A coalition of global streaming services — Netflix, Disney, Prime, Paramount and local minnow Stan — is lobbying the federal government against content quotas for the Australian screen sector, despite the fact Australia has just 2% local content on those services and that Netflix is delivering 30% local content quotas in European markets.
Last night the streamer coalition put on a panel event in Parliament to sing the virtues of an unfettered screen sector. It dropped some media ahead of it — suggesting Heartbreak High’s runaway success is a case against regulating more Australian content — and produced a report implying the Australian screen sector is in its rudest health since it began making movies in the 1920s.
When referring to the vigour of Australia’s screen sector, the report alludes to the streamers investing $628 million in Australian productions in 2020-21, according to a report by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). The actual figure is $178.9 million, a fact the reader can’t check because the report provides a broken link.
The report also fails to address the percentage of Australian shows on streamers, how much of that content is scripted, how algorithms can promote or bury content, and concerning trends — like the fact that in just eight years of streaming, Australian content has almost evaporated.
Instead there are paeans to choice and how stretched the sector is just finding talent. Glossed over is the reality that this talent search often centres on finding Australian riggers and carpenters to support American companies telling American stories on Australian sets.
There’s also a suggestion Australia doesn’t have the capacity to service a growing sector, as though growth of Australian stories and talent was a bad problem to have.
But the subscription-video-on-demand model is not really about choice as the report suggests; the business model is about reducing expenditure on shows, dumping them in overseas markets, and maximising profits.
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