IF.com.au is on holiday hiatus, resuming January 6, 2020.
For all our e-newsletter subscribers, throughout the break we’ll send newsletters with what we thought were our best and most pertinent stories of 2019.
It’s been our pleasure to report this year on a busy sector, and we look forward to seeing how key issues play out in the year to come.
Notably, after years of policy stasis, the screen industry has promise of change in 2020.
The Federal Government has committed to a staged process of media regulation reform, and in its sights is whether local content requirements should be imposed on SVOD services like Netflix, Amazon and Stan.
As part of this, Screen Australia and ACMA will release an options paper in early 2020 that will look at how to best support Australian stories in a modern, multi-platform environment.
The government announcement comes on the heels of Disney+ and AppleTV+ launching in the Australian market. How the local industry can both survive and thrive during the global streaming boom – HBO Max and NBC Peacock will launch next year in the US – will likely be an ongoing topic conversation for the industry into the foreseeable future.
With True History of the Kelly Gang launching in cinemas January 9, just 17 days before it premieres on Stan, we can also expect 2020 to begin with more discussion about theatrical windows and just how streaming is affecting the cinema business.
Further, there’s the now perennial topic of how Australian feature films can get cut through theatrically. Ride Like A Girl, Palm Beach and Top End Wedding are 2019 box office success stories but many other great Australian films faced low visibility and modest returns. The four-quadrant feature Go!, another Australian film to be released in January, is getting a wide release from Roadshow – more than 240 screens. Let’s hope families turn out.
Thank you to all our readers, contributors and advertisers that have been with us this year. We truly can’t do it without you.
We wish all of you a restful Christmas and a Happy New Year.
See you in 2020.
Jackie Keast, Don Groves, Cameron Boon and Mark Kuban.