tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/local-content-28201/articlesLocal content – The Conversation2023-11-29T10:00:24Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2185852023-11-29T10:00:24Z2023-11-29T10:00:24ZGhana wants to restrict imports on 22 products – an economist explains how, why and what else must be done<p><em>Ghana’s Ministry of Trade and Industry has <a href="https://www.modernghana.com/news/1275386/licensing-regime-for-import-restrictions-archaic.html">tabled</a> in parliament a proposed ban or restrictions on imports of certain goods, including rice, sugar, poultry, fruit juices and animal intestines (tripe). The proposed legislation empowers the trade minister to issue licences to potential importers of goods. Critics of the policy say it will give too much power to the minister and create room for corruption. The Conversation Africa’s Godfred Akoto Boafo spoke to development economist <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/adu-owusu-sarkodie-774216">Adu Owusu Sarkodie</a> about the policy.</em></p>
<h2>What are import restrictions?</h2>
<p>These refer to the various schemes, mechanisms and regulations that a government can impose to restrict or limit the importation of goods and services. They come in different forms.</p>
<p><strong>Tariffs</strong>: These are taxes imposed on imported goods and services. They can be specific taxes (a fixed amount per unit) or ad valorem (a percentage of the value) or both. </p>
<p><strong>Quotas</strong>: This means a direct restriction on the quantity of a particular good that can be imported at a specified period of time. It is enforced by issuing licences to individuals or firms.</p>
<p><strong>Embargos and sanctions</strong>: This involves a ban on the importation of a particular good. Importing a banned good is illegal. </p>
<p><strong>Quality standards and technical barriers</strong>: A country can set stringent requirements that imported goods must meet.</p>
<p><strong>Local content requirements</strong>: In terms of this regulation a specified fraction of a final good must be produced domestically, either in physical units or in value terms.</p>
<p>The choice of a particular form of import restriction depends on the geopolitical, economic and social characteristics of the country.</p>
<h2>What role does it play as an economic strategy?</h2>
<p><strong>Protection of domestic and infant industries</strong>: Restrictions such as tariffs and quotas can raise the prices of imported goods and make domestic goods more <a href="https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/economics/protectionism/">competitive</a>. This can stimulate local producers to produce more, grow and develop.</p>
<p><strong>Revenue to the government</strong>: Import restrictions such as tariffs are a source of revenue for the government. </p>
<p><strong>Balance of payments and trade deficits management</strong>: Import restrictions help in correcting balance of payment issues and can reduce <a href="https://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2018/08/do-import-tariffs-help-reduce-trade-deficits/">trade deficits</a>. This can help countries achieve <a href="https://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2018/08/do-import-tariffs-help-reduce-trade-deficits/">economic gains</a> needed for long term growth and development.</p>
<p><strong>Environmental and health considerations</strong>: These restrictions can also help address <a href="https://idrc-crdi.ca/en/news/taxation-sugar-sweetened-beverages-win-win-ghanas-public-health-strategy#:%7E:text=The%20tax%20bill%20was%20approved,tea%2C%20sodas%20and%20energy%20drinks">environmental and health concerns</a>. </p>
<p>Excessive import restrictions can backfire, however, if foreign countries retaliate.</p>
<h2>Why is Ghana considering import restrictions?</h2>
<p>A number of reasons have led to this.</p>
<p><strong>Health concerns</strong>: There have been concerns about the <a href="https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/business/Government-to-restrict-the-importation-of-rice-yemuadie-and-other-products-1884650">quality</a> of some of the imported food items and pharmaceuticals. </p>
<p><strong>Protection of domestic and infant industries</strong>: Cheap imports are leading to the collapse of <a href="https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/117982/1/Performan">domestic firms</a>. They are suffering from <a href="https://thebftonline.com/2023/11/27/govt-borrowing-risks-choking-private-sector/">high borrowing costs</a> and eroding capital as a result of inflation. The government can protect them by placing restrictions on some of these cheap imports. That will make them competitive, and save foreign exchange.</p>
<p><strong>Trade deficits and balance of payments support</strong>: These restrictions will reduce imports. All else being equal, they will improve the country’s trade balance and balance of payments. The government will have enough foreign exchange reserves and be able to finance its developmental agenda. </p>
<p><strong>Revenue to the government</strong>: One of the International Monetary Fund <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-04-14/imf-director-says-ghana-has-taken-enough-pain-to-unlock-aid?embedded-checkout=true">conditions</a> for financial assistance to Ghana is that government must increase tax revenues. It can do this through tariffs. </p>
<p><strong>Stabilise the currency</strong>: These restrictions will reduce the amount of <a href="https://theconversation.com/ghanas-cedi-is-under-stress-some-long-medium-and-short-term-solutions-178063">foreign currency used for imports</a>. This increases the forex supply and helps to stabilise the currency.</p>
<h2>Have other African countries done this?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.eac.int/">East African Community</a>, comprising Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, South Sudan and the Democractic Republic of Congo, has numerous import restrictions. These countries have a common external tariff on the cost, insurance and freight value of imports. And they ban some goods such as some pharmaceuticals, narcotic drugs, firearms and ammunition, explosives, pornography, genetically modified products and plastic bags.</p>
<p>South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini and Namibia as part of the <a href="https://www.sacu.int/">Southern African Customs Union</a> also administer a common external tariff on imports from other countries. They ban or have quotas on some goods such as narcotics and habit-forming drugs.</p>
<p>Nigeria has its own <a href="https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/nigeria-prohibited-and-restricted-imports">restrictions</a> on some products. These include rice, pork, beef, live or dead birds including frozen poultry, cocoa butter, spaghetti and some pharmaceuticals.</p>
<h2>What is the way forward?</h2>
<p>In addition to the import restrictions, the following recommendations could assist Ghana.</p>
<p><strong>Diversification of the economy</strong>: Ghana must support industries beyond traditional sectors like agriculture and mining. Investing in technology, innovation and value-added production can contribute to a more resilient economy. </p>
<p><strong>Investment in education and skills development</strong>: This can involve investments in science, technology, engineering and mathematics education to meet the demands of a modern and diverse economy.</p>
<p><strong>Infrastructure development</strong>: Invest in critical infrastructure such as roads, ports and energy to reduce transportation costs, enhance connectivity and attract investment.</p>
<p><strong>Promotion of export-oriented industries</strong>: By focusing on products and services that have demand in the international market, Ghana can boost its export earnings and improve its trade balance.</p>
<p><strong>Trade facilitation and ease of doing business</strong>: Simplify trade processes and make it easier to do business. Streamlining customs procedures, reducing bureaucratic hurdles, and enhancing the overall business environment can attract investments and promote economic growth.</p>
<p><strong>Enhanced agricultural productivity</strong>: Invest in research and development. Promote sustainable farming practices, introduce modern technologies and improve access to markets for farmers.</p>
<p><strong>Corruption mitigation</strong>: An environment of good governance can attract investments and build confidence in the business community.</p>
<p><strong>Continuous policy review</strong>: Economic policies must adapt to changing circumstances. Flexibility and responsiveness to economic conditions are crucial for effective governance.</p>
<p>Inward looking or import substitution strategies have been adopted by many countries at the early stages of their development. The critical question is how much to produce to meet demand, and what quality. All stakeholders must ensure production to meet demand while ensuring quality.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218585/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adu Owusu Sarkodie does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The policy is the latest strategy to grow Ghana’s weak industrial base.Adu Owusu Sarkodie, Lecturer, Department of Economics, University of GhanaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1889822022-08-23T20:04:26Z2022-08-23T20:04:26ZBluey was edited for American viewers – but global audiences deserve to see all of us<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480500/original/file-20220823-24-z2639u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C0%2C2137%2C1496&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABC TV</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Beloved children’s program Bluey has received some backlash. </p>
<p>Not due to the program, but to Disney’s decision to make edits to various episodes for the US market. </p>
<p>Dubbed “<a href="https://mouthsofmums.com.au/7-things-disney-apparently-censored-in-bluey-season-3/">censorship</a>” by some publications, the changes to the third season, released in America on Disney+ this month, include Bandit not being hit in a sensitive area, a conversation about getting a vasectomy replaced with “getting dog teeth removed”, the horse Buttermilk no longer stands next to poo on screen and Aunt Trix is no longer seen on the toilet during a video call.</p>
<p>One episode, Family Meeting, where Bluey accuses dad Bandit of farting in her face, was removed entirely – although due to the backlash it appears this decision has been <a href="https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/streaming/bluey-episode-banned-on-disney-in-the-us-for-bizarre-reason/news-story/b5877d7134a6b217234398eb7892d4da">rescinded</a>.</p>
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<p>Episodes in previous seasons have also been <a href="https://twitter.com/blueymoments/status/1261872704237551618">edited</a> or <a href="https://blueypedia.fandom.com/wiki/Dad_Baby">unavailable</a> to stream on Disney+. </p>
<p>This decision by Disney comes at a time when there has been a fundamental shift, both in the way audiences consume content and how content is distributed. Through global streaming services, content previously produced for a local market now has a greater opportunity to reach a global audience. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/01/arts/television/bluey-cartoon-dog-australia.html">The New York Times</a> has said Bluey “could rival The Wiggles as Australia’s most popular children’s cultural export”. </p>
