SVOD platforms have increased their spending across fewer commissions in the 2023/24 financial year, according to Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) data.
The ACMA’s fifth SVOD Australian content report, featuring voluntary reporting from Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Netflix, Paramount+, and Stan, revealed they spent $225.2 million on 55 commissioned or co-commissioned Australian programs in 2023/24. The previous financial year they spent $219.2 million across 67 titles.
This trend was also reflected in the acquisition figures, with 1,472 Australian programs acquired by SVOD providers in 2023/24, down from 1,516 the previous year.
A further $200.5 million was spent on acquiring, producing, or investing in 32 programs that met at least one requirement of being classified as Australian under the Broadcasting Services (Australian Content and Children’s Television) Standards 2020. In 2022/23, $452.9 million was spent on 39 Australian-related programs.
With regard to genre, sports expenditure had the biggest increase year-on-year, rising from $70.9 million in 2022/23 to $103.3 million in 2023–24, followed by drama (up from $195.3 million to $201.6 million) and light entertainment (up from $20.1 million to $21.3 million).
In contrast, expenditure on children’s drama, children’s non-drama, and documentary programs decreased to their lowest levels since reporting started in 2019–20.
Children’s content is not a priority for commercial platforms, including SVODs, without regulation as well as investment
ACTF CEO Jenny Buckland
The children’s and documentary sectors have called for more regulatory support in the past 12 months amid dwindling levels of investment from traditional platforms.
They head into 2025 no closer to an answer after the Federal Government missed its July 1 deadline for content obligations on streaming services, with the legislation reportedly hitting a stumbling block concerning the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
ACTF CEO Jenny Buckland told IF the kid’s audience would be left behind without strong policy intervention.
“The ACMA data confirms what we’ve been saying for a long time: children’s content is not a priority for commercial platforms, including SVODs, without regulation as well as investment,” she said.
Screen Producers Australia CEO Matthew Deaner took things a step further, believing the ACMA report reflected a “series of policy failures suffered upon the screen industry over a number of years and paints an increasingly bleak picture of the level of investment in Australian screen culture increasingly dominated by global streaming services”.
“In real terms, it is expenditure on sport in an Olympic year that hides the overall decline and masks the abject failure of government policy that sits behind this,” he said.
“Critical in the data is a decline in reported program commissioning by 18 per cent in 2023-24 compared to 2022-23.
“These delayed figures issued a minute before midnight, are unverified and continue to inaccurately portray the actual investment made by SVOD services given that up to half of the money being reported comes from external sources including producer, distributor and government contributions.”
In a statement, a Departmental Spokesperson from the Federal Government said there was “brilliant talent” in Australia and the government wanted to make sure “people have access to Australian scripted drama, documentary and children’s stories across different platforms”.
“Through the National Cultural Policy – Revive, we are committed to introducing Australian screen content requirements on streaming platforms to ensure continued access to local stories and content. The government is working to introduce content quota legislation – we are determined to get the consultation right and are taking time to hear views on how best to support ongoing investment in, and production of, Australian stories.”
Find the full report here.