Netflix, Amazon and Disney prepare for showdown on streaming content quotas
The Albanese government has all but ticked off two of the four items on its media reform agenda. Now, the stage is set for a clash over streaming content quotas.
As the government continues to chip away at a suite of media reform items, one thing has become increasingly clear: operating in Australia is only set to get trickier for global streaming giants like Amazon, Netflix and Disney.
On Tuesday, Communications Minister Michelle Rowland announced the government would this week introduce legislation on app placement for smart TVs (known as “prominence”), and to close loopholes in anti-siphoning laws governing the sports that must be made available on free-to-air television. Both of these moves will please the bosses of Australia's commercial free-to-air networks, which are emerging as the clear winners of a protracted fight against Foxtel and their streaming counterparts.
The legislation’s imminent arrival caps off a months-long public clash between TV's two tribes, and knocks over two of four media reform items on the government's agenda. But it also sets the stage for a battle over the government’s forthcoming streaming quotas, another key battleground awaiting reform, where the global platforms are already driving a harder line.
The government’s streaming quotas were announced by Arts Minister Tony Burke in January as part of Labor’s sprawling national cultural policy, Revive, which the government hopes will bring streaming platforms in closer alignment with broadcasters on local content obligations, and lock in local investment levels at record highs.