<p>But can screen content truly be considered a cultural export if it is re-edited to reflect cultural aspects of the market it is being distributed in?</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/an-idealised-australian-ethos-why-bluey-is-an-audience-favourite-even-for-adults-without-kids-168571">'An idealised Australian ethos': why Bluey is an audience favourite, even for adults without kids</a>
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<h2>Content for global audience</h2>
<p>Australian media content being changed for the US market is not a new phenomena. </p>
<p>More than 40 years ago, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079501/alternateversions">Mad Max</a> was dubbed with American accents for the US market. </p>
<p>More recently, Australian television shows like <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2011/06/watch_the_original_australian.html">Wilfred</a> (2011), <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-30/american-version-kath-and-kim-tv-remakes/100689218">Kath & Kim</a> (2009) and <a href="https://www.pastemagazine.com/tv/the-slap/the-slap-australia-explained/">The Slap</a> (2015) have been reproduced for a US market. </p>
<p>Since these Americanised series premiered, there has been a shift in the commissioning of media. Content distributors no longer solely rely on local broadcasters: they now are able to go direct to a global audience through streaming services. </p>
<p>Since the start of 2022, Netflix has commissioned content <a href="https://www.ampereanalysis.com/press/release/dl/netflix-looks-to-international-commissions-for-growth">from 44 territories</a>, Warner Bros commissioned work across 27 territories for HBO Max and Discovery+, Disney 23 and Amazon 21. </p>
<p>These streaming platforms aren’t looking for local hits: they’re looking for global hits, from anywhere. It’s not just about making the next Stranger Things, it’s <a href="https://www.screendaily.com/news/netflix-commissions-originals-from-a-record-28-international-markets/5173422.article">about making</a> the next Money Heist – the Netflix hit from Spain – or the next South Korean juggernaut Squid Game.</p>
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<h2>A question of quotas</h2>
<p>In 2021, the federal government removed the quota requiring local children’s programming on Australian commercial television. This has resulted in a significant <a href="https://tvtonight.com.au/2022/08/2021-content-quotas-soaps-deliver-but-kids-tv-in-freefall.html">decline</a> in the broadcast of children’s content.</p>
<p>We have seen <a href="https://www.acma.gov.au/spending-subscription-video-demand-providers-2020-21">increased investment</a> of Australian content by streaming services. Together, Amazon Prime, Disney, Netflix and Stan spent A$178.9 million in the 2020–21 financial year, including children’s television. This is up more than $25 million in the <a href="https://www.acma.gov.au/spending-subscription-video-demand-providers-2019-20">previous year</a>.</p>
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<p>Earlier this year, <a href="https://about.netflix.com/en/news/netflix-has-a-new-development-funding-initiative-with-the-australian">Netflix launched</a> a partnership with the Australian Children’s Television Foundation to fund the development of original Australian children’s series. Disney has <a href="https://mumbrella.com.au/disney-releases-first-wave-of-local-content-commissions-with-9-australian-originals-737567">also announced</a> its planned investment in local Australian children’s content.</p>
<p>This increase by streaming service is yet to fill the shortfall by commercial television.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cheese-n-crackers-concerns-deepen-for-the-future-of-australian-childrens-television-147183">Cheese 'n' crackers! Concerns deepen for the future of Australian children's television</a>
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<h2>But is it Australian?</h2>
<p>In June, the <a href="https://makeitaustralian.com/">Make It Australian</a> campaign was launched at the Sydney Film Festival. The campaign calls for Australian stories to be “told on Australian screens by us, to us, about us”.</p>
<p>At the campaign launch, arts minister Tony Burke said international and commercial success for Australian films is “wonderful, but that is a bonus.”</p>
<p>The “first objective” for Australian films, he said: </p>
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<p>is to make sure our stories are told so that we know better ourselves; we know better each other and the world has a better way of knowing us.</p>
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<p>It is the last point that Tony Burke makes, about the world “knowing us”, that is less considered in the ongoing local screen content debate. Indeed, Australian content is being <a href="https://www.acma.gov.au/spending-subscription-video-demand-providers-2020-21">shown to a global audience</a>. </p>
<p>But what happens when Australian content is edited with these international audiences in mind? Edits like those Disney made to Bluey not only impact the humour and the narrative, but also impact the cultural representation within the program.</p>
<p>Increased investment by streaming services will provide opportunities for Australian local content to be successful locally and globally. But for Australian television and films to be true cultural exports, the world should be seeing the version of ourselves we are seeing, too.</p>
<p>The success of this relies on not only focusing on content production and local distribution, but including strategies that allow Australian content to remain free from localised edits, so it can truly reflect an Australian cultural export. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/tv-has-changed-so-must-the-way-we-support-local-content-139674">TV has changed, so must the way we support local content</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188982/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marc C-Scott does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>With the rise of streaming platforms, Australian television can reach a global audience – but what will that audience be seeing?Marc C-Scott, Senior lecturer in Screen Media, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1662742021-08-23T20:10:12Z2021-08-23T20:10:12ZFewer episodes, more foreign owners: the incredible shrinking of Australian TV drama<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417308/original/file-20210823-19-u0lgf2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Family Law: made by a foreign-owned production company.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Matchbox Pictures/SBS</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Long running Australian television dramas like Packed to the Rafters, All Saints, McLeod’s Daughters and Blue Heelers are no longer being made. Blue Heelers racked up 510 episodes and 25 Logies during its 12 year run; 122 episodes of Packed to the Rafters aired between 2008 and 2013. </p>
<p>These shows provided an ongoing slice of Australian life to viewers here and overseas. But a lot has changed. From 1999 to 2019, the total hours of adult TV drama produced by all TV services (including the commercial broadcasters, ABC and SBS, Foxtel and the streamers) <a href="https://eprints.qut.edu.au/212330/">dropped by 20%</a>. </p>
<p>And since 2015, Australian adult TV dramas have <a href="https://eprints.qut.edu.au/212330/">averaged just seven episodes a year</a>. This represents a stunning fall in production levels from the early 2000s, when series of more than 20 episodes were common. </p>
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<p>The shrinking length of the average Australian TV drama reflects other substantial changes in production over the last two decades. Our research explores how new technologies enabling multichannels and streaming services, combined with changes in the global TV business, have impacted homegrown drama.</p>
<p>As a first step, we assembled a database of all the Australian TV drama series produced since 1999. Our analysis of that data, published in the <a href="https://eprints.qut.edu.au/212330/">Australian Drama Index</a>, found hours of adult, prime-time drama produced by commercial broadcasters Seven, Nine, and Ten fell by 68% between 1999 and 2019. </p>
<p>We excluded long-running soap operas such as Neighbours or Home and Away from this count because soaps account for so many hours of Australian drama they obscure the changes elsewhere. Still, even with the inclusion of soap operas, hours of adult drama on commercial channels fell by 45% over this time. </p>
<p>In contrast, national broadcasters, mostly the ABC, increased their drama hours. From 44 hours in 1999, the ABC’s annual local drama output had fallen to just five hours in 2006. But by 2019, it had reached 72 hours. This trend was especially pronounced after 2009 when the ABC received significant extra funding for drama and children’s programs for three years. </p>
<p>The introduction of streaming services in 2015 provided minimal additional Australian drama hours, with 22 hours commissioned by all providers in 2019. Still, these hours of Australian-made drama matched Foxtel’s that year. </p>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/crunching-the-numbers-on-streaming-services-local-content-static-growth-but-more-original-productions-125804">Crunching the numbers on streaming services' local content: static growth, but more original productions</a>
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<h2>Who produces?</h2>
<p>Our study shows twice as many production companies made Australian drama in 2019 than in 1999. So more companies made fewer hours of drama — more of them foreign owned.</p>
<p>Several formerly Australian production companies such as Matchbox Pictures, Southern Star, and Screentime are now owned by foreign media conglomerates. In the first decade of our study, foreign-owned companies accounted for only 12% of Australian adult drama hours produced. </p>
<p>This figure grew to 38% of hours in the decade since 2009, with such companies making series including The Family Law, Offspring and Love Child. </p>
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<p>Our concern here regarding foreign ownership isn’t one of foreign influence (as might be the case when considering news). Rather, there are implications for Australian-owned companies that might lack the resources (money to develop new ideas, international sales networks) to go head to head with foreign-owned firms. </p>
<p>And with 38% of Australian drama now made by foreign-owned companies, this means taxpayer supports, such as the proposed <a href="https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/funding-and-support/producer-offset#:%7E:text=The%20Producer%20Offset%20is%20a,producers%20of%20eligible%20Australian%20projects.">30% tax rebate for producers</a> of Australian films and TV shows, are going to overseas firms. </p>
<h2>What is commissioned?</h2>
<p>Interestingly, the number of titles produced yearly has not changed much. Rather, the number of episodes for each title has dropped significantly across all commissioners — commercial broadcasters, national broadcasters, Foxtel and the streamers.</p>
