Made in Melbourne used to be the default for much Australian television content, but the drift to Sydney is gathering pace. Or is it?

With apologies to Oscar Wilde, to lose one television program is a misfortune, but to lose two in a week borders on calamity. But that’s precisely what happened over the course of just a few days as first The Project and then Q+A were given the axe by their respective broadcasters, Ten and the ABC.

For Melbourne, the news strikes particularly hard. The Project, which is made by Rove McManus’ production company Roving Enterprises, is based there, and the show is filmed in the Ten studios in South Yarra. Ten has not confirmed how many jobs will be lost, but reports suggest between 80 and 100 could be “affected” (insiders suggest the FTE number is closer to 60). Patricia Karvelas was the last host of the ABC’s Q+A.Credit:ABC

Production of Q+A, meanwhile, is split between Sydney and Melbourne, with occasional forays to other locations. The ABC has not revealed if any jobs will go, but some attrition seems likely.

Add to the mix the imminent demise of Neighbours – which will, barring a second Lazarus act, film its final episode next month – and the news for Melbourne’s screen sector is grim.

It’s not just the job losses that hurt. There’s a blow to the pride of a city that in 1956 welcomed Australia to television, and once hosted the mighty Crawford Productions, from whose engine room emerged Homicide, Division 4, Matlock Police, Cop Shop, The Sullivans, Flying Doctors and many more.

The stamp “made in Melbourne” used to be a guarantee of a boost to viewership in the southern capital, though that parochialism was not especially reciprocated; “made in Sydney” didn’t seem to have as much impact on a show’s ratings. Yet that is where the bulk of screen content in Australia actually originates.

Screen Australia’s annual drama report records that in 2023-24, 47 per cent of the $1.7 billion spent on scripted content (including features and overseas productions) was incurred in NSW, 19 per cent in Victoria and 18 per cent in Queensland, with the other states scrapping for the remains. ABC News Breakfast hosts James Glenday and Bridget Brennan. The show is filmed in Melbourne.

Those figures are, however, skewed by the fact that NSW and Queensland typically score the lion’s share of big-budget film production from Hollywood.

Of course, there’s a lot of content made for television that isn’t scripted – sport, news and current affairs, reality, light entertainment. Of the $1.84 billion spent on programming by Seven, Nine and Ten in 2023-24, only about $50 million went to drama, according to a recent report by the ACMA (that figure represents the networks’ contributions; the actual budgets are considerably higher). They spent about 11 times that much on each of sport and light entertainment, and roughly eight times as much on news and current affairs ($407 million), as on drama.

As for where that content is actually made, there is a freighting towards Sydney, though it’s not as clear-cut as you might imagine.

Sport is made around the country, though obviously there’s more AFL content out of Melbourne and more rugby league out of Sydney. News is city-based, though the national bulletins come out of Sydney.

In the morning slots, the ABC’s News Breakfast is Melbourne-based, while Seven’s Sunrise and Nine’s Today are both shot in Sydney (Ten runs a repeat of Deal or No Deal at 8.30am, which is made in Melbourne). Australian Idol on Channel Seven is shot in Sydney.Credit:Seven

In the lead-in to the all-important evening bulletin, Ten has Neighbours (Melbourne), Seven has The Chase (Sydney) and Nine has Tipping Point (Melbourne). After the news, Nine’s A Current Affair is Sydney-based, Ten’s The Project is (or was) Melbourne, Seven’s Home and Away is Sydney, as is the ABC’s 7.30.

The primetime offerings are more dispersed. Ten’s long-running MasterChef Australia is made in Melbourne (its set was also used last year for the American version of the show), Seven’s Farmer Wants a Wife is filmed around the country, Nine’s Lego Masters is a Sydney shoot (it used to be made in Melbourne), while The Block is a Melbourne program (though four of its 20 seasons were shot in Sydney).

Nine’s Married at First Sight comes out of Sydney, as do Dancing with the Stars, First Dates, Australian Idol and The Voice (all Seven).

Ten’s comedy offerings Have You Been Paying Attention?, The Cheap Seats and Sam Pang Tonight are all Melbourne-made, but its Talkin’ ’Bout Your Gen comes from Sydney. Melanie Bracewell and Tim McDonald host The Cheap Seats, which is filmed in Melbourne.

Across the networks, certain patterns emerge. Nine and Ten each have a fairly even split of programming from Sydney and Melbourne, while Seven leans more heavily on Sydney, with the bulk of its Melbourne programming being AFL-focused. Seven also takes more content from Brisbane, Perth (home of CEO Kerry Stokes) and Adelaide than do the other two, which has often helped its ratings in those markets.

SBS has a strong Sydney bias, though a lot of the filming for its shows is done in the regions and other cities. The ABC declined to share information about where its programs are made, saying in a statement only that it was “planning to transmit close to 550 hours” of non-news content this year, across nearly 100 programs “produced across every state and territory”.

In streaming, Netflix has recently made more content in Victoria (Eddie’s Lil Homies, Apple Cider Vinegar, part of The Survivors, Son of a Donkey) and Queensland (Love Is in the Air, Boy Swallows Universe) than NSW (Heartbreak High). Its Territory was shot in the Northern Territory and South Australia.

Of the more than 40 originals Stan has announced or broadcast since the start of last year, about a third are Sydney- or NSW-based, a quarter are Melbourne- or Victoria-based, five were shot in WA, three in Queensland and the rest in various locations, including overseas.

Disney’s local productions have been spread around the country: The Artful Dodger in Sydney, The Clearing in Melbourne, The Last Days of the Space Age in Perth. Brisbane leapt for joy to play host to Boy Swallows Universe.Credit:Netflix

More than half of Amazon Prime Video’s recent slate has come from Sydney or regional NSW, and just one sports doc (Kick Like Tayla) hails from Victoria. But its Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, Top End Bub and Deadloch (after a first season in Tasmania) all showcase the NT.

There’s little question, in other words, that Sydney is home to the lion’s share of production in TV and streaming, across all formats. But despite the loss of The Project and Neighbours, Melbourne remains a vital part of the sector. And with Brisbane and the Gold Coast nipping away, and a new Perth studio set to come online next year (bolstered by the country’s most generous location incentives), you can guarantee the competition to get a piece of the lights, cameras and action is only going to get a lot fiercer.