The route to Tuesday’s “landmark” announcement of streaming quotas in Australia has been long and torturous, and the country’s production community is now beginning to assess what the future will look like. Will, as streamers often privately claim, the move reduce investment in the country’s TV and film sector? Or does it simply ensure producers are clearer about what money is on the table for them to chase? Whatever the truth, it’s going to be a huge change for a market that’s become best known internationally as a services base for Hollywood productions.
Deadline has spoken to several producers to gauge the mood in Australia since Anthony Albanese’s Labor government announced its plan to force streamers with over a million local subscribers to pay either 10% of local revenues or 7.5% of their Australian investment in local content. The broad feeling is a mix of excitement and trepidation.
“The government’s announcement is certainly a positive milestone for Australian production,” says Mark Fennessy, CEO of Helium, which is behind *The Last King of the Cross* for Paramount+ and Netflix‘s *Paper Dolls*. “It’s a significant and long-awaited moment for the local industry but excuse me for being cautious, if not somewhat sceptical.”
Sources we’ve spoken to can see both sides of the argument and say the announcement isn’t definitive. On one hand, streamers currently operate locally free from regulations that bind Australia’s broadcasters, and they pay little to no tax. A fraction of the net profits they make from their subscription models — one producer calls this “an astonishing, eye-watering amount” — goes back into original production. And when they do order locally, it’s rarely for global rights, meaning producers need a distributor to sell the rest of the world to complete financing.
On the other side of the debate, Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, and Paramount+ are commissioning original shows, while sources say the commercial broadcasters such as Networks Seven, Nine, and Ten rarely order anything new (though it should be noted their streamers are more active). Public service broadcaster the ABC is financially hampered, as is multicultural and multilingual SBS, and they “commission only a small amount compared to the quality and quantity of the past,” according to one source.
Netflix can also point to the fact that big-ticket bets such as Australian Yellowstone-style neo-Western drama *Territory* have been global commissions.
As in other countries where quotas have been established, it’s a complicated picture. In Australia, the debate has been more fraught than almost anywhere else, and so the government’s announcement caught out even those who’ve been at the negotiating table.
We’ve seen a note from Screen Producers Australia (SPA), which has long lobbied for regulation, to its members expressing surprise while welcoming the news with several caveats, including issues with expenditure as a measure.
“On balance, we felt it was important to acknowledge the significance of the government’s decision to move ahead with streaming legislation, which has been subject to delay, doubt and much uncertainty, but at the same time signal that the legislation is not going to solve all issues with more work needing to be done,” wrote SPA CEO Matthew Deaner.
We reached out to all of the global streamers operating in Australia and only heard back from Paramount, whose local spokesperson said the Skydance company is “committed to bringing local stories to all Australians.”
“We have proactively engaged with multiple governments over many years on how to ensure there is a sustainable pipeline of local content, across genres and formats, available to our audience,” they added. “Despite the ongoing and demonstrable commitment to our investment in local productions as evidenced by the annual industry data we voluntarily provide to the Australian Communications and Media Authority, the government has elected to move forward with regulation.”
However the streamers see it, some producers aren’t convinced the measures will go far enough. One veteran producer said their independent company “welcomes the new quota requirement as part of the policy mix to protect Australian screen stories,” but had “hoped to see a higher percentage of revenue committed to Australian content. 7.5% feels like a low bar when you consider that premium drama series are now costing between $25M to $50M.”
Furthermore, they noted that there is no sense of what “genre splits might look like across kids, documentary, and drama,” and drew comparison with France, which has local content quotas of a minimum 20% of revenue.
### Breaking the Deadlock
There was certainly a time when most Australians thought the quotas would never come in. The measures, first announced in January 2023 after no less than eight government inquiries, were supposed to have been introduced last year, but a deadline came and went with no resolution as SPA warned the delay was “causing great angst” and was pushing the country further into the role of services provider for Hollywood productions.
When President Donald Trump began threatening the world with huge tariffs on TV and film production abroad, it was considered another nail in the coffin. However, with Trump’s intentions in the entertainment world unclear, and the political relationship between the U.S. and Australia improved after they signed a critical minerals deal, the environment has begun to smell rosier.
There’s still plenty of red tape to cut and Trump could still take umbrage with the plan (nothing on Truth Social yet, it appears), but after years of deadlock, the route forwards is emerging.
Now, the story will move to how far the measures go. SPA’s note to members noted the body plans to use the bill as a “springboard for a more comprehensive package that addresses some of the outstanding issues that would ease some of the intense pressures being felt across the industry.”
Others will have views. There’s plenty of uncertainty, but for Australia’s producers known for hits such as *Bluey, Neighbours, The Newsreader, Top End Bub, Deadloch, Mix Tape, Black Snow, The Twelve, Colin From Accounts,* and *Black Snow,* this week’s news is the message of support from government they’ve been craving.
https://deadline.com/2025/11/australia-streaming-quota-analysis-1236607691/
