Research on various aspects of Screen Production is regularly undertaken. This section collates research relating to screen production projects or the professionals who create them.
Survey of Screen Production in New Zealand
(2003-2004)
This survey provides the only comprehensive source of information about production activity in New Zealand. It helps to establish the importance of our industry to the New Zealand economy, to identify trends, and to gauge the level of foreign exchange generated by screen production. To order the full report ($95+ gst) email Spada.
Economic Theory and Local Content Quotas for Television
In early 2000 a coalition comprising TV3, Sky, Prime and the TAB released a paper by Veronica Jacobsen of Arthur Andersen (commissioned through Chen and Palmer). This paper tried to critique the SPADA quota model using economic theory. While purporting to be an unbiased analysis, the paper was remarkably light on fact and very heavy on opinion masked as theory.
While Spada does not have the resources to commission heavyweight consulting firms, we were very concerned about the attack on the very concept of quota and discussed it with several economists. It became clear that economic theory was less than clear - or even relevant - when applied to broadcasting policy. In the interests of furthering the debate, we commissioned economist and policy analyst David Hay to examine local content quotas from an economic theory perspective. The resulting paper helps to make the econobabble comprehensible to a layperson, and points out not only the uses but also the limitations of economic theory when applied to broadcasting policy.