ECONOMICS OF FILM AND TELEVISION IN AUSTRALIA

NOTES AND REFERENCES

1. J.G. Blumler, ‘Introduction’ in J.G. Blumler (ed.). Television and the Public Interest: Vulnerable Values in Western European Broadcasting, Sage, London, 1992, p.3. Education and religion also deal with the meaning of life and are the object of government support, one through public funding. and the other through favourable tax treatment as a charity. Their differences are recognised, but like culture they are not beyond the province of economics and the issues raised in the Report.

2. A Media Release by the Australian Film Commission, November 18th, 1993, accompanying publication of the Report, noted that it suggested three areas for further research: “more sophisticated analysis of public attitudes to the local film and TV industry; the profitability of Australian audiovisual production; and interactions between different forms of government assistance, such as regulation of industry (ownership and competition policy), program regulation, subsidies and the funding of national broadcasters.”

3. Harold Vogel, Entertainment Industry Economics: A guide for financial analysis. Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, 1990, pp.285–291.

4. In Canada, the regulator argues that, under existing legislative authority, it can regulate direct-to-home satellite signals when the program provider acquires program rights for Canada, solicits subscribers in Canada, solicits advertising in Canada, or activates and deactivates decoders of Canadian subscribers — see Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. Structural Hearings, Ottawa, Public Notice CRTC 1993–74, June 3, 1993, p.8.

5. Another anomaly is the acclaim given in Australia to the Academy Award nominations for Schindler s List. It is authored by an Australian teaching in California but would not be counted as Australian content by the ABA.

6. A Protocol on Trade in Services came into force on January 1st 1989. Australia maintains a range of restrictions on free trade in audiovisual services in contrast to New Zealand's openness — see Ross Jones, The Impact of the Closer Economic Relations Agreement on the Cultural Industries in Australia and New Zealand, University of Sydney, School of Finance and Economics, Working Paper No. 27, March 1993.

7. Advertisers are interested in the cost-per-thousand of audience reached which standardises the market on the basis of size. If available this is a more relevant price comparison to make. Price information on programs by market is infrequently made public.

8. Salomon Brothers, Interactive Multimedia: When Worlds Converge, New York, June 1993, pp.5, 7.

9. Informational problems are associated with individuals behaving in an opportunistic manner giving rise to issues of moral hazard, adverse selection and principal-agent relationships. The issues and terminology are discussed in Oliver Williamson, The Economic Institutions of Capitalism: Firms, Markets, Relational Contracting, Free Press, New York, 1985. A special survey of television in the Economist, February 12–18, 1994, after p.52 provides excellent technological and institutional information needed to develop a framework for economic analysis.

10. The Paramount antitrust case in the 1940s forced divestiture of exhibition from distribution for certain firms. The demise of studio production came later. A re-evaluation of the Paramount case-using transaction cost analysis has been undertaken by Arthur De Vany and Ross D. Eckhart, Motion Picture Antitrust: The Paramount Case Revisited’, Research in Law and Economics, 14, 1991, pp.51–112.