The federal government is set to introduce new quotas on locally produced content on the likes of Netflix and Disney.
Arts Minister Tony Burke announced the plans at the launch of the National Cultural Policy at Melbourne’s Hotel Hotel Esplanade. The policy is hoped to be passed later this year with a mooted start date of 1 July 2024.
The policy would require international streaming platforms to reinvest revenue into locally produced show. However, the details of the policy have not been finalised. The industry had previously argued that 20 per cent of local revenue should be reinvested.
“There’s no doubt a lot more can be done – a lot more,” Burke told ABC News Breakfast.
“In terms of the exact number and how you cut it, that’s something we’ll be working through in the first six months of this year. Legislation in the second half of the year, and then, as of July 1 next year, streaming quotas will exist in Australia. There will be Australian content obligations.
“So, we’re still working through the exact percentages and all of that. It will be done by myself and [Communications Minister] Michelle Rowland. The days have to end where you’re sitting there with a remote control, going through show after show, and everything appears to be from either the United States or the UK. If you’re watching the TV, and it’s free-to-air, you’re getting Australian content. But if you’re watching through the internet, you’re not guaranteed to get anything [local] at all. And that just needs to change.”
Local TV networks, such as Seven, Nine, and Ten, are already subject to content quotas. But the big digital streamers did launch Australian-produced content this year. Prime debuted six new Australian Amazon Originals last year, Disney announced the first local content commissions and acquisitions for Disney+ with nine Australian originals in May.
