23 June 2026

FRANKLIN RD CONFIRMS FIRST TOPLINE RATECARD INCREASE IN 16 YEARS EFFECTIVE 1 AUGUST 2026

With our running costs increasing significantly across numerous cost centres over the financial year ending 31 March 2026, we’ve been forced to take a close look at where these increases are coming from, as they’re now having a substantial impact on our business compared with the previous year, despite (audio-post) turnover increasing by just under 10%.

Just a handful of the cost increases, comparing the last financial year with the one before, include:

Power up 17.98%

Coffee up 19.97%

Insurance up 28.95%

Computer hardware updates up 21.04%

Phone/Internet up 10.89% (with further increases to come in 2026)

Bank charges up 62.07%

The list goes on. (For example, the trend to subscription models for requisite software has seen our subs costs increase a rather mind boggling 421% in the last 12 month period too.) 

Cost increases are nothing new, of course; they’re clearly affecting all of us in our personal lives as well. However, the increases we’ve been absorbing since our last review following Covid in 2022 have reached a point where, in order to continue operating as we are, we need to implement our first top-line rate card increase in sixteen years, effective 1 August 2026, as follows:

Studio hourly rate: +3.85% to $270 per hour

Archive/backup fee: +$10 to $40

 All other standard rates will remain unchanged.

 Lunches: While recharges for lunches have been happening on an informal basis—for which we thank our clients greatly—we thought we’d take this opportunity to confirm that, going forward, lunches (other than our engineer’s) will need to be charged back to the job.

In other news, we’ve just finished creating two client green rooms, one on each floor. The Al Green Room (named after the artist whose album cover graces the door) is downstairs, while The Paddock (named after the Resene paint colour adorning the walls) is upstairs. Please feel free to use these spaces for meetings or as a workspace whenever needed.

Lastly, after sixteen years, we’ve decided to make a slight adjustment to our branding by adding the word “Studios” to the Franklin Rd nomenclature. “Franklin Rd Studios” is our most searched-for term on Google, and more than half the time we’re called that by default anyway.

We’re hoping that adding “Studios” to our name will make it easier for new visitors to find us and also result in fewer confused food delivery and courier drivers. Additionally, it may reduce the number of people incorrectly tagging us in (not always complimentary) Christmas Lights comments every December.

That’s it from us. If you have any questions about any of this, please feel free to reach out to Van or Jonathan.

Ngā mihi maioha, 

Franklin Rd Studios