<p>Another trend is the shift in children’s drama production from live-action drama to animation. This has largely been caused by Seven, Nine and Ten increasingly using animation to fill their children’s drama quotas from the mid-2000s. These quotas were removed entirely in 2021, with big implications for animation producers. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-slow-death-of-australian-childrens-tv-drama-75394">The slow death of Australian children's TV drama</a>
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<h2>An uncertain future</h2>
<p>Although many might assume the challenges facing Australian TV drama are a result of the 2015 arrival of streaming services, our data illustrates the disruption began much earlier. The introduction of multi-channels from 2009, like 7mate, 9Life and Eleven, challenged the business of commercial broadcasters, incurring new costs but with no increase in television advertising spending. </p>
<p>Since then, search engines (Google, Amazon) and social media have drawn advertising dollars away from television, resulting in less funds going towards the making of Australian drama. </p>
<p>Australia is not unusual in this regard. The fall in advertising has hurt commercial broadcasters all over the world, making it harder for them to fund drama production. The rise of transnational streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+, and Paramount+ is also challenging the development of stories about Australian life. </p>
<p>Even when these services produce shows in Australia, they are designed to be watched by subscribers around the globe.</p>
<p>Well-crafted policy in the 1970s and 80s supported Australian television when foreign-produced dramas dominated our TV screens. Given commercial broadcasters’ withdrawal from drama commissioning, we need 21st century policies that will support Australian drama, particularly children’s.</p>
<p>Increasing financial support for the national broadcaster is an efficient and effective way to safeguard supplies of drama made first and foremost for Australian audiences. Our new drama index confirms the urgent need for such policy solutions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166274/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Potter receives funding from the Australian Research Council Discovery Programme (DP210100849) </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amanda Lotz receives funding from the Australian Research Council Discovery Programme (DP190100978 and DP210100849)</span></em></p>Australian TV drama series have shrunk in length from their heyday, and broadcasters are making 20% less of them than they did two decades ago.Anna Potter, Associate Professor, University of the Sunshine CoastAmanda Lotz, Professor of Media Studies, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1572332021-03-17T03:55:02Z2021-03-17T03:55:02ZHow local content rules on streamers could seriously backfire<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390001/original/file-20210317-19-185l2a8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=208%2C108%2C5351%2C3592&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Actor Simon Baker at a press conference in Canberra on Tuesday calling for a local content quota on streaming services.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lukas Coch/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This week, actors such as <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/breaking-news/aussie-actors-simon-baker-bryan-brown-marta-dusseldorp-and-justine-clarke-take-demands-to-canberra/news-story/435d91c55f8e36c824e01cc7a96c9864">Simon Baker, Bryan Brown and Marta Dusseldorp were in Canberra</a>. Their aim was to convince parliament to introduce rules requiring streaming services such as Netflix and Disney+ <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/stars-lobby-for-netflix-to-face-20-per-cent-local-content-quota-20210316-p57b4y.html">to spend 20% of their local revenue</a> on new Australian drama, documentary and children’s content.</p>
<p>Many of Australia’s film and television organisations see <a href="https://www.meaa.org/mediaroom/screen-creatives-visit-canberra-to-call-for-action-on-local-content/">local content rules</a> as a key way of tackling significant changes that have disrupted business norms and revenue streams. The federal government <a href="https://www.communications.gov.au/have-your-say/new-rules-new-media-landscape-modernising-television-regulation-australia">has indicated it supports quotas</a> for some services at least.</p>
<p>Requirements on global services seem an easy answer — and who doesn’t want more Australian TV? — but this call ignores complex realities of how the TV business and its funding have changed.</p>
<p>Before exploring the key differences of 21st century television, let’s consider why pursuing content requirements on streaming services is a high risk, low reward campaign.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389759/original/file-20210316-19-14qog9k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389759/original/file-20210316-19-14qog9k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389759/original/file-20210316-19-14qog9k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389759/original/file-20210316-19-14qog9k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389759/original/file-20210316-19-14qog9k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389759/original/file-20210316-19-14qog9k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389759/original/file-20210316-19-14qog9k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389759/original/file-20210316-19-14qog9k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nathalie Morris and Carlos Sanson Jr. in Bump, one of Stan’s new original Australian programs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">idmb</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>1. Global streamers could leave Australia</h2>
<p>Aggressively pursuing local content expenditure or special “taxes” may lead global streamers to cease Australian operation, risking a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2021-02-26/facebook-google-who-won-battle-news-media-bargaining-code/13193106">replay of last month’s Facebook fiasco</a> in response to the overreach of the mandatory bargaining code. </p>
<hr>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/facebooks-news-blockade-in-australia-shows-how-tech-giants-are-swallowing-the-web-155832">Facebook's news blockade in Australia shows how tech giants are swallowing the web</a>
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<p>Global streamers are precisely that: services making a business of circulating content globally, not producing it for all countries with subscribers.</p>
<p>Netflix, for instance, is now in roughly 60% of Australian homes. Yet those 6 million subscribers amount to less than 3% of its total subscriber base. At some point, the cost of producing content for such a small part of a service’s subscriber base becomes unfeasible from a business perspective.</p>
<h2>2. New services might not come to Australia</h2>
<p>Australia has consistently been one of the first markets entered by new streaming services — our low adoption of cable TV means we are hungry for more video options.</p>
<p>Although much attention focuses on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/mar/14/disney-forecast-to-steal-netflix-crown-as-worlds-biggest-streaming-firm">Netflix and Disney+</a>, several smaller global services such as <a href="https://au.acorn.tv/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwrsGCBhD1ARIsALILBYqq8ytGiy2cIBbyPD1oeUoi27X2VAZkNFt3VJ8N_dw9Ne-kr9GSN5MaAhWBEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds">Acorn</a>, <a href="https://www.britbox.com/au/">Britbox</a>, and <a href="https://www.discoveryplus.co.uk/">Discovery+</a> are also available here. Many of these offer a particular kind of programming, drama and mysteries in the case of Acorn, and British series for Britbox. </p>
<p>Creating Australian content is contrary to the business of these services. Rules requiring local content will discourage the next stage of streamers offering more specialised services from launching here, leaving Australians with less choice — <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/what-is-a-vpn-and-how-does-it-work/">VPNs</a> notwithstanding.</p>
<h2>3. Netflix could become more like Stan, reducing Stan’s key value proposition</h2>
<p>A curious part of the plan for local content requirements on streamers proposed in the federal government’s <a href="https://www.communications.gov.au/have-your-say/new-rules-new-media-landscape-modernising-television-regulation-australia">media reform green paper</a> is that Australian content requirements would apply to global streamers but not Stan.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nineforbrands.com.au/investors/financial-reports/">Stan reported</a> 2.2 million subscribers in 2020, roughly 22% of Australian households. Stan offers more Australian content than any other streamer. Last year, 7.38% of its library was Australian programs - although <a href="https://theconversation.com/crunching-the-numbers-on-streaming-services-local-content-static-growth-but-more-original-productions-125804">this is a decline on 2019 when the figure was 9%</a>.</p>
<p>Offering a substantial amount of Australian content makes sense for a domestic service and distinguishes Stan from global providers. According to the government’s Media Content Consumption Survey, commissioned in November 2020, Stan is the second most subscribed service in Australia behind Netflix.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6WLMz8Qeg4A?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The trailer for I Am Woman, a Stan Original.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, if global streamers are forced to make Australian content, they become more direct competitors, potentially eroding Stan’s point of difference.</p>
<p>Recent data from Ampere Analysis shows the percentage of Australian titles in Australia’s six most subscribed services (plus newcomer Binge). Stan leads, followed by Foxtel Now (just under 5%), Binge, Amazon Prime, Netflix and Disney+. </p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, Australian services have more Australian content than global ones, but less than domestic services in other countries. Most of the titles included here were originally created for television or cinemas so only account for new production activity in a few cases. Stan’s library includes 20 Australian commissions, less than 1% of its offerings.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389970/original/file-20210316-13-xv21a4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389970/original/file-20210316-13-xv21a4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389970/original/file-20210316-13-xv21a4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389970/original/file-20210316-13-xv21a4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389970/original/file-20210316-13-xv21a4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389970/original/file-20210316-13-xv21a4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389970/original/file-20210316-13-xv21a4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Percentage of Australian Content in Australian Streaming Libraries, January 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Data from Ampere Analysis</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Still, it makes no sense to exempt Stan from local content requirements. As an Australia-only service, 100% of Stan’s reason for being is to provide content for the Australian market, while for the global services, providing content for Australians is 3% or less of their business.</p>
