Labor brushes off Hollywood’s free trade warning over streaming quotas
The government is confident its plan to make global streamers invest more in Australian content complies with trade rules despite industry concern.
Labor will shrug off streaming industry concerns that its proposed streaming quotas could run afoul of Australia’s free trade deal with the United States, as the government moves to pass the legislation in the coming weeks.
The concerns were reiterated last month by the powerful US entertainment lobby group, the Motion Picture Association, in its submission to the US Trade Representative’s 2026 National Trade Estimate Report on foreign trade barriers.
The MPA, whose members include Disney and Universal among other Hollywood juggernauts, singled out Australia’s streaming quotas in its submission to the Trump administration, describing them as a threat to Australia’s free trade deal with the US.
“To date, there has been no evidence supporting claims of a market failure in this area, and data on investment in Australian content for streaming services continues to indicate both high levels of production and wide availability for subscribers,” the MPA wrote in its submission.
