2008 Commercial Producers Industry Survey results

Although the number of local (originated by SA agencies and produced by SA director-based production companies) and service (originated by foreign agencies, produced by foreign production companies with the assistance of SA service companies) have decreased, the international/SA commercials (originated by foreign agencies, which are produced and directed by SA director-based companies) market grew, as did the use of SA directors on a year-by-year basis.

The Commercial Producers Industry Survey 2008 is based on income derived from commercial production in the period 1 May 2007 - 30 April 2008. As the survey sample comprises 32 commercial production companies, members of the CPA, it is assumed that expenditure, income and turnover by the entire industry is at least and definitely more than what is presented by the survey results.

The total billable value for all commercial productions during the 2007/8 period was just under R765 million (R764 411 503.41), while expenditure measured totalled over R555 million (R555 375 595.69).

The respondents reported that they produced 727 commercials in the 2007/8 period, including 13 commercials shot in high definition (HD), totalling 1603 shoot days, an average of 2.20 days per commercial. The average budget per commercial, for all types produced, was just over R1million (R1 051 460.11).

Interesting trends

Interesting trends appear to be developing when evaluating the respondents who have participated over all four years of the survey (a total of 20 member companies). A key finding is that for the first time since the survey, the results for 2007/8 reflect an increase in international/SA commercials.

In addition, an increasing amount of work is being originated from outside SA, with the international/SA commercials market growing and SA directors being used on an increasing basis year-on-year for participating companies.

Mostly due to a large increase in international/SA billable value, 2007/8 showed a notable increase in total billable value for all types of commercials over 2005/6. This follows the small increases of 2006/7 from the previous year.

It appears that although the use of other locations outside of the two key audio-visual location provinces of Gauteng and the Western Cape increased in 2007/8, compared with the previous year, the two most popular locations continue to be Gauteng and the Western Cape.

Overall, the number of commercials showed an increase for the first three years of the survey and then a negligible decrease in 2007/8, with the decrease attributed to the reducing numbers of service commercials.

Producing more each year

Participating companies have on average been producing more commercials each year, until 2007/8, which shows a 5.32% decrease in the average number of commercials produced per company. However, shoot days and average shoot days per commercial increased from 2006/7 to 2007/8, both by about 4%, with a concurrent 17.56% increase in budgets per commercial.

When evaluating the total billable value versus total billable expenditure of the 20 participating companies over the four-year period, it is interesting to note that while the total number of commercials produced decreased by 0.34%, the total billable value increased by 17.17% from 2006/7 to 2007/8 and the total billable expenditure decreased by 6.87% over the same period.

One of the key findings of the survey is that production companies in this sector must pay more attention to BBBEE as participants reported a below-average performance in terms of ownership and equity.

The survey, which is carried out for the Commercial Producers Association South Africa by Evolutions Research Solutions, is sponsored by the Gauteng Film Commission and the Cape Film Commission, in the interests of obtaining comprehensive and sustained data on the country's audio visual industry sector.