English Entertainment
Australia states its case for effectiveness of films in promoting tourism
MUMBAI: Another session at Locations 2003 dealt with the manner in which films can help in promoting tourism. Australia of course is one of the best examples of this. Films like Mission Impossible II, The Matrix Reloaded have helped in showcasing the beauty, colour, uniqueness of that country’s landscape. Remember Tom Cruise hanging from the side of the mountain in the opening scene of MI II?
Anupam Sharma explained to the gathering how and why Australia is being given a boost through film. He co-produced the first Australian-Indian feature film in Australia. Right now he is producing a documentary on Indian film making in Australia. The Bollywood documentary is targeted at the international film market. The Hunter Valley, Canberra and the Outback have already benefited from Indian films like Dil Chahta Hai being shot in their regions.
His Sydney-based company Films and Casting Temple organises the Australian shoots for Indian movies, TV commercials and music videos and the hiring of Australian dancers and film crew to work on them. He was also instrumental in the first Indian television series to be shot in Australia. At the seminar he noted that cooperation between India and Australia in the filmmaking arena got a boost five years ago when actor director Feroz Khan scripted Australia into a film of his and shot for 40 days down under. Since then over 80 projects materialised between the Indian and Australian film industries including television serials, music videos and ad films by the likes of Lakme, Bharti Cellular, Kingfisher.
“In five years the production of Indian films in Australia has gone up by 39 per cent. There are two distinct trends. One is Indian filmmakers who are also tourists to Australia. The second is Indian tourists to Australia inspired by films. The numbers have gone up substantially. In fact tourism increased from India to Australia increased by 23 per cent from 1999-2000 when Indian filmmakers were beginning to discover the allure of kangaroo land. It is not just the landscape that has Indian filmmakers coming back to Australia for more but also the harmonious relationships, which have been forged with the Australian film crews. Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane boast of state of the art production facilities.
“The overseas projects have greatly benefited the Australian economy by providing jobs. The easing of visa restrictions has made the process of Indians shooting their films here easier. Tourists want to see in real life what they saw in reel. The Australian Tourism Commission is therefore bullish on the Indian market. It recently released its global round up report on Asia. In 2001 45,000 Indians visited Australia and by February 2002 this number had increased by 16 per cent. Annually the traffic from India is growing at a rate of 18 per cent.
“As far as Indian films shot in Australia are concerned two Australian organisations will have a Bollywood film event down under later this year. This will be the most extensive showcase of Indian cinema around Australia. In the future there will be exchanges between the two film industries on several theoretical and practical issues.”
He pointed out that it was not just Indian filmmakers going to Australia. Leading Australian cinematographers, stunt directors, designers and post- production companies are now working in India on Indian films. As far as television is concerned AXN’s upcoming Extreme Dhamaka will have not just the hosts Mike Whitney and Tania Zaetta from Australia but also the production crew from Australia to coordinate the difficult stunts. In fact AXN has increased the budget by 50 per cent from last year.
Sharma added that the days of Australia promoting tourism through films could be traced back to the 1980s with Crocodile Dundee with Paul Hogan. Our Shrimp on the Barbie campaign which was conducted in the US saw a flood of tourists from America. In recent times films like Moulin Rouge, Inspector Gadget have raised interest in the country.
Sharma has written in conjunction with Oz Straits a guide, which gives Indians guidance about what Australia has to offer in terms of locales and production facilities. He also pointed out that seven Australian scripts related to India are in various stages of development.
Sharma noted that with Crocodile Dundee the perceived lifestyle of Australians and national landmarks got plastered on screens throughout the world. These films act as brochures for Australia. “The good news is that Australian films and films shot in that country offer diverse portrayals of people. The presence of landmarks like the Darling Harbour, elaborate group dance sequences on the steps of the Sydney Opera House in Dil Chahta Hai act as effective advertisement.”
UK: The aerial is losing its grip. As broadband becomes the default way Britons watch television, the UK is edging towards a decisive, and divisive, question: should Freeview be switched off by 2034? The issue, highlighted in reporting by The Guardian, has exposed deep fault lines over access, affordability and the future of public service broadcasting.
For nearly 25 years, Freeview has delivered free-to-air television from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 to almost every corner of the country. Even now, it remains the UK’s largest TV platform, used in more than 16m homes and on around 10m main household sets. Yet the same broadcasters that built it are now pressing for its closure within eight years.
