According to fresh data from Screen Producers Australia (SPA), streaming services are reportedly offering unrealistic budgets and striking unfair commission deals with Australian screen producers.
In SPA’s second commissioning survey, conducted between December 2022 and January 2023, members were asked to answer perception-based questions about their experience, if any, with these platforms. Respondents who had made deals with the platforms were also invited to share their experience with the process.
Although the survey found some positive developments, such as reduced administrative complexities and improved communication since the first survey in 2021, it highlighted several problematic areas across 16 commissioning platforms. The platforms, classified into public broadcasters, commercial free-to-air networks, subscription TV broadcasters/providers and streaming services, showed varying degrees of concerns.
Of the 110 respondents who dealt with streaming services between 2020 and 2022, just 40 per cent believed their deals, including overall budgets, deliverables, terms of trade, and rights retained, were fair. This is a 36 per cent decline from the previous survey, which garnered 301 responses.
An international streaming service was singled out as offering particularly poor deals, with a mere 10 per cent of producers commissioned by them over the past three years considering their deals fair.
Moreover, the survey revealed that 36 per cent of producers had to agree to detrimental modifications to existing deals with a streamer, offering no material advantages, marking a 19 per cent increase from 2021.
Commercial free-to-air networks are still seen as offering inadequate budgets to match delivery expectations. Alarming findings also show that 24 per cent of producers were advised to start production without official approval in the past year, while 26 per cent were coerced into agreement modifications with no material benefits.
SPA CEO Matthew Deaner stated that the survey’s findings underscored the detrimental and unjust industry conditions facing Australian production businesses, most of which are small to medium-sized enterprises.
“Many of the streaming platforms’ business practices are comparable to fishing ‘super-trawlers’ with nets trawling our screen industry scooping up rights to our nation’s stories for at best, incredibly long lengths of time – at worst, in perpetuity – and often, when they don’t intend to use them,” he said.
“This denies our SMEs and creatives the use and financial benefits of their own ideas in an ongoing way which in turn reduces the capacity they have to generate and develop their next ideas – thereby permanently damaging our screen ecosystem.
“Our screen industry is holding its breath to see whether the Australian Government will stand up for Australian audiences and its storytellers in the screen industry by introducing a 20 per cent reinvestment obligation on streamers with strong protections for intellectual property such as a reversion of rights to creators to ensure that we continue to foster a sustainable and vibrant screen sector in Australia for the benefit of our industry and audiences alike.”
