{"id":1890,"date":"2026-06-11T11:06:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T11:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=1890"},"modified":"2026-06-11T11:06:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T11:06:00","slug":"australian-screen-producers-call-for-fairness-rules-to-counter-streaming-giants-market-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=1890","title":{"rendered":"Australian Screen Producers Call for Fairness Rules to Counter Streaming Giants\u2019 Market Power"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nScreen Producers Australia has lodged a 22-recommendation submission to the Australian government\u2019s National Cultural Policy consultation, putting the market power of streaming platforms over independent producers at the center of its push for structural reform.<\/p>\n

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\n\tThe body\u2019s submission argues that the shift to digital streaming has fundamentally altered commissioning practices, leaving small and medium-sized production businesses exposed to contract terms that threaten long-term sector sustainability. SPA is pressing for a \u201cfairness\u201d requirement to be embedded in Australian screen regulation \u2013 whether through a terms-of-trade model or as a condition of what qualifies as \u201cAustralian\u201d content under domestic content regimes.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSPA has tried every avenue available to bring this untenable situation to the Government\u2019s attention as an area of urgent regulatory need, including this year, recourse to the ACCC,\u201d SPA CEO Matthew Deaner said. \u201cWhile these pressures are being acknowledged in other sectors through the News Media Bargaining Incentive and the ACCC\u2019s Digital Platforms Inquiry Report, SPA is pressing for a better understanding from Government about the impact of these platforms on independent screen production in Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe submission identifies three principles that should govern commissioning relationships: good faith negotiations \u2013 including reasonable timeframes and a willingness to vary terms for mutual benefit; fair value for intellectual property, with commercial success factored into extensions and new-season deals; and transparency, with commissioners required to share data on viewership, audience reach and commercial performance.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt is no longer the situation in which Australian SME screen businesses can negotiate commissioning contracts on the fair and reasonable terms that enable them to operate sustainably,\u201d Deaner said.<\/p>\n

\n\tSPA acknowledged recent progress on local content obligations for streaming platforms but characterized them as addressing only the opening phase of a more complex set of problems. The submission raises specific alarm about what it calls \u201cOffset Passthrough Arrangements\u201d \u2013 a practice whereby some streaming providers structure financing to effectively recover the value of the Producer Offset from producers, diluting their real content spend commitment from the mandated 10% to around 7\u20138% in practice.<\/p>\n

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\n\tThe submission draws a distinction between tax incentives, which it describes as generous, and the absence of regulatory action on structural market imbalances \u2013 including, it notes, with government-owned broadcasters. SPA\u2019s membership represents more than 800 production businesses driving over AUD3 billion ($2.1 billion) in annual production activity from the independent sector.<\/p>\n

\n\tAmong the most striking data points in the submission is the state of children\u2019s content: new Australian children\u2019s programming on commercial free-to-air television has collapsed from 391 hours before deregulation to just 48 hours in 2024, while children\u2019s drama has fallen from 98 hours to 10. On streaming services, Australian children\u2019s content accounted for less than 3% of the total hours of Australian content available across the five major SVOD platforms. The submission also cites Screen Australia data showing Australian films captured just 2.6% of the local box office in 2025.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe submission also flags growth in First Nations screen storytelling, with the number of First Nations majority-owned businesses among SPA\u2019s membership rising to 27 from 18 over the past four years, spanning genres from science fiction and comedy to thriller and documentary. Other recommendations cover an export strategy review \u2013 noting that Australia imports eight dollars of cultural products for every dollar it exports \u2013 new and modernized co-production agreements, and the urgent legislating of two already-announced but still-unlegislated Producer Offset reforms.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWith the right policy settings that update our thinking and recognize some tough realities, our industry could once again witness a renaissance in Australian screen storytelling,\u201d Deaner said.<\/p>\n

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SPA urges the Australian government to introduce terms-of-trade protections to address streaming platforms’ power over indie producers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1626],"class_list":["post-1890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film","tag-screen-producers-australia"],"yoast_head":"\nAustralian Screen Producers Call for Fairness Rules to Counter Streaming Giants\u2019 Market Power - Relocation Observer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=1890\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Australian Screen Producers Call for Fairness Rules to Counter Streaming Giants\u2019 Market Power - 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