Australian creative businesses and workers are in a tough battle against powerful streaming platforms for control and ownership of Australian screen stories, according to a 2023 Lateral Economics Report.
Commissioned by Screen Producers Australia (SPA), the report underscores the importance of intellectual property (IP) retention to Australia’s creative economy, citing significant losses endured by Australian businesses. SPA CEO Matt Deaner stresses the crucial need for recognising and retaining the value of Australian cultural intellectual property within the country.
The report, titled “Taking Australian stories and skills to the world in the age of global streaming”, highlights the threat to local Australian screen producers who risk losing out on reinvestment obligations by selling Australian stories and culture – essentially, our vital Australian cultural IP.
One illustrative example in the report is Brisbane’s Ludo Studio, which, while licensing global distribution rights for ‘Bluey’ to BBC Studios, retained all future production rights, ensuring ongoing involvement in the development of the series.
SPA argues for an updated definition of Australian content, where a program would not qualify as ‘Australian content’ under streaming investment obligation unless the intellectual property rights are owned by an independent Australian production company. Deaner mentions practices in other countries, like France, where rights cannot be assigned for extended periods.
The updated report incorporates a supplementary report on “The Value of Intellectual Property to film production companies,” supplemented by three case studies demonstrating IP precedents for well-known Australian productions – ‘The Dressmaker’, ‘The Drover’s Wife’, and ‘Bondi Rescue’.
According to Lateral Economics, IP assets offer a steady source of revenue, supporting the financial viability of companies. The trend of streaming companies acquiring all IP rights raises concerns, particularly when streamers adopt “maximalist rights strategies” for procedural uniformity in large global companies.
The report reinforces the need for policy flexibility to ensure Australian producers can negotiate the best arrangements for their work, thereby protecting the nation’s cultural stories in the streaming era.
Case Studies:
The Drover’s Wife – Started as a play, first performed in 2016 and was later adapted into a 2021 drama. “Oombarra has successfully retained valuable IP in “The Drover’s Wife”. It has signed all-media distribution deals with various distributors internationally (e.g. Roadshow in Australia, Cinemien in European markets, Modern Films in the UK and Ireland, and Samuel Goldwyn Films in the US). Still, these rights should eventually revert to Oombarra Productions after an agreed period. Furthermore, it has retained the valuable rights to produce further IP based on the film, including fiction and non-fiction books, a musical or opera, and TV shows.”
The Dressmaker – Film Art Media retained rights to educational use, the ‘making of’ documentary, and to exhibit costumes from the production. The book has been added to the curriculum, and the costumes have been exhibited across Australia, with each providing revenue streams.
Bondi Rescue – demonstrates that, with the right IP arrangements in place, IP can be “repurposed and generate new revenue for production companies”. The Bondi Rescue YouTube channel has 2.16 million subscribers.
