As the Make it Australian campaign for local content obligations to be imposed on streaming services intensifies, Netflix is talking up its growing investment in Australian film and TV productions and again rejecting the need for a quota.
Industry guilds and the free-to-air broadcasters alike have expressed dismay over the Federal Government's move late last week to extend the Post, Digital and Visual (PDV) and Location Offsets to online platforms, arguing the government has missed an opportunity to introduce further policies that could benefit the local industry.
If elected, Labor has promised to convene a taskforce to "conclude" the government's Australian and Children's Screen Content Review.
The Make it Australian campaign is heading back to Canberra for the first time since the federal election, restating its case for local content requirements to be placed on digital platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime.
In a major overhaul of the regulatory system, the Federal Government is scrapping the fixed quotas for local drama, children's programming and documentary and harmonising the film and TV Producer Offsets at 30 per cent.
Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts Paul Fletcher has doubled down on criticism of the ABC for its response to potential local content obligations, but has sympathised with other industry views on the green paper – namely the call for streaming platforms to spend 20 per cent of their local revenue on Australian content.