<h2>4. Global streamers are likely to make programs in Australia but not about Australia</h2>
<p>Global streamers aren’t likely to make content that is very Australian. They need stories with universal legibility. </p>
<p>Consider the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com.au/netflix-australian-originals-2020-7">Australian titles produced to date by Netflix</a> such as Tidelands and children’s drama The New Legends of Monkey. Was Tidelands, with its story of mythical part-human, part siren Tidelanders, one that resonated with the fabric of Australian culture? </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389760/original/file-20210316-23-n9o1yo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389760/original/file-20210316-23-n9o1yo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389760/original/file-20210316-23-n9o1yo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389760/original/file-20210316-23-n9o1yo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389760/original/file-20210316-23-n9o1yo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389760/original/file-20210316-23-n9o1yo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389760/original/file-20210316-23-n9o1yo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389760/original/file-20210316-23-n9o1yo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Charlotte Best in Tidelands (2018), which could have been set anywhere.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hoodlum Entertainment</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite the rhetoric of Australian stories, this industry campaign is chiefly about jobs. It is about securing new sources of funding for Australian productions in response to commercial broadcasters struggling with diminished advertiser spending. Industry subsidies in the face of such change may be warranted, but effective policy solutions must deal separately with the issues of sector support and cultural policy — such as the need to tell Australian stories.</p>
<p>Let us be very clear, we care a lot about the future of Australian stories. We are deeply concerned with the many policy developments of the last two decades that have allowed <a href="https://www.if.com.au/federal-government-unveils-400-million-location-incentive-fund/">industry priorities </a>to subordinate the cultural goals of ensuring Australians see themselves and their lives reflected on screen.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/400-million-in-government-funding-for-hollywood-but-only-scraps-for-australian-film-142979">$400 million in government funding for Hollywood, but only scraps for Australian film</a>
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<p>But Australia needs <a href="https://theconversation.com/tv-has-changed-so-must-the-way-we-support-local-content-139674">21st century policy solutions</a> that reflect the contemporary media landscape. </p>
<h2>Complex realities</h2>
<p>Streamers aren’t broadcasters. They are paid for by subscribers, not advertisers. They do not use public spectrum, which is a basis of local content requirements on broadcasters. A more direct analogue with streamers is the video rental store, which never faced requirements to offer Australian content.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/tv-has-changed-so-must-the-way-we-support-local-content-139674">TV has changed, so must the way we support local content</a>
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<p>Global streamers are a part of the marketplace viewers find valuable enough to pay for, but they aren’t the cause of the faltering Australian TV industry. The problem there — much like for print journalism — is that advertisers have found more effective ways to reach potential consumers.</p>
<p>Netflix reports that it <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/17/netflix-how-many-people-watch-bird-box.html">accounts for 10% of viewing</a> in the US, that’s far from dominance or crowding out others. The new video marketplace is complicated and offers Australians more choice — but global streamers can’t save Australian television.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157233/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amanda Lotz receives funding from the Australian Research Council Discovery Programme (DP190100978 and DP210100849) </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Potter receives funding from the Australian Research Council Discovery Programme (DP210100849)</span></em></p>Pursuing local content requirements on streaming services is a high risk, low reward campaign. The reality is global streamers can’t save Australian television.Amanda Lotz, Professor of Media Studies, Queensland University of TechnologyAnna Potter, Associate Professor, University of the Sunshine CoastLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1478342020-10-11T18:59:32Z2020-10-11T18:59:32Z$53 million for screen production, but policy reforms could spell the end of the Australian feature film<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362586/original/file-20201009-24-tf69qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C0%2C1016%2C757&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Top End Wedding/Goalpost Pictures</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The 2020 federal budget has allocated <a href="https://www.miragenews.com/australian-screen-content-boost/">A$53 million</a> towards Australian screen production.</p>
<p>The funding comes attached to <a href="https://www.communications.gov.au/what-we-do/television/modernising-australian-screen-content-settings/qa">policy reforms</a> harmonising incentives across film and television production and removing requirements for films to play in cinemas.</p>
<p>Arts minister Paul Fletcher <a href="https://www.paulfletcher.com.au/media-releases/media-release-new-funding-in-budget-to-deliver-australian-screen-content">argues</a> “the old approach of treating film and television differently no longer makes sense” and “simplifying regulations” will encourage creators to develop higher production value content for international streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.if.com.au/media-reforms-the-death-knell-for-features-or-a-streaming-led-resurgence/">producers fear</a> this will spell the end for Australian-made films and feature documentaries in cinemas. </p>
<p>Responding to the policy changes, film producer and distributor Sue Maslin AO tells me: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>This announcement brings an end to producers like myself continuing to invest our time, money, blood, sweat and tears in developing features and forces us to focus on digital platforms in an unregulated environment where to date there has been negligible commissioning by streamers and no sustainable business model emerge.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Such a clear preference for eyeballs aimed at televisions and computer screens overlooks the importance films in the cinema have for sustaining a robust Australian screen industry. </p>
<h2>From script to screen</h2>
<p>Feature films are expensive to make and difficult to finance. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/funding-and-support/producer-offset">producer offset</a> is a key mechanism allowing Australian feature films to secure finance, with producers able to claim back a percentage of the film’s <a href="https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/funding-and-support/producer-offset/guidelines/qualifying-expenditure">qualifying Australian production expenditure</a> through a tax rebate.</p>
<p>Under the <a href="https://www.ausfilm.com.au/incentives/the-producer-offset-and-co-production-treaties/">existing model</a>, feature films with an Australian spend of at least $500,000 qualify for a 40% rebate, while television and online content receive 20%. </p>
<p>The new budget measures harmonise the offset for all productions at 30%. This means feature producers will be forced to find an additional 10% of their total budget to get their films made. Additionally, all productions must now spend at least $1 million in Australia to be eligible.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/400-million-in-government-funding-for-hollywood-but-only-scraps-for-australian-film-142979">$400 million in government funding for Hollywood, but only scraps for Australian film</a>
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<p>Feature film funding comes from a variety of sources. State and federal production grants and the producer offset account for <a href="https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/getmedia/08d8518b-867b-4f61-8c2e-ebd10f0dc3a4/Drama-report-2018-2019.pdf?ext=.pdf">roughly half</a> of a typical budget. </p>
<p>The remaining finance comes from local distributors, international sales agents, television license fees and a <a href="https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/fact-finders/production-trends/feature-production/australian-feature-films/sources-of-finance">shrinking pool</a> of private investment. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362589/original/file-20201009-14-gv4ylu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Film still from Dirt Music" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362589/original/file-20201009-14-gv4ylu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362589/original/file-20201009-14-gv4ylu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362589/original/file-20201009-14-gv4ylu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362589/original/file-20201009-14-gv4ylu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362589/original/file-20201009-14-gv4ylu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362589/original/file-20201009-14-gv4ylu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362589/original/file-20201009-14-gv4ylu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">With lower subsidies, projects will look to co-produce in countries with more generous rebates.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dirt Music/Wildgaze Films</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With a rebate of just 30%, finance will become harder to access. </p>
<p>Foreign co-producers will look towards countries like <a href="https://www.if.com.au/media-reforms-the-death-knell-for-features-or-a-streaming-led-resurgence/">Canada or the UK</a> with more generous incentives and, with longform content such as drama series now eligible for the same rebates, broadcasters will have even less incentive to license feature-length content. </p>
<p>Diminishing confidence in the value of films within the Australian market further impacts the willingness of distributors to invest. </p>
<p>The government <a href="https://www.paulfletcher.com.au/media-releases/media-release-new-funding-in-budget-to-deliver-australian-screen-content">claims</a> “the explosion of streaming video services” will address these shortfalls. But streaming video on demand services have shown little interest in picking up Australian content. Only <a href="https://theconversation.com/crunching-the-numbers-on-streaming-services-local-content-static-growth-but-more-original-productions-125804">1.7% of content</a> on Netflix is Australian, and the platform has fewer than <a href="https://apo.org.au/node/264821">20 Australian films</a> in its catalogue. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/crunching-the-numbers-on-streaming-services-local-content-static-growth-but-more-original-productions-125804">Crunching the numbers on streaming services' local content: static growth, but more original productions</a>
