Australian film and TV producers have responded positively to the country’s new investment quota on the streamers operating in the country, with the caveat that no one knows what impact, if any, they will have on the currently stagnant local film sector.
The fine print has yet to be thrashed out but it is unlikely that feature films will be privileged under the quotas. To date, streamers have rarely supported the 35 or so independent Australian features produced each year. Stan, the only locally owned SVoD platform, is the exception.
That said, most film producers also make television, and further funding will help to build their companies, fund development, retain staff and meet overheads.
In broad terms, streaming platforms with more than a million Australian subscriptions will have to commission or acquire first-release drama, family, documentary, arts or educational programming. Expenditure has to be either 10% of what each operator spends on these kinds of shows – from anywhere in the world – or 7.5% of Australian revenue.
Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, Paramount+, Binge, Stan and Apple TV are expected to have to comply. It is understood Apple TV is developing projects but is yet to commission locally.
Setting a base rate
“There will be a bigger impact on some streamers than others,” predicts Kylie du Fresne, co-CEO at film and TV outfit Goalpost Pictures, whose credits include romantic comedy Five Blind Dates for Prime Video, Blumhouse co-production The Invisible Man and Australia-France co-production Carmen.
“All the streamers have different models,” she continues. “Some will do the same amount of production and some a lot more. The industry is contracting and it’s good to set a base rate even if there’s no immediate increase.”
A big question mark hangs over whether features made for streamers will receive a theatrical release. Du Fresne points out the local tax rebates favour this: the Producer Offset is worth 40% of qualifying expenditure for theatrical films and 30% for films viewed at home.
“If all features [on streamers] could claim 40%, that would be a positive lever to get films made,” suggests du Fresne.
Producers point out that investing in Australian content is good for business. “When we support Australian films, people watch them,” says ArenaMedia producer-director Robert Connolly. “It’s not as if the streamers are being told to do something that doesn’t benefit them.”
Connolly, whose producer credits include Memoir Of A Snail and The Dry, is gearing up to direct Antarctica-set romantic drama Shiver, an adaptation of Nikki Gemmell’s book of the same name.
Emile Sherman, co-CEO of See-Saw Films, is “broadly welcoming” of the quotas. “Planting the flag and recognising quotas as a component of the ecosystem is a good first step,” he says.
But Sherman has concerns about what will constitute expenditure. For example, when the streamers “fully finance”, he says, they should not be allowed to include the full cost in the total expenditure calculation because at least a third will have come from the Producer Offset.
He is also adamant the financing model should allow producers to retain their IP and not force them into the buy-out archetype. “It would be easy to implement as it’s not forcing streamers to spend more,” he suggests. After all, licensing content for three to five years instead of owning it outright is not much of an imposition, he adds, as the biggest benefits for streamers come immediately after release.
Paul Wiegard, CEO of indie distributor Madman, says if quotas are good for the ecosystem, they will be good for Madman and its producer partners. He is pleased that commissions and first-release windows will be counted as quotas.
“It means production companies can raise private money and create works that are unencumbered, then take them to the market and sell them,” he says. “That’s the only way to grow private investment. If it were a commission, streamers would hold the rights in perpetuity.”
But, along with See-Saw’s Sherman, Wiegard has reservations about what will be claimed as expenditure: “We want transparency and the way to go would be using gross revenue.”
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