Hmmm, my stats must be old. ACMA says free-to-air must have 55% local programming between 6am and midnight.
http://www.acma.gov.au/Industry/Broadcast/Television/Australian-content/australian-content-television

I didn't look closely but I assume this means that cable channels don't have to follow the same quotas. Which just makes my point about local ghost shows in exchange for a puppet show for me
Their stats page is interesting.

And the ABC reports that over half of local programming is.... news.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-18/majority-of-locally-made-australian-television-content-is-news/4763810
Shocking, I know.  

And this is worth reading:
http://if.com.au/2013/03/26/article/AWG-slams-new-Australian-content-quota-bill/GHSWCJHWLV.html
The Australian Writers Guild suggests that the large quota can actually just be covered by programming repeats across digital channels. (That explains 'Sons and Daughters'  \ )

I was on the same site to brush up on my knowledge. Here it states:

Subscription television (ie Pay TV) drama channels are also regulated by a compulsory standard requiring expenditure on minimum amounts of Australian drama programs.

So from my understanding of it, they are still obligated to Australian programming, it just seems that it's determined my a monetary value rather than a percentage of screentime. So sorry, the local ghost show has to stay. And talking about ghost hunters, I have a friend that does paranormal stuff on community radio. I listened to it once... for about 3 minutes. It was pretty boring.

I think biggest problem with Australian TV drama is that it has to be culturally Australian to get government funding, which makes is so much harder to make a science fiction TV drama and locks a lot Australian programs into historical events or (in)famous figures, such as, Underbelly, INXS: Never Tear Us Apart and that new Michelle Corby drama.

Looking back on what I just wrote I see that we're really offtopic! We should start our own Australian puppetry show.

Yes, of course. Reality TV = cheap TV, and producing new local shows costs more than buying ready-made overseas stuff. I haven't heard of the 'culturally Australian' requirement, but even if that were true there's certainly plenty of stuff they could still do without having it be Blue Heelers or Neighbours or whatever. The problem is two-fold: nobody watches Australian-made TV so nobody produces it; nobody produces it because nobody watches it. To break the cycle you've first got to get the bean counters away from the beans

But yeah... off topic...

Seattle watching party:
http://www.meetup.com/The-Pacific-Northwest-Puppetry-Group/events/167877512/

I have got to get this programed in to the DVR so I don't miss it. 

Is it just me or do the commercials for this use CGI?  At least the early promos I saw for it, I could swear where CGI. It was kind of disappointing. Still looking forward to seeing it though.

Damn, still nothing locally. Although I see I've missed Syfy Aus doing Doctor Who merchandise giveaways... double damn!

So what did everyone think?

Seattle watching party report:
Loved the back of the winning creature.  We all wanted more focus on the materials used.  
Everyone agreed it's definitely fun to watch unlimited spending puppet building.  Drool might have happened over the huge stack of L200 foam they had there.
More than a little eye rolling happened over the drams they focused way too much on...also we discussed if it was real or not.  It seemed realistic but...
We decided to hold another watch party next week.

http://www.meetup.com/The-Pacific-Northwest-Puppetry-Group/events/173474432/

I can't believe I missed it! I have it set in the DVR now so hopefully it'll catch the pilot.... or I'll pull it up on demand.

I don't have SyFy, so about to watch it online:

http://www.syfy.com/now/jim-hensons-creature-shop-challenge/full-episode/what-lies-beneath/206304835705