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<h2>Documentary dilemma</h2>
<p>Feature documentaries will be hardest hit by changes to the producer offset. Currently, each hour of documentary content produced in Australia costs, on average, less than <a href="https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/fact-finders/infographics/australian-documentaries-the-facts">$500,000</a> to make. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Film still: Adam Goodes on a beach" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362587/original/file-20201009-24-g0ztys.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362587/original/file-20201009-24-g0ztys.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362587/original/file-20201009-24-g0ztys.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362587/original/file-20201009-24-g0ztys.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362587/original/file-20201009-24-g0ztys.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362587/original/file-20201009-24-g0ztys.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362587/original/file-20201009-24-g0ztys.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">With these changes, Australian documentary films will find it harder to raise funding.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Australian Dream/GoodThing Productions</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With the doubling of the qualifying Australian production expenditure requirement to $1 million, the vast majority of documentary films will be excluded from any offset eligibility.</p>
<p>Combined with the removal of <a href="https://www.if.com.au/government-relaxes-drama-and-childrens-quotas-harmonises-producer-offsets/">documentary sub-quotas</a> from broadcast content requirements, this signals a dim future for high-quality Australian documentary filmmaking. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cheese-n-crackers-concerns-deepen-for-the-future-of-australian-childrens-television-147183">Cheese 'n' crackers! Concerns deepen for the future of Australian children's television</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Out of sight, out of mind</h2>
<p>Funding is only part of the problem. The other part is getting films seen. </p>
<p>Fletcher <a href="https://www.if.com.au/film-and-documentary-producers-blast-media-reforms/">argues</a> the changes are about “getting [Australian] content seen by as many people as possible and selling as well as possible.” Online is seen as the key to this. </p>
<p>Opportunities do exist for some filmmakers here, with films like Netflix’s <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/i-am-mother-is-an-aussie-success-story-though-you-d-never-know-it-20190617-p51yhr.html">I Am Mother</a> (2019) or Stan’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/jul/10/relic-review-a-film-that-gorges-on-the-terror-of-forgetting-in-a-feast-of-dread">Relic</a> (2020) capturing attention. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/N5BKctcZxrM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Australian-produced I Am Mother found a global audience on Netflix.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But there is a risk Australian films will struggle to cut through in a crowded digital market.</p>
<p>The theatrical release of a film is about more than just bums on seats. It raises awareness about films through word of mouth and marketing material. <a href="https://theconversation.com/tiff-netflix-and-streaming-means-canadian-feature-films-struggle-to-find-audiences-121851">Film festivals</a> play a role too, generating buzz around programmed films and amplifying this buzz further for those that win awards.</p>
<p>Removing the requirement for a cinema release could see feature films disappear from the big screen. But, more importantly, it could also make films harder to find at home. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/picture-this-3-possible-endings-for-cinema-as-covid-pushes-it-to-the-brink-146917">Picture this: 3 possible endings for cinema as COVID pushes it to the brink</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>While streaming services reach growing audiences, the discoverability of Australian films within and across these online platforms <a href="https://www.communications.gov.au/sites/default/files/submissions/ramon-lobato-and-alexa-scarlata.pdf">remains a challenge</a>, particularly when sufficient content is not there to be discovered. Without the interest generated by a cinema release, how will local stories stand out?</p>
<p>This is a challenge that Australian film will now need to face. With the Government’s measures set to take effect in 2021, Sue Maslin warns:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>As for going to the movies to see films like The Dressmaker, Last Cab to Darwin, Ride Like a Girl, Breath, The Sapphires, Animal Kingdom … forget it. Get used to the small screen experience, everyone.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147834/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kirsten Stevens does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The 2020 federal budget allocates an additional A$53 million towards screen funding, but there are strings attached.Kirsten Stevens, Lecturer in Arts and Cultural Management, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1471832020-10-01T06:00:59Z2020-10-01T06:00:59ZCheese ‘n’ crackers! Concerns deepen for the future of Australian children’s television<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360977/original/file-20201001-16-156xx7n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=30%2C3%2C2521%2C1429&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABC/Screen Australia</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Today ABC, BBC Studios and Screen Australia <a href="https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/sa/media-centre/news/2020/10-01-bluey-returns-for-season-3?utm_source=social&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=2020-10-01-bluey-returns-for-season-3">announced</a> series three of the award-winning animation series Bluey will commence production in Brisbane later this year. </p>
<p>But despite Bluey’s <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com.au/bluey-cartoon-australia-ludo-studio-2020-6">global success</a>, policy changes announced yesterday mean that we may see fewer Australian-made children’s shows on broadcast TV in the future.</p>
<p>The federal government has <a href="https://mumbrella.com.au/government-scraps-childrens-content-quotas-in-revamp-of-commercial-tv-regulations-644659">scrapped quotas</a> for minimum hours of local children’s content for commercial television networks. Foxtel’s obligation to Australian content has also been halved.</p>
<p>These changes represent a rapid unravelling of regulatory infrastructure established in the 1970s — and refined over decades — to support production and broadcast of quality Australian children’s content. </p>
<p>Responding to the policy changes, Australian Children’s Television Foundation (ACTF) CEO Jenny Buckland explained: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The argument about children’s content quotas has been going ever since they were introduced nearly 40 years ago. The broadcasters never wanted to do it and they didn’t treat the shows well.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/save-our-screens-3-things-government-must-do-now-to-keep-australian-content-alive-132758">Save our screens: 3 things government must do now to keep Australian content alive</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Changes to TV content regulation</h2>
<p>Under the existing system, commercial networks must abide by <a href="https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/fact-finders/television/industry-trends/content-regulation">strict requirements</a> to broadcast a certain amount of children’s content each year: 130 hours for pre-school children, and 260 hours for children under 14, including at least 25 hours of new drama. </p>
<p>From 2021, commercial networks will have no such obligation. </p>
<p>Children’s content quotas were suspended in April 2020, a decision Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety and the Arts Paul Fletcher <a href="https://tvtonight.com.au/2020/04/local-quotas-suspended-spectrum-fees-waived-in-media-rescue.html">said</a> was in response to COVID-19. </p>
<p>Now a decision initially described as “an emergency red tape reduction measure” has been enshrined into policy.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360980/original/file-20201001-24-12x9397.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Boy with mouth stuck together and girl laughing" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360980/original/file-20201001-24-12x9397.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360980/original/file-20201001-24-12x9397.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360980/original/file-20201001-24-12x9397.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360980/original/file-20201001-24-12x9397.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360980/original/file-20201001-24-12x9397.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360980/original/file-20201001-24-12x9397.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360980/original/file-20201001-24-12x9397.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Locally made kids’ shows like Round the Twist remain popular, 30-odd years since their first airing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BM2QwYjJlZDAtZjk2MC00ZTU5LWIyMTgtY2Q4YTNjOTMwYjNiXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTQ0Mzk3MDg@._V1_.jpg">IMDB</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-tv-support-package-leaves-screen-writers-and-directors-even-less-certain-than-before-136545">Coronavirus TV 'support' package leaves screen writers and directors even less certain than before</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Strength in numbers</h2>
<p>The government’s decision to remove children’s quotas responds to intense lobbying from commercial networks. In February 2020, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/seven-halts-children-s-production-in-australian-content-quota-protest-20200225-p5445r.html">Seven declared it planned to halt the production of Australian children’s content</a>, a decision that would likely have resulted in a breach of children’s content quotas in 2021 if the current system was sustained. Seven’s Chief Executive explained he wanted the government to take “immediate action” to remove the quotas. </p>
<p>In 2017, the chief executives of Seven, Nine and Ten advocated together at a parliamentary inquiry <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/australian-commercial-television-networks-want-to-scrap-childrens-content-quota-20170720-gxfdsg.html">for the removal of children’s content quotas</a>.</p>
