Streaming platforms such as Disney+ and Netflix will have to produce a set quota of homegrown cinema by 2024.
Australia is the latest nation to announce that it will be adopting a local content quota which will force streamers to produce a set amount of homegrown cinema should they want to continue operating in the country. The move is part of Australia’s ‘Revive’ National Cultural Policy, a five-year plan to revive and renew the country’s arts, entertainment and cultural sector.’
The move brings Australia into line with other countries such as South Africa, Indonesia, Korea and of course France, who for several decades now have maintained a sustainable French film industry through the use of local content quotas. Not every country has found the same success as France however. South Africa has struggled to impose similar limits in the face of cheaper US imports whilst in 2006 Korea was forced to vastly reduce its protectionist cinema policy in the face of trade negotiations with the US.
Australia already had a policy in place which demands around half of films and programming on broadcast TV must be homegrown. The new policy adds streaming platforms into that policy and will go into effect by July of next year. It will be interesting to see if platforms such as Disney simply accept this or push back, as the company did during similar negotiations with the French screen industry last year.
Should it prove to be successful, it’s further evidence that countries can be successful international film production hubs whilst also taking steps to safeguard their own national film industries, a possibility that continues to be ignored by policy-makers here in the UK. We’ll bring you more on this story as it unfolds.
