Streaming services like Netflix, Stan, and Disney+ may be forced to produce Australian content if the Albanese government’s long-awaited legislation going before parliament this week is waved through.
Australian TV broadcasters are already subject to content quotas which mean that at least 55% of the content they broadcast between 6am and midnight must be Australian.
Prior to 2020, they also had sub-quotas for children’s shows, drama and documentary programs. However, these sub-quotas were removed in 2020 when the Coalition government introduced a point system instead to allow more flexibility for commercial broadcasters.
The result, as shown in this chart based on data from Screen Australia, is that children’s TV production hit an all-time low of just 35 hours of content in the 2023-24 financial year:
Almost all Australian children’s TV content is now produced by the ABC.
Now, according to the government, new quotas will apply to streaming services “with more than one million Australian subscribers”, who will need to “invest at least 10% of their total expenditure for Australia – on new local drama, children’s, documentary, arts and educational programs”.