<p>They argued <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/australian-commercial-television-networks-want-to-scrap-childrens-content-quota-20170720-gxfdsg.html">children weren’t watching</a> their children’s programming. Indeed, many children’s programs on <a href="https://www.freetv.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Free-TV-Submission-to-Australian-Content-Options-Paper-6-July-2020.pdf">commercial networks don’t rate well.</a> This may relate to the <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/academic-anna-potter-warns-australian-childrens-television-drama-under-threat-from-a-tsunami-of-animation-shows-20150325-1m752v.html">cheaply produced, culturally non-specific animated programs</a> made to meet the quotas. </p>
<p>ACTF CEO Jenny Buckland notes that <a href="https://blog-actf.com.au/when-broadcasters-cut-costs-on-local-tv-content-its-the-children-who-pay/">over the past decade</a>, commercial broadcasters have halved their spending on children’s drama. International co-productions also count towards the quotas, resulting in a surfeit of “co-produced animated series based on international concepts”. </p>
<p>The networks also argue the rising popularity of streaming services <a href="https://www.communications.gov.au/sites/default/files/submissions/freetv-australia-childrens-content.pdf?acsf_files_redirect">has made the quota system outdated</a>. Indeed, an increasing number of Australian children are turning to streaming services such as Netflix and YouTube, however the Australian Communication and Media Authority’s research has found that children still watch broadcast TV programs <a href="https://www.acma.gov.au/publications/2017-08/report/kids-tv-viewing-and-multi-screen-behaviour">made specifically for them</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/tv-has-changed-so-must-the-way-we-support-local-content-139674">TV has changed, so must the way we support local content</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Where the ABC fits in</h2>
<p>Bluey is <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-01/bluey-abc-kids-show-wins-international-emmys-childrens-award/12111308">the most popular show</a> in the history of the ABC’s streaming app ABC iView, demonstrating there is demand for quality local children’s content.</p>
<p>But rather than seeing this as an endorsement, commercial broadcasters claim the popularity of children’s content on the ABC <a href="https://www.communications.gov.au/sites/default/files/submissions/freetv-australia-childrens-content.pdf?acsf_files_redirect">diminishes the need</a> for quotas. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1311483473929162753"}"></div></p>
<p>However, public broadcasters, the ABC and SBS, are not obligated to produce or broadcast a certain amount of local children’s content (rather than quotas, they have internal targets underpinned by their charters). This means the ABC can <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-slow-death-of-australian-childrens-tv-drama-75394">pull funding from the children’s television budget as it sees fit</a>. Local content targets on children’s channel <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/abcme/">ABC ME</a> were <a href="https://theconversation.com/no-dramas-what-budget-cuts-signal-for-homegrown-childrens-shows-on-abc3-50004">reduced to 25% (from 50%) in 2015</a>. </p>
<p>Budget restrictions make the ABC’s track record of quality local children’s content difficult to sustain. <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House/Communications/AustralianfilmandTV/Report">Government analysis</a> in 2017 raised concerns that the ABC may have “reduced its commitment to producing children’s content”.</p>
<p>Despite the ABC’s role in broadcasting quality Australian content, and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1329878X20948272">even directly helping with remote education during the pandemic</a>, the government has pressed pause on the indexation of ABC funding until July 2022. This means by end of the financial year (2020–21), the ABC’s operational funding base will have <a href="https://www.artshub.com.au/news-article/features/public-policy/vyshnavee-wijekumar/the-real-cost-of-defunding-the-abc-260708">reduced by 10%</a> since 2013.</p>
<p>Children’s content was a key target of a recent round of redundancies at the ABC. June saw <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/tv-and-radio/abc-me-presenters-mourn-sad-cuts-20200627-p556ti.html#comments.">the closure</a> of Melbourne children’s division ME TV and the cancellation of kids’ show <a href="https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/the-screen-guide/t/definitely-not-news-2020/38889/">Definitely Not News</a>. The Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance <a href="https://mumbrella.com.au/government-scraps-childrens-content-quotas-in-revamp-of-commercial-tv-regulations-644659">warns</a> changes to production quotas could “mean the demise of children’s content on commercial TV, leaving a cash-strapped ABC to pick up the slack”. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bgzQ9DE9zOM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Definitely Not News was cancelled in June.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Defending local children’s TV</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.communications.gov.au/what-we-do/television/modernising-australian-screen-content-settings/qa#:%7E:text=The%20Government%20is%20providing%20funding,%2D22%20and%202022%2D23.&text=This%20funding%20makes%20it%20more,and%20values%20on%20alternative%20platforms.">government has announced</a> a welcome A$20 million in funding for the ACTF for children’s content, supplemented by $30 million in funding for Screen Australia.</p>
<p>Jenny Buckland notes, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>we’ll be working very hard with producers to try and open those commissioning doors to new content, and tracking what happens to production over the 2-year period.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Perhaps this funding will stave off the end of local children’s content for now. Though the policy and budgetary ecosystem that supports a robust domestic children’s content sector is in flux, Buckland is still hopeful: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>… there needs to be Australian children’s content on all the places that children go to watch content — that includes having well-resourced public broadcasters with a major commitment to kids, as well as content on commercial video-on-demand platforms and other destinations. We were hoping there would be Australian content expenditure requirements on these platforms, and the door might still be open for that.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147183/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The pandemic pause on local children’s television content has become policy. Now what for kids’ TV?Jessica Balanzategui, Lecturer in Cinema and Screen Studies, Swinburne University of TechnologyJoanna McIntyre, Lecturer in Media Studies, Swinburne University of TechnologyLiam Burke, Associate Professor and Cinema and Screen Studies Discipline Leader, Swinburne University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1422702020-07-09T20:00:35Z2020-07-09T20:00:35ZSure, let’s bring production onshore, but it might not ensure supplies<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346514/original/file-20200709-62-113r4k2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=476%2C236%2C2054%2C1062&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The pandemic has changed the way we think about supply chains, in particular the chains that feed our need for <a href="https://theconversation.com/dont-panic-australia-has-truly-excellent-food-security-136405">food</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/medical-supply-chains-are-fragile-in-the-best-of-times-and-covid-19-will-test-their-strength-133688">medical supplies</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/its-one-thing-to-build-war-fighting-capability-its-another-to-build-industrial-capability-135640">defence equipment</a>. </p>
<p>It has led Prime Minister Scott Morrison to frame access to supplies in terms of <a href="https://www.pm.gov.au/media/press-conference-australian-parliament-house-6">economic sovereignty</a>.</p>
<p>Andrew Liveris, now an advisor to Morrison, and a former Dow Chemical Chief and advisor to both the Obama and Trump administrations, is pushing for <a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/liveris-calls-the-start-of-the-on-shoring-era-20200408-p54i37">re-shoring</a> of critical supply chains.</p>
<p>“Australia drank the free-trade juice and decided that off-shoring was okay,” he is quoted as saying. “Well, that era is gone.”</p>
<p>But ensuring supplies can withstand shocks needn’t mean bringing production onshore. It might make it harder.</p>
<h2>Stockpiling isn’t that useful</h2>
<p>Firms usually talk about managing supply risk in terms of resilience or robustness.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346498/original/file-20200709-34-2jxw01.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346498/original/file-20200709-34-2jxw01.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346498/original/file-20200709-34-2jxw01.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=971&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346498/original/file-20200709-34-2jxw01.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=971&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346498/original/file-20200709-34-2jxw01.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=971&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346498/original/file-20200709-34-2jxw01.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1220&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346498/original/file-20200709-34-2jxw01.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1220&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346498/original/file-20200709-34-2jxw01.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1220&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Canada has a strategic maple syrup reserve.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://voxeu.org/content/covid-19-and-trade-policy-why-turning-inward-won-t-work">Robustness</a> is the ability to continue supplying during a disruption (for a while we didn’t have this with toilet paper). </p>
<p><a href="https://voxeu.org/content/covid-19-and-trade-policy-why-turning-inward-won-t-work">Resilience</a> is the ability to get supplies back to normal in an acceptable time frame (which we had with toilet paper). </p>
<p>For critical supplies, robustness is the most important, but it hard to achieve for entire categories such as “medical equipment”. There, stockpiling is of limited use. </p>
<p>The United States has a stockpile of <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-just-happened-to-the-price-of-oil-136842">oil</a>, enough to fill half of its car tanks. Canada has a vault of <a href="https://www.narcity.com/news/ca/qc-en/canadas-secret-maple-syrup-vault-is-so-huge-that-youll-never-have-to-stockpile-it">maple syrup</a>, called a “strategic reserve” – about 80,000 barrels worth.</p>
<p>But when it comes to stockpiling “medical equipment” we might put a lot of effort into stockpiling ventilators, for example, only to find that the next emergency requires something different, or a different type of ventilator.</p>
<p>And it’s hard to stockpile fresh food.</p>
<h2>We are exposed at choke points</h2>
<p>Face masks and food illustrate the risks.</p>
