Reports and Insights

• Post, Digital and Visual Effects (PDV) Rebate established in late 2019. Digital Games (DG) Rebate established in late 2021.
• Total rebate grants of $158.8m allocated over five years (to August 2023), including 325 for PDV ($152.7m) and 16 for DG development ($6.2m). The 10 largest PDV projects are together a third of the expected PDV rebate spend.
• The program is attracting or retaining around 73% of NSW’s rebated PDV activity and 31% of rebated digital gaming activity.
• Over $1.1 billion in NSW PDV industry activity across seven years attributable to the program, peaking at nearly $375 million in 2022-23.
• Nearly 1 million PDV person-days across seven years attributable to the program. In the highest year (2022-23) equivalent to over 1,400 full-time positions.
• Over 20,000 DG person-days over six years attributable to the program. In the highest year (2022-23), equivalent to nearly 40 full-time positions.
• The NSW PDV and DG sectors’ rebate-driven scale increases, infrastructure development and skills development are helping the sectors develop further underlying and long-term competitiveness.
• Gross benefits of around $215 million from the combined PDV and DG rebates program, against gross economic costs of around $139 million, in real present value ($2024) terms. Generating a quantified net social benefit for the NSW community of around $76 million, or a benefit-cost ratio of 1.5, with potential further benefit upside.

The program did attract and retain PDV and digital gaming production to NSW. However, the extent of this varied by the characteristics of each project and its context.

From project commencement to August 2023, we estimate around 73% of rebated PDV activity and 31% of rebated digital gaming activity was attracted to or retained in NSW due to the program, combining actual activity from finalised rebates and expected activity from approved applications.

We have defined nine categories of PDV project, and two categories of digital gaming project. Different project categories vary in their additionality due to the program.

More broadly, the existence of the program has been one factor in attracting ILM and DNEG to establish operations in NSW, which is attracting PDV production to NSW at a scale not previously seen. Similarly, the DG rebate was also identified as a factor leading to a large international studio, Riot Games, choosing to establish a NSW presence via acquiring Wargaming Studios in Sydney.

Given the attribution discussed above, the program has led to increased revenue/expenditure and employment in the PDV and digital gaming industries.

With respect to PDV:

• Over $1.1 billion in NSW PDV industry activity over seven years is expected to be attributable to the program, peaking at nearly $375 million in 2022-23.
• Nearly 1 million PDV person-days over seven years is expected to be attributable to the program. In the year of highest attributable activity (2022-23), this could be equivalent to over 1,400 full-time-equivalent positions.

With respect to digital gaming:

• Nearly $19 million in NSW digital gaming industry activity over six years is expected to be attributable to the program, peaking at $7.7 million in 2022-23.
• Over 20,000 DG person-days over six years is expected to be attributable to the program. In the year of highest attributable activity (2022-23), this could be equivalent to nearly 40 full-time-equivalent positions.

While all parts of NSW’s PDV and digital gaming sector have expanded or retained activity due to the program, the growth in activity and employment has been proportionally greater in larger, globally-networked PDV vendors working on large international projects.

Indirectly through inducing project activity, the rebate did increase investment in NSW’s PDV and digital gaming technology, infrastructure and skills.

Over half of PDV businesses surveyed stated that the rebate had a substantial impact on their investment into new facilities, infrastructure, software and training for their staff.

Several DG studios suggested that the rebate reduced the financial risk of new product development and gave greater confidence to pursue more technically challenging projects that allowed their staff to develop new skills.