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.
The ABC has used its submission to the Federal Government's media reform green paper review to request an additional $90 million in funding, while at the same time joining SBS in dismissing content obligations as "unnecessary".
Australia's leading children's producers are calling for a 20 per cent children's sub-quota to be placed on streaming platforms, based on an overall 20 per cent revenue-based local content requirement.
The tectonic shifts that have characterised the pandemic's impact on the screen sector are laid bare in PwC’s annual media outlook, which forecasts an ongoing migration towards digital consumption in the coming years.
Both SPA and the ADG have identified the potential for a "production void" if there is a prolonged delay between the government's relaxation of local content quotas for commercial free-to-air broadcasters and any imposition of obligations on streamers.
The Federal Government has committed to a staged process of media regulation reform, ultimately culminating in what it hopes will be "platform-neutral regulatory framework covering both online and offline delivery of media content."
Marcus Gillezeau, an International Digital Emmy and AACTA Award-winning independent producer, writer and EP, suggests Australia needs a 'whole-of-country' approach to reap the benefits of the streaming age.
Despite all the hype about the streaming revolution, Netflix and Stan do not simply replace free-to-air TV; they complement and interact with it, write RMIT's Ramon Lobato and the University of Melbourne's Alexa Scarlata.