<p>Half of global facemask production is <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-global-effort-to-tackle-the-coronavirus-face-mask-shortage-133656">concentrated</a> in China. China’s factories closed during its lockdown at the time global demand simultaneously soared, resulting in a major shortages.</p>
<p>Australia is one of the most food-secure nations on earth, exporting <a href="https://theconversation.com/dont-panic-australia-has-truly-excellent-food-security-136405">far more than it needs</a>, but a <a href="https://www.tisn.gov.au/Documents/Resilience%20in%20the%20Australian%20food%20supply%20chain%20-%20PDF%20copy%20for%20web.PDF">2012 department of agriculture report</a> found that many of the inputs, including pesticides and packaging, especially long-life packaging, were made overseas.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dont-panic-australia-has-truly-excellent-food-security-136405">Don't panic: Australia has truly excellent food security</a>
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<p>We got a taste of that vunerability in March 2020. After drought-breaking rains across the country generated a spike in demand for these essential farm inputs, <a href="https://www.afr.com/companies/agriculture/farmers-face-crippling-crop-blow-from-coronavirus-20200304-p546ql">supply tightened</a> due to coronavirus-related restrictions in China.</p>
<p>The crunch led Australian farm supply firm Nufarm to <a href="https://www.afr.com/companies/agriculture/nufarm-warning-on-china-s-supply-stranglehold-20200429-p54o8o">publically warn</a> that Australia was dangerously dependent upon China.</p>
<h2>Disasters can happen here too</h2>
<p>The best way to achieve supply chain robustness is to build supply chains involving more than one supplier, located in more than one national territory.</p>
<p>While worth considering as part of the solution, re-shoring won’t achieve this.</p>
<p>Japan’s 2011 Japan earthquake illustrates the point. Japan is self-sufficient in auto parts, but the earthquake hit <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-03-23/japan-disasters-ripple-effect-on-australian-auto/2646216">the region that supplies them</a>.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-us-has-bought-most-of-the-worlds-remdesivir-heres-what-it-means-for-the-rest-of-us-141791">The US has bought most of the world's remdesivir. Here's what it means for the rest of us</a>
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<p>If we do re-shore, it will make sense to continue to use at least one international supplier to ensure diversification. Self sufficiency isn’t the same as robustness.</p>
<p>Building robustness will require a federally-directed supply chain risk diversification strategy.</p>
<h2>Self-sufficiency isn’t robustness</h2>
<p>Given the extent of our trade with China, the best approach might be <a href="https://content.iospress.com/articles/human-systems-management/hsm0735">China-Plus-One</a>. It could mean one stream of the supply of a good coming through China and another coming through, for example, Vietnam. </p>
<p>It’s an approach adopted by <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Risk-Management-Strategies-of-Japanese-Companies-in-China-Political-Crisis/Vekasi/p/book/9780367205577">Japan</a>. </p>
<p>Re-shoring can play a role, but we are going to need a top-down assessment of the risks facing supplies of critical goods, and quite possibly the imposition of robustness requirements on firms distributing them.</p>
<p>Those firms can be offered a diversification tax credit.</p>
<p>A robustness strategy would be more likely to be pro-trade rather than anti-trade, but we won’t know until we do the work. It’d be best to start before the next crisis.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142270/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Naoise McDonagh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The prime minister is being told we should “re-shore” critical supplies. But that’s not the same as ensuring we have access to them.Naoise McDonagh, Lecturer in Political Economy, Institute for International Trade, University of AdelaideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1396742020-06-11T04:37:46Z2020-06-11T04:37:46ZTV has changed, so must the way we support local content<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340812/original/file-20200610-82632-5ov5rx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C0%2C1161%2C773&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABC</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australians have enjoyed watching Australian stories on the small screen for generations. From <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068114/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Number 96</a> to <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1530541/">Offspring</a>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2402807/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">House Husbands</a> to <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7298596/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Mystery Road</a>, Australian television has reflected Australia back to Australian audiences. </p>
<p>As the government notes in its <a href="https://www.communications.gov.au/have-your-say/supporting-australian-stories-our-screens-options-paper">recent options paper</a>, issued through the Australian Communications and Media Authority and Screen Australia: “Screen stories are uniquely powerful”. </p>
<p>But the future of these stories is in question. </p>
<p>Released at the end of March, the options paper aims to modernise how Australian content is supported. It suggests four options – no change, complete deregulation, minimal change or significant change – with responses due by June 12. </p>
<p>Three of these options would eliminate the local quotas that have underpinned Australian drama, documentary and children’s television production since the late 1960s. </p>
<p>Our research examines the role of television storytelling, especially the importance of local television. So it’s with great surprise we find ourselves advocating for the elimination of Australian content quotas on commercial free-to-air broadcasters. </p>
<p>Instead, we support the model that calls for the creation of a production fund – the “significant change” option – to address the challenges and opportunities currently facing Australian television.</p>
<p>We’re advocating for this change precisely because we think Australian television is so important. Australian drama, documentary and children’s programs, called “Australian story forms” here, deserve better support than currently offered by policies that have well and truly passed their use-by date. </p>
<h2>How did we get here?</h2>
<p>Much has changed over the past 20 years. Australia’s transition to digital broadcasting saw five existing free-to-air channels increase to at least 25, along with their correlated “catch-up” services such as Iview and 10Play.</p>
<p>Then, subscriber video-on-demand services (SVODs) like Stan and Netflix emerged. </p>
<p>The expansion of the Australian video ecosystem to include new digital channels, catch-up services and SVODs fragmented audiences, and caused advertiser funded Seven, Nine and Ten to come under significant financial pressure. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/save-our-screens-3-things-government-must-do-now-to-keep-australian-content-alive-132758">Save our screens: 3 things government must do now to keep Australian content alive</a>
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</p>
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<h2>Local content quotas</h2>
<p>When Australian content quotas were introduced in the late 1960s they applied to the three commercial channels. </p>
<p>These quotas dictated schedules must contain minimum levels of local content, such as documentary and drama, including children’s. At the time, the commercial networks relied on lower-cost imported programs, particularly for children, rather than homegrown drama. </p>
<p>When Foxtel launched in 1995, it too had local obligations, set at 10% of programming costs. SVODs do not broadcast on the public spectrum – the <a href="https://www.communications.gov.au/what-we-do/spectrum">infrastructure</a> that allows us to send wireless signals – and they are not subject to local content quotas. <a href="http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/8218-netflix-foxtel-stan-pay-tv-oct-2019-201912020339">More than 14.5 million</a> Australians pay to access these SVOD services.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340819/original/file-20200610-82612-nyqt84.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340819/original/file-20200610-82612-nyqt84.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340819/original/file-20200610-82612-nyqt84.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340819/original/file-20200610-82612-nyqt84.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340819/original/file-20200610-82612-nyqt84.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340819/original/file-20200610-82612-nyqt84.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340819/original/file-20200610-82612-nyqt84.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What’s that, Skippy? Content quotas are no longer working to share Australian stories?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">NFSA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/crunching-the-numbers-on-streaming-services-local-content-static-growth-but-more-original-productions-125804">Crunching the numbers on streaming services' local content: static growth, but more original productions</a>
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</p>
<hr>
<h2>The policy paradox</h2>
<p>Commercial broadcasters now focus on programming that encourages live viewing – news, sport and reality competitions – because viewers reliably turn up when they air. </p>
<p>All broadcasters have slowed production of Australian story forms, while <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/seven-halts-children-s-production-in-australian-content-quota-protest-20200225-p5445r.html">Seven announced</a> in February it would stop production of children’s content entirely.</p>
<p>Seven’s actions would have put them in breach of local content rules, but the quotas were suspended completely in April in response to COVID-19. </p>
<p>Commercial broadcasters are poorly suited to provide Australian story forms because their business model requires attracting large audiences. But these broadcasters still use the public spectrum and remain protected from competition from additional broadcasters. These advantages must come with obligations. </p>
<p>Australian story forms work very well for television services with different business models, including SVODs and public service broadcasters. Their <a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/maize/mpub9699689">business models</a> reward the creation of distinctive programs. Multinational SVODs – that serve subscribers in scores of countries – spend only small amounts on Australian content, however. <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-09/abc-job-losses-plan-to-be-announced-by-the-end-of-june/12336944">Sustained budget cuts</a> to the ABC and SBS mean they are also forced to commission fewer and shorter series.</p>
