“SPA’s Facts and Myths Document seeks to tackle some of this misinformation head-on”, said SPA CEO, Matthew Deaner.
“Streaming platforms are making much of their ‘voluntary’ investment in Australian stories.
“We know that some of this is motivated by a recognition that until quite recently, their efforts have been extremely poor, and they are now keen to tell the best story possible about their investment.
“However, the latest ACMA data shows that despite deriving revenues estimated by PWC to reach around $2.5 billion per year in 2023 from Australian subscribers, SVOD investment in local content from Amazon Prime, Disney+, Netflix, and Stan amounted to $103.76m in 2020-21.
There is very little transparency in the reported numbers from the streamers, even the ACMA states it cannot confirm the accuracy of the data, which is cause for concern. What we can tell is that of the big investment numbers they are claiming, very little is on original, new Australian projects.
Investment in children’s drama and non-drama programs is declining, while any increased investment is related to acquiring old catalogue titles and investment in sports programs.
The ACMA Data shows the streamers acquired 1,743 programs while only commissioning or co-commissioning 22 new Australian programs. Some of these are likely to be minor investments to projects already happening, but without transparency in the data, we just don’t know.
“The whole purpose of any regulation is to ensure that Australian audiences get a diversity of high-value cultural content, made here as well as globally. The vital regulation would also provide some certainty to a vulnerable, important, and high-risk Australian industry.
“The Australian screen industry, with varying levels of local content regulation, has served us well so far and created iconic, and culturally significant titles, that tell our unique stories.
“We cannot celebrate this without ensuring that current and future Australians enjoy the same cultural experience, and that regulation keeps pace with the new digital platforms.
“Compared to the USA and the UK, Australia is a small player in the global English-language screen market. Without minimum investment requirements in local content, market dynamics and cost pressures dictate that we would likely see very few of our own stories on screen. Without minimum regulation, these stories would be at the whim of global businesses and not a reflection of our own cultural needs and priorities.
“Australia offers significant and generous tax rebates and incentives to these businesses to come here and take advantage of our studio and NBN delivery infrastructure, talent and expertise built up over decades.
“SPA believes it only fair to the Australian people and the local industry that some minimum investment obligation is required in return.
SPA has an 800+ strong membership consisting of SMEs and micro businesses from across Australia who create every genre of content. Regulation of local and international streaming services to commit minimum investments into the Australian industry not only offers a fair ongoing commitment to a highly profitable market and audience that Australia provides but also builds ongoing mutual benefits through a production sector that delivers content for these services.
SPA deems the regulation of streaming services a necessity if we are to foster a healthy commercial environment within Australia.
“Australia is not alone in recognising the need to act to regulate streaming platforms. There are various frameworks in place across many territories and countries with comparable market structures and industry qualities such as Canada, France and Italy offer best practice examples of frameworks that will benefit both our sector and our audiences.
“It is important to have the facts in this debate and not be frightened of the mysterious ‘unintended consequences that we hear so much about.
“The fact is this regulation is well overdue,” Mr Deaner said.
Link to SPA’s Facts and Myths Document HERE.
