The inaugural SVOD Australian content investment report published by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) was released today.
For the first time in Australia, Australian content data for subscription video on demand services (SVODS) has been collected and published for the 2019-2020 financial year.
The report showed that four major SVODS—Amazon Prime, Disney+, Netflix and Stan—spent $153 million on Australian programs in 2019-20. These are programs that meet minimum requirements for key creative roles, including producers, directors, writers and cast being Australian, in line with Broadcasting Services (Australian Content and Children’s Television) Standards 2020.
Of this $153 million, more than 80 per cent was spent on commissioning or co-commissioning new Australian programs. The remainder was put towards the costs of acquiring older Australian content.
Across these four major providers, 3080 hours of Australian content is available, from 618 programs. Australian drama was the most common genre available on services in Australia, making up more than half of the total hours, when excluding programming where genre was not available.
SVODs also made similar amounts of Australian programs available to audiences in the US and UK as well as distributing Australian programs to many other countries, most predominantly the USA, UK, and Canada.
The Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts, the Hon Paul Fletcher MP, said the report would help the Morrison Government make the right decisions for local industry.
“I commissioned this report in December 2020 to give the Government a strong evidence base to develop local growth through well-targeted policy and industry investment programmes.”
The information from this report will inform the government’s consideration of proposals outlined in its Media Reform Green Paper.