<p>Conditions have changed too much for <a href="https://theconversation.com/save-our-screens-3-things-government-must-do-now-to-keep-australian-content-alive-132758">local quotas to be effective</a>. We believe the simplest and most equitable way of solving this paradox is through creating an Australian Production Fund and eliminating quotas. </p>
<p>Seven, Nine and Ten would have to contribute to this fund in return for the benefits they enjoy. Any television services commissioning Australian stories could apply for funding. </p>
<p>This system will simplify the safeguarding of Australian stories.</p>
<h2>No clear sides</h2>
<p>The commercial broadcasters’ future looks uncertain. Their failure to innovate and add value in the face of increasing audience choices has compounded the challenges of an evolving marketplace. </p>
<p>The requirement to contribute to an Australian Production Fund provides flexibility while maintaining commercial broadcasters’ local content obligations. </p>
<p>A carefully developed Australian Production Fund is our best means of safeguarding Australian stories, for audiences of all ages.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/139674/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amanda D. Lotz receives funding from funding from the Australian Research Council Discovery programme (DP190100978).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Potter has previously received funding from the ARC.</span></em></p>Australian drama, documentary and children’s programs deserve better support – removing content quotas may be the way forward.Amanda Lotz, Professor of Media Studies, Queensland University of TechnologyAnna Potter, Associate Professor and Deputy Head of School (Research) School of Creative Industries, University of the Sunshine CoastLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1365452020-04-22T03:06:01Z2020-04-22T03:06:01ZCoronavirus TV ‘support’ package leaves screen writers and directors even less certain than before<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329622/original/file-20200422-82650-145umks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=21%2C15%2C1750%2C968&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Worst Year of My Life, Again!</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3444278/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3">IMDB</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Federal Communications Minister Paul Fletcher <a href="https://www.paulfletcher.com.au/media-releases/media-relase-immediate-covid-19-relief-for-australian-media-as-harmonisation-reform">announced</a> three measures last week to help commercial TV broadcasters deal with COVID-19 financial stress.</p>
<p>First, the spectrum tax broadcasters pay the government for access to audiences will be waived for 12 months.</p>
<p>Second, the government has released an <a href="https://www.communications.gov.au/have-your-say/supporting-australian-stories-our-screens-options-paper">options paper</a> on how to make Australian storytelling on our screens fair across new and old platforms. </p>
<p>But it’s the third measure that is a shock: for the rest of 2020, all quotas requiring commercial TV networks to make Australian drama, documentary and children’s television have been shelved. Fletcher said networks can’t create the content because COVID-19 constraints have stalled most production.</p>
<p>But arts, screen directing and screenwriting bodies disagree. They say the quota pause across two financial years will cost jobs. And they’re worried this measure signals how the government will act on regulation options in the paper released at the same time.</p>
<h2>4 ways forward</h2>
<p>The paper from <a href="https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/">Screen Australia</a> and the <a href="https://www.acma.gov.au/">Australian Communications and Media Authority</a> (ACMA) explores two issues: firstly, how to promote Australian drama, documentary and children’s television across all home screen platforms; secondly, how to level the regulatory playing field across those platforms.</p>
<p>Commercial TV broadcasters have had to meet a 55% Australian content quota for decades – including sub-quotas of drama, documentary and children’s programs. Meanwhile, the global streaming services Australian audiences are flooding to, such as Netflix and Stan, do not have to meet any quotas. Nor do other digital platforms in Australia.</p>
<p>The Screen Australia/ACMA paper presents four possible ways forward:</p>
<ol>
<li>keep the status quo: leave commercial networks as the only platform bound to content quotas </li>
<li>minimal change: ask streaming services to invest voluntarily in Australian content and revise what commercial networks have to produce (maybe axing children’s TV quotas)</li>
<li>establish a “platform-neutral” system to compel and encourage Australian content-making across all of commercial television, digital platforms and global streaming services </li>
<li>deregulation: no one – including commercial networks – would have to meet any content quota requirements. </li>
</ol>
<p>There is still time for industry bodies to respond to these choices. But option 3, cross-platform incentives and Australian content rules for all, would appeal most to the arts sector. It is the only option of the four which genuinely promotes Australian storytelling on our screens and the jobs that go with it.</p>
<p>Streaming services such as Netflix and Stan will hate that proposition. They and other digital platforms will resist having to follow content rules.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329617/original/file-20200422-82654-1oidt2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329617/original/file-20200422-82654-1oidt2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329617/original/file-20200422-82654-1oidt2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329617/original/file-20200422-82654-1oidt2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329617/original/file-20200422-82654-1oidt2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329617/original/file-20200422-82654-1oidt2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329617/original/file-20200422-82654-1oidt2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329617/original/file-20200422-82654-1oidt2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Would hit kids’ show Bluey have been made without content quotas?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABC</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Levelling the field or throwing away the rules?</h2>
<p>Commercial networks have long sought a level playing field – and the platform-neutral option offers that. But what they really want is the freedom the other platforms have now: to make and deliver whatever content they think audiences will watch. That’s option 4: total deregulation and all content obligations removed.</p>
<p>Deregulation would hurt Australian creative production jobs. A <a href="https://www.pwc.com.au/industry/entertainment-and-media-trends-analysis/outlook.html">PricewaterhouseCoopers</a> (PwC) study quoted in the Screen Australia/ACMA paper predicts that if quotas were dropped from commercial television, children’s TV production there would end, drama production would fall 90% and documentary making would halve.</p>
<p>Enter the government’s <a href="https://www.communications.gov.au/what-we-do/television/relief-australian-media-during-covid-19">Relief for Australian media during COVID-19</a>: commercial networks still have to broadcast 55% Australia content in 2020. But they don’t have to make drama, documentary or children’s content as part of that quota.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.awg.com.au/">The Australian Writers Guild (AWG)</a> – representing drama and documentary screen writers – has slammed the quotas pause. They say the government has abandoned creative workers to help a handful of media companies. They’re worried this trial deregulation will change the production landscape forever. And they <a href="https://awg.com.au/posts/awg-on-quotas-svods-and-the-arts-crisis">accuse networks</a> of using COVID-19 as “the excuse they need in their quest to end the quota system once and for all”. </p>
<p>The Directors Guild, Screen Producers Australia and the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance are also <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-18/coronavirus-australian-screen-industry-film-tv-jobkeeper/12146608">anxious about screen jobs</a> – and where the federal government will go on the quotas issue. </p>
<p>That’s understandable. </p>
<p>We’ve just seen the government dismiss Australian content quotas as “red tape”. We can only guess where its sympathy for corona-stressed TV networks will take us next.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/136545/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kay Nankervis was an associate member of the Australian Writets Guild in 2019.
She has received arts funding from several sources under a regional umbrella program “Local stages”.
In particular BMEC-Local Stages funding supported a production in 2011 of her play The Sand Dwellers: tripartite joint funding from Australia Council, Bathurst Regional Council and Arts NSW now CreateNSW</span></em></p>The federal government’s decision to water down commercial TV networks’s content quotas until the end of the year is another body-blow to the arts.Kay Nankervis, Lecturer in Theatre, Media and Creative Practice., Charles Sturt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1327582020-03-05T03:35:41Z2020-03-05T03:35:41ZSave our screens: 3 things government must do now to keep Australian content alive<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318766/original/file-20200305-127868-1pbny80.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C13%2C1241%2C1047&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BOTlhYjJiOWQtYWYyNS00YzcyLTkzYjMtMjFlM2I0MTkwNDAzXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjYxMTE1ODE@._V1_SX1777_CR0,0,1777,999_AL_.jpg">The InBESTigators/IMDB</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Last week, free-to-air broadcaster Seven, embracing the spirit of a petulant teen, stomped its foot and <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/seven-halts-children-s-production-in-australian-content-quota-protest-20200225-p5445r.html">announced</a> it would no longer follow the rules regarding its Australian children’s content obligations. Nine has suggested it will soon follow suit. With the Australian government poised to release a local content policy options paper any day now, Seven’s belligerence looks like a preemptive strike. </p>
<p>Commercial broadcasters have claimed the sky is falling for years. Since the late 2000s, their audiences and advertising revenues have fragmented across new television platforms. Broadcasters claim requirements to air local content and children’s programming exacerbate their struggle. </p>
<p>Seven – and its broadcast rivals Nine and Ten – claim they are operating on a far from level playing field. And indeed the competitive landscape has changed. The networks point at Netflix, the US-based streaming service that Australians have embraced. Neither Netflix, Disney+, nor Australian provider Stan face any local content obligations. But streaming services use a different technology and are not protected from new market entrants the way broadcasters are. They also don’t compete for advertiser spending. In reality, the issues facing commercial networks aren’t likely to be relieved by adjustