Adult TV drama |Children’s TV drama

Adult TV drama

An average of 32 Australian TV drama programs for adults (telemovies, mini-series, series and serials, including co-productions) have received first-release screenings on Australian free-to-air television each year since 1996.

Series/serials make up the majority of these (almost 58 per cent). An average of 19 new series/serial titles screened each year between 1996 and 2019, including one-off series such as the ABC’sMystery Roadand long-running serials such as Seven’sHome and Away.

First-run screenings of telemovies and mini-series fluctuate annually with an average of six and eight new titles respectively per year in the last 24 years.

Children’s TV drama

An average of 16 Australian TV drama programs for children (including co-productions) receive a first release on Australian free-to-air television each year. This is about half the number of new drama programs for adults released annually. An average of five mini-series for children received a first release screening each year between 1996 and 2019, compared to 11 series/serials. Telemovies for children are less common than for adults, with an average of only one new release per year. They are often Christmas specials. The 2016 release of Dogstar: A Christmas in Space was the first children's telemovie to screen since 2008. No children's telemovies screened in 2019.