Their case rests on a structural shift in viewing. Smart TVs, superfast broadband and the Netflix-led streaming boom have pulled audiences online. Advertising economics have followed. By 2034, the number of homes using Freeview as their main TV set is forecast to fall from a peak of almost 12m in 2012 to fewer than 2m, making digital terrestrial television, or DTT, increasingly costly to sustain.
But critics say the rush to switch off risks abandoning those least able, or least willing, to move online.
“I don’t want to be choosing apps and making new accounts,” says Lynette, 80, from Kent. “It is time-consuming and irritating trying to work out where I want to be, to remember the sequence of clicks, with hieroglyphics instead of words. If I make a mistake I have to start again.”
Lynette is among nearly 100,000 people who have signed a “save Freeview” petition launched by campaign group Silver Voices. She fears the government is about to “take [Freeview] away from me and others who either don’t like, can’t afford, or can’t use online versions”.
Official figures underline the fault lines. A report commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport estimates that by 2035, 1.8m homes will still depend on Freeview. Ofcom’s analysis shows those households are more likely to be disabled, older, living alone, female, and based in the north of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Freeview is owned by the public service broadcasters through Everyone TV, which also operates Freesat and the newer streaming platform Freely. After two years of review, DCMS is expected to set out its position soon, drawing on three options proposed by Ofcom: a costly upgrade of Freeview’s ageing technology; maintaining a bare-bones service with only core PSB channels; or a full switch-off during the 2030s.
The broadcasters have rallied behind the third option. They argue that 2034 is the logical cut-off, when transmission contracts with network operator Arqiva expire. By then, they say, the cost of broadcasting to a dwindling audience will far outweigh the returns from TV advertising.
Ofcom agrees a crunch point is approaching. In July, the regulator warned of a “tipping point” within the next few years, after which it will no longer be commercially viable for broadcasters to carry the costs of DTT.
Others see risks beyond economics. Questions remain over whether internet TV can reliably deliver emergency broadcasts, such as the daily Covid updates, in the way that universally available DTT can. The UK radio industry has also warned that an internet-only future for TV could push up distribution costs and force some radio stations off air if PSBs no longer share Arqiva’s mast network.
“It is a political hot potato,” says Dennis Reed, founder of Silver Voices, who says he has “dissociated” his organisation from the government’s stakeholder forum, which he believes is “heavily biased” towards streaming.
The Future TV Taskforce, representing the PSBs, counters that moving online could “close the digital divide once and for all”. “We want to be able to plan to ensure that no one is left behind,” a spokesperson says, adding that rising DTT costs could otherwise mean cuts to programme budgets.
The numbers show the scale of the challenge. Of the 1.8m Freeview-dependent homes projected for 2035, around 1.1m are expected to have broadband but not use it for TV. The remaining 700,000 are forecast to lack a broadband connection altogether.
Veterans of the analogue switch-off, completed in 2012 after 76 years, recall similar fears of “TV blackout chaos”. Around 6 per cent of households were labelled “digital refuseniks”, yet a targeted help scheme and a national campaign, fronted by a robot called Digit Al voiced by Matt Lucas, delivered a largely smooth transition.
This time, the BBC is less keen to foot the bill. Tim Davie, the outgoing director general, has said the corporation should not fund a comparable support programme for a Freeview switch-off.
Research for Sky by Oliver & Ohlbaum suggests that with early awareness campaigns and digital inclusion measures, only about 330,000 households would ultimately need hands-on help ahead of a 2034 shutdown.
Meanwhile, viewing habits continue to fragment. Audience body Barb says 7 per cent of UK households no longer own a TV set, choosing to watch on other devices. In December, YouTube overtook the BBC’s combined channels in total UK viewing across TVs, smartphones and tablets, albeit measured at a minimum of three minutes.
That shift may accelerate. YouTube has recently blocked Barb and its partner Kantar from accessing viewing session data, limiting transparency just as online platforms consolidate power.
“When the government chose British Satellite Broadcasting as the ‘winner’ in satellite TV it was Rupert Murdoch’s Sky instead that came out on top,” says a senior TV executive quoted by The Guardian. “There already is such an outsider ready to be the winner in the transition to internet TV; it is YouTube.”
Freeview’s future now hangs on a familiar British dilemma: modernise fast and risk exclusion, or protect universality and pay the price. Either way, the aerial’s days as king of the living room look numbered.
