Australia Introduces 'Landmark' Streaming Content Quotas (deadline.com) 72
Speaking of Australia, its government has introduced content quotas on global streamers. From a report: The rules require Netflix, Prime Video and the other global streamers with more than one million Australian subscribers to spend 10% of their total Australian expenditure -- or 7.5% of their revenues -- on local originals, whether they are dramas, children's shows, docs, or arts and educational programs.
Following the announcement, the legislation will be introduced into the Australian parliament. Australia's Labor government has long planned to being in the quotas as part of its Revive cultural policy, but months and months of delays had left the local industry wondering how committed their political leaders were to the plan. Global streamers have broadly rejected the necessity of quotas, claiming their local investment in content and jobs offsets them.
Following the announcement, the legislation will be introduced into the Australian parliament. Australia's Labor government has long planned to being in the quotas as part of its Revive cultural policy, but months and months of delays had left the local industry wondering how committed their political leaders were to the plan. Global streamers have broadly rejected the necessity of quotas, claiming their local investment in content and jobs offsets them.
Go for Aussie porn with that young-looking 21yo. (Score:4, Funny)
That'll show 'em.
When your product doesn't sell.... (Score:3, Insightful)
When your product doesn't sell, force businesses to buy it.
I wish I could get in on that kind of racket.
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It works well in Canada. Without this protection the market would get swamped with foreign garbage.
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Instead you get to pay 3X the price for domestic garbage! YAY!
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Versus domestic garbage that apparently nobody wants?
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How do you know nobody wants it? I am far more interested in seeing my own culture reflected to me rather than American culture glorified (and yes, there is a difference). I don't give a damn about what ever scene is happening in LA or NYC
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If people wanted it wouldn’t they be buying it of their own volition? Maybe you're interested is some uniquely Canadian cultural art, but most Canadians don't seem to care,
I think what you might be overlooking, at least from the point of why they would require it, is that there are just a lot less people in Canada. Their population is around 15% that of the USA. Even if a large portion of their population was interested, it would be harder to drive the numbers needed.
Re: When your product doesn't sell.... (Score:2)
You are also making an assumption that it is easy to find alternative store fronts for this content, especially when people arenâ(TM)t wanting to pay for yet another streaming platform
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You hit the nail with "are it willing to pay".
If they wanted it bad enough, they would be willing to pay.
Canadianstream.com
Australiansteeam.com
Frenchstream.com
(Etc).
Would all be very popular sites.
Instead, what happens? The govts require that content on a service that people WILL pay for.
I don't know how anyone can seriously argue that the govt wouldn't have to require it if sufficient demand for this content existed.
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"Good day, eh? Welcome to the Great White North." [youtube.com]
Take off, hoser.
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And with it, we get 90 episodes of taxpayer funded gems like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Mosque_on_the_Prairie [wikipedia.org]
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It sucks in Canada.
I don't want the CRTC mandating what shows I must watch or the music I must listen to.
Re:When your product doesn't sell.... (Score:5, Insightful)
When your product doesn't sell, force businesses to buy it.
I wish I could get in on that kind of racket.
Your comment would be profound in an ideal world where monopolies dominated by foreign companies don't exist. In the real world we thank regulations for keeping mega companies with market dominance from forcing *their* will on consumers.
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No one is forcing you to subscribe to a streaming website/app. If Australian content was so desirable, then a bunch of Aussies could just start up a company and provide locally made content.
Instead, they want to legislate companies to provide stuff that the general public is not asking for.
I hope the streams collectively tell them to get bent and cut them off altogether. The outcry from the Australian public would quickly get the government to change it's toon.
Re:When your product doesn't sell.... (Score:4, Interesting)
CanCon laws gave us a lot of extremely popular Canadian music and television. The Tragically Hip, Crash Test Dummies, Bryan Adams, Alanis Morisette, the list is actually quite long. Whether or not you enjoy the bands (or television shows or movies), they ended up being an excellent return on investment. Several artists, like the Hip, are considered quintessentially Canadian.
That's just the sort of thing you have to do when one of your neighbours is a huge cultural influence. We should be doing this, and we should've done it a long time ago. Like, I think you could make the case that there should be CanCon requirements for platforms like TikTok.
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What's stopping a Canadian firm from making CanTok? Nothing. So why does the government need to force foreign companies to produce shit for a single market? If there is indeed a high demand for Canadian content amongst Canadians, then this should be an easy business venture to start up.
The technology to create your own streaming service is publicly available. The content is what needs to be made for it. So every country that wants it's own culture put front and center should get it's shit together and start
There are 195 countries (Score:1, Troll)
If all countries required a 7.5% spend on local content, Netflix and other streamers would have to spend 1462.5% of their revenue on local content.
Re:There are 195 countries (Score:4, Informative)
Maybe I'm misreading it, but I read it as 7.5% of local spend, not global spend.
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Revenue, not spend.
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Similarly there's taxes on things like DVDs/CDs that go back to local artists (but those systems in some countries like Canada are fundamentally broken.)
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If all countries required a 7.5% spend on local content, Netflix and other streamers would have to spend 1462.5% of their revenue on local content.
7.5% of the Australian revenue.
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If all countries required a 7.5% spend on local content, Netflix and other streamers would have to spend 1462.5% of their revenue on local content.
If you completely misread the statement then yes you would be right.
We went through this with cable TV (Score:3)
Years ago some regulation or other required cable TV companies to show locally produced content. And that's how we ended up with the obscure upper TV channels airing blue haired old ladies baking cookies, video of the recent archery club competition, and - my favorite - the program put on by the local Commodore Amiga club.
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I'm more curious to see how other posters react to this and to contrast it
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"... program put on by the local Commodore Amiga club." Is there an online video of this?
Shouldn't be too hard (Score:2)
Australia has created a number of really good television series. My wife and I are big fans of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, The Doctor Blake Mysteries, My Life is Murder (in cooperation with New Zealand), and Mystery Road. We enjoyed them enough to have watched some of them several times.
Clearly the writing, production, and acting talent are readily available in Aus, so the streaming services should have no problem getting good bang for their buck. That's even more true given the popularity of some Austr
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Australia USED to make some REALLY good scripted dramas and other shows. These days the good shows are few and far between with our screens being infested with increasing amounts of reality garbage.
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All the above except the Kiwi collab were produced by the state run broadcaster, ABC.
But yeah 7, 9 and 10 are wall to wall reality because it's cheap to produce and satisfies, ironically, the local content requirement.
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I find you love of *murder* mysteries ... disturbing.
Maybe (Score:4, Informative)
However the complications come when factoring in, or omitting, content for other markets. I get a feeling a lot will come down to bean counters at the streaming providers vs bean counters in the Australian government and could see this getting messy. While the intent may be good the devil will be in the details.
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Why isn't the foreign content I want to watch available?
We had to drop it to maintain our local content requirements.
Why? (Score:4, Informative)
So, problem in Canada, not a problem in Australia. Why is Australia taking the steps Canada did if they don't share the problem?
I'm not saying this is a bad idea, I'm just wondering why they think they need to do it.
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Tasmania is part of Australia...
It's nothing to do with a "weak culture". America dominates because they have 10x as many people as Australia and probably 20x as much money. (still lots more people and money than Canada too)
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Canadians: like Americans, but more polite and a lot less guns (;
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Fewer guns. Sheesh, you even write like an American.
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When Canada did this, it was because they were worried about their relatively weak culture and national identity being overwhelmed by America's. Australia doesn't have that problem. They're the big guys in the region and seem to have a much stronger sense of what it means to be Australian than Canadians have about what it means to be Canadian. That's not an insult, they have a much bigger neighbor with an almost indistinguishable culture, history and language, and thus have trouble saying who they are past "like America, but not". New Zealand and Tasmania likely have the same problem with Australian culture dominating theirs. I gather Kiwis get pretty sick of being mistaken for Australians.
So, problem in Canada, not a problem in Australia. Why is Australia taking the steps Canada did if they don't share the problem?
I'm not saying this is a bad idea, I'm just wondering why they think they need to do it.
As a former Australian, the culture is being subsumed by the worst parts of American culture.
Long gone are the days of the knockabout larrikin culture of my youth (we're only talking 20 odd years ago too) which has been replaced with American style selfishness and ignorance, a grab, snatch and take followed with "I got mine, fuck you". If you aren't old enough to have 20 houses, there's nothing left for you to grab, snatch or take either. The old "laid back" Australian image is just a myth these days, "S
So... (Score:5, Funny)
Crocodile Dundee 1,2,3,4,5....
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Crocodile Dundee 1,2,3,4,5....
The irony of that I sense will be lost on you.
Crocodile Dundee were American films. The stories were American, the language used was American (they're called prawns, only Seppo's call them "shrimp" and no-one in Oz BBQs them), even Paul Hogan had left Australia (albeit for the UK). This is exactly the kind of thing that these kinds of legislation are meant to stymie.
If you'd like to watch a few Australian films, I'd recommend "The Castle" [wikipedia.org] as a light hearted drama, "Chopper" as a more gritty comedy bas [wikipedia.org]
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Prawns and shrimp are actually different animals.
Nothing 'landmark' about it (Score:2)
as an aussie that saw how our society was changed. (Score:2)
... due to the influence of US media, we need more Aussie content.
And by Aussie content, i mean 100% aussie - not 'let's make Aussie version of US show' that is usually about whatever culture is the latest target of their elites.
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Law & Order is hugely popular around the world.
It would've funny if.... (Score:2)
It would be funny if Netflix (or whomever) just spent all 7.5% on the rights to the Mad Max movies.
Then if Amazon spent their 7.5% all on Bluey.
Etc.
Just spend it all on one show or movie franchise.
Meet the letter of the law (spend requirement) without adding very much content.
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It would be funny if Netflix (or whomever) just spent all 7.5% on the rights to the Mad Max movies.
Then if Amazon spent their 7.5% all on Bluey.
Etc.
Just spend it all on one show or movie franchise.
Meet the letter of the law (spend requirement) without adding very much content.
Sure.
Then those production companies can use the money to develop 10 new local movie franchises and kids shows.
Great policy. 100% working as intended.
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The requirement is that the money has to be spent on content production, not just buying existing content.
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Ok, so spend it all on content production for a single show.
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Simply to stick it in the man in return for the man sticking its nose in their business (spite).
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so just pile up your money and burn it?
Burn, baby, burn!
It's also probably why you don't run a successful business.
No, it's because I'm bed-ridden with a broken back.
Culture vs Jobs (Score:2)
Maybe it isn't even really a culture thing, but just a jobs program.
AUSFTA (Score:1)
More Sea Patrol! (Score:1)
And more <i>My Cloudy Drovers</i> because no matter how many cast changes there are, somehow there is an infinite supply of daughters.