Push for 20% investment on streaming platforms

The push is on again for streaming platforms to be regulated with a minimum of Australian content.

Screen Producers Australia in its submission to the Media Reform Green paper, has proposed streaming services be required to spend 20% of locally sourced revenues on commissioning new Australian content, with minimum requirements to protect drama, documentary and children’s content.

Currently streaming platforms have no minimum Australian content requirements but since 2021 must keep track of their investment.

“The rules we are proposing will safeguard a bright future for Australian content on streaming platforms and are proportionate to the popularity and financial success of the streaming platforms,” said SPA CEO Matthew Deaner.

“These platforms are bringing in almost $2 billion in revenue from operating in Australia, and are immensely popular. Given these platforms are now one of the main ways in which Australians interact with screen content, it is only right that we set long term protections that will ensure audiences are able to see their own stories, culture and identity reflected back to them through Australian screen content.

“Streaming platforms’ engagement with Australian content has built slowly over time and isn’t consistent across all providers. We need a strong and stable regulatory framework that provides long-term certainty for audiences and industry, and which will ensure consistency of engagement in Australian content long after the scrutiny of the current review has moved on,” said Deaner.

SPA’s proposal would apply to services with at least 500k subscribers or $50 million in annual Australian revenue.

“We are calling on the Government to act quickly to address the regulatory gap on streaming platforms, and to introduce the new quota by 1 January 2022.

“The Government has already taken away much of the Australian content regulation applying to commercial free-to-air television based on changes in technology and audience behaviour.

“It is vital that they finish the job of transitioning regulation to the increasingly dominant streaming platforms, to ensure Australians don’t miss out seeing the great Australian content we know they love,” said Deaner.

The proposed requirement is to spend 20% of locally sourced revenue on commissioning new Australian content, with an obligation to commission into genres (drama, documentary and children’s) triggered by a platform’s engagement with non-Australian content in that genre.

SPA proposes minimum requirements to engage with the independent sector (80% of the overall obligation) and requirements to work within negotiated terms of trade, to address the bargaining imbalance between small to medium producers and large, powerful streaming platforms.

SPA’s proposals were developed with reference to international precedents, with France taking a leading position in implementing a 20.5-25.5% quota and Canada currently considering how to impose similar requirements.