The federal government is expected to introduce a bill enforcing local content quotas for streaming services, like Netflix and Disney+, to significantly boost Australian television production. As an RMIT expert explains, while streaming regulation is long overdue, the proposed reforms have some limitations.
Alexa Scarlata, Lecturer, Digital Communication
"Major streaming services have been left to operate unregulated in Australia for more than a decade, with consecutive federal governments instead opting to scale back the licence fees and local content obligations of commercial broadcasters. This has resulted in a significant decline in Australia's screen production sector.
"This bill is a positive step because it will provide some assurance about how much money streaming giants will have to consistently inject back into the local industry. Early estimates suggest the legislation could guarantee contributions of more than A$300 million per year.
"The bill also demands that streamers invest in key genres - like drama and children's content - that play an important cultural role for Australians but have recently faced an uncertain future.
"But what the proposed bill does not set out is a specific quantity of content - a minimum number of titles or hours - that streamers will be required to make. Netflix and its competitors could meet their obligations with only a handful of titles per year. We might see a few big-budget productions popping up sporadically, rather than a larger quantity overall. What good is that for our flailing production sector?
"What's more, whereas streaming regulation in Europe and Canada has imposed local content promotion requirements on subscription video-on-demand services, the Australian bill does not include any such obligations. There's nothing here that ensures that what gets made by streamers will actually reach Australian viewers in their algorithmically-personalised interfaces."
Alexa Scarlata is a scholar of media and cultural industries at RMIT University. She has a special interest in internet distributed television, content production and national screen policy.
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