters’ children’s content quotas with a points-based scheme. Screen Australia’s own subsequent reports have tracked the decline. This year’s figure is the sharpest single-year fall since that change.

Thirty-four million dollars is 1.3 per cent of total drama expenditure in Australia. It is less than one tenth of what was spent on 34 feature films.

The offset

Government support across all categories came to $430 million. The Producer Offset accounted for $317 million of that.

The Location Offset, lifted to 30 per cent under legislation passed in 2024, is the instrument attached to the international side of the ledger. Its effect on the 22 foreign titles is not separately itemised in the report.

What the agency said

Deirdre Brennan, Screen Australia’s chief executive, said the numbers “reflect a complex story of production value and volume while ongoing shifts in commissioning behaviour present challenges”.

Kate Marks, chief executive of Ausfilm, framed the international activity as structural support: “This activity helps sustain the ecosystem supporting Australian stories by keeping crews working and funding training.”

Screen Producers Australia responded to the report by warning that the headline figure masks a weakening domestic commissioning environment.

Where the work is

Queensland took 34 per cent of national production activity. New South Wales took 31 per cent, Victoria 27 per cent, South Australia and Western Australia 3 per cent each, and all other jurisdictions 1 per cent between them.

Queensland’s position is a function of studio capacity on the Gold Coast and the state’s own incentives, and it puts the largest share of national production activity outside the two traditional production states.

The outstanding question

Australian screen content obligations for streaming services have been under consideration since 2020. Successive ministers have said legislation is coming. None has introduced it.

Every year that passes without it, the subscription category is the one holding the local drama line, and this year that category went backwards by 1 per cent while the sector as a whole rose 43.

The next Drama Report is due in December.