Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said he backs introducing content quotas on streaming services. “We strongly support local content
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said he backs introducing content quotas on streaming services.
“We strongly support local content in streaming services, so Australian stories stay on Australian screens,” Albanese said during campaigning for the country’s general election which takes place on May 3.
Both Albanese’s Australian Labour Party Government and the previous Liberal National Party (LNP) Government have previously failed to impose promised content quotas on streamers.
Many in the Australian production industry were convinced they had lost the chance for quotas to be introduced after Donald Trump was elected US President to prevent the country being dragged into a trade dispute with the US. However, Australia has since been hit by 10% tariffs under Trump.
“My determination to get there remains completely unchanged,” Arts Minister Tony Burke said in a video message to lobby group Save Our Arts. “I wish we’d landed it. We have a natural challenge in Australia where we speak the English language, and we have huge competition from other English language producers of dramatic content that can find its way straight across the internet to Australia.
Neither party has agreed a mechanism that would deliver local content but the Greens want 20% of Australian subscription revenue going to locally made and owned content.
The five streamers that voluntarily provide data to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) – Amazon Prime Video, Paramount+, Disney+, Netflix and local streamer Stan – in 2023/24 spent US$108m (A$225.2m) on commissioning and co-commissioning shows with Australian producers, directors, writers and at least 50% of lead cast. Only in 2020/21 was the figure higher.
Nearly 90% went to 26 dramas, mostly for adults. They include Justin Kurzel’s Amazon Prime drama Narrow Road To The Deep North. The only features were Jones Family Christmas and Windcatcher for Stan, and The Appleton Ladies’ Potato Race for Paramount+.
An additional US$127m (A$200m) went to acquiring, producing or investing in “Australian-related” programmes, including Alien: Romulus, which hired Australian visual effects expertise, and Ricky Stanicky, filmed in the territory.
The Screen Producers Australia (SPA) said there has been a slowdown in commissioning because of a lack of regulation on streamers. It said an estimated 170 commissions, worth more than $640m (A$1bn), have stalled or collapsed, and members feel less bullish than a year earlier.
The SPA told Screen the survey strongly represented its more than 700 members but would not reveal how many took part in the survey.
Some 14 European countries, including France, Denmark, Spain and Italy, have so far imposed financial obligations on streamers, leading to a surge of funding for local films and TV shows.
Outside Europe, countries such as Canada also mandate that streamers must fund local productions, while New Zealand, Indonesia, Thailand and South Korea are mulling plans. In the UK, Parliament’s culture, media and sport (CMS) committee recently recommended a 5% levy on streamers. Ireland recently put plans for a streamer levy on hold.
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