AUSTRALIAN LAWMAKERS look set to force the likes of Netflix, Amazon and other foreign streamers to abide by similar rules as its own TV companies, according to reports, including this one in the Wall Street Journal.
According to the report, its communications minister said the government will ask the streaming platforms to make more original Australian content and that legislation to force them to do so is possible before the end of this year.
“The free-to-air networks have an obligation to show a certain amount of Australian content. They’ve got to pay to produce that or to acquire that,” Communications Minister Paul Fletcher told the country’s main public broadcaster, according to the WSJ report. “But streaming platforms like Netflix or YouTube don’t have such obligations, even though they’re capturing a huge number of eyeballs in the Australian market, and in the case of Netflix, substantial revenue.”
Of course, this is something many in the Canadian television industry is hoping will happen here, and have urged the Broadcast and Telecom Legislative Review panel to change our laws to force foreign streamers to make more Canadian content (and not just make content in Canada).
Legislation to force the large U.S. streamers to make local content is or has already been enacted in several regions around the world. European lawmakers late last year approved a 30% content quota for on demand OTT players, for example.
While Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez did tweet his support for getting the web giants to pay for more Cancon, we don’t yet know for sure what the federal government will do once it has the BTLR panel recommendations in January, after the federal election (and it also depends on who’s in office).
Australia’s last national election was in May of this year.
