It’s almost ten years since Netflix and Stan first started offering streaming services in Australia. This has been a decade of transformation for our local screen industries – and the implications for younger audiences in particular can’t be underestimated. For today’s children, streaming and watching television “on-demand” are the norm .
We’re now at a crossroads, on the cusp of the second decade of streaming in Australia. Earlier this year, a parliamentary inquiry interrogating commercial arrangements between US-based global streaming services such as Netflix and YouTube and television manufacturers resulted in changes to the way internet-connected smart TV devices are regulated. These changes are designed to ensure Australian providers such as ABC, SBS and commercial networks are available and easy to find on smart TV interfaces.
In other areas, however, the government’s promises have not resulted in policy action. The government previously committed to introducing a quota or expenditure system to ensure a certain amount of local content was available on subscription-video-on-demand (SVOD) services by July 2024. But July has come and gone with no developments, despite calls for urgent action from the screen industry.
An upcoming summit and conference will also explore the issue. Although the Australian government has recognised that the local children’s content sector in particular requires targeted solutions, the only policy change so far has been the re.