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TRADE IN SERVICES

The previous section provided information on trade in cultural goods (i.e. movable goods that cross Australia's customs frontier). While this is a major part of Australia's cultural trade with other countries, trade in services also contributes to Australia's trade in culture and recreation.

The term ‘credits’ is used to refer to services rendered by Australians to the rest of the world and the term ‘debits’ to describe services provided by the rest of the world to Australians.

Most of Australia’s trade in services relates to international transport, travel, education and business services. Trade in cultural services (including music royalties) is relatively small in value and therefore parts of it have been combined with recreational services and health and medical services in the collection and output of data. Trade in this broader category (referred to as cultural and recreational services in the remainder of this chapter) - rather than just cultural services - is discussed here.

Australia earned $342m from cultural and recreational services in 2002-03, approximately 1% of its total earnings from services in that year. This figure has remained relatively constant over recent years, with the exception of 2000-01 when the inclusion of television rights to the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games boosted it to about 4%.

Australia paid $986m to other countries for the cultural and recreational services in 2002-03, with Audiovisual and related services accounting for 69% of that total, and music royalties a further 21%. This represented approximately 3% of all Australia's payments for services in that year.

7.8 TRADE IN CULTURAL AND RECREATIONAL SERVICES - 1996-97 to 2002-03
		1996-97	1997-98	1998-99	1999-00	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03
		$m	$m	$m	$m	$m	$m	$m
Service credits (earnings)
	Audiovisual and related services	146	125	145	175	(a)1 226	80	152
	Music royalties	40	42	46	57	70	54	65
	Other cultural and recreational services(b)	46	61	83	78	95	137	125
	Total services provided	232	228	274	310	1 391	271	342
Service debits (payments)
	Audiovisual and related services	467	598	638	683	634	727	680
	Music royalties	203	167	171	209	229	229	207
	Other cultural and recreational services(b)	54	63	64	64	81	77	99
	Total services received	724	828	873	956	944	1 033	986
(a) Includes $1,133m associated with the broadcast rights for the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
(b) Includes health and medical services.
ABS, Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, Australia, (various issues), (cat. no. 5302.0) and data available on request.

For Audiovisual and related services, Australia's largest earnings came from the sale of television programs. In 2002-03, television program sales amounted to $64m.

Television programs also accounted for the bulk of the $680m of payments Australia made for Audiovisual and related services, amounting to $448m in 2002-03. Of the payments for television programs, $291m (65%) was paid to the United States of America and $57m (13%) to the United Kingdom.

Payments for the right to use videotapes totalled $148m, with $115m (78%) of this being paid to the United States of America.

7.9 AUDIOVISUAL AND RELATED SERVICES, By Type - 1996-97 to 2002-03
		1996-97	1997-98	1998-99	1999-00	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03
		$m	$m	$m	$m	$m	$m	$m
Credits (earnings)
	Theatrical films	19	15	21	21	9	np	16
	Television programs - Sydney Olympic Games	-	-	-	-	1 133	-	-
	Television programs - other	117	98	111	108	64	59	64
	Video tapes	np	np	np	np	6	1	6
	Total credits(a)	146	125	145	175	1 226	80	152
Debits (payments)
	Theatrical films	87	130	92	136	80	84	74
	Television programs	260	342	412	421	429	498	448
	Video tapes	np	np	127	118	104	138	148
	Total debits(a)	467	598	638	683	634	727	680
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
np not available for publication but included in totals where applicable, unless otherwise indicated
(a) Includes Multimedia and Other (not separately identified).
ABS, Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, data available on request.