Screen producers reject Netflix, Hollywood studio claims on streaming quota models
The fiercely contested regulatory battle over whether streaming services should be forced to produce a set amount of Australian content is set to conclude in a matter of months.
The peak body for Australian film producers says it has obtained legal advice disproving claims by Netflix and other Hollywood studios that Labor's proposed content quotas on streaming services would breach Australia’s free trade deal with the United States.
As Capital Brief reported earlier this month Netflix and the Australia New Zealand Screen Association (ANZSA), which represents US studios including Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery argued in multiple regulatory submissions that Labor's proposed content quotas would breach Australia's free trade deals with the US and Korea.
But Screen Producers Australia (SPA) chief executive Matthew Deaner said the issue had been weaponised to curb regulation that would place tighter controls on investment in Australian content by global platforms.
“Our recommendations to government — and advocacy — have all been scrutinised a number of times and, on that basis, I think the government’s engagement with the sector about the regulation is absolutely in line with its obligations,” Deaner told Capital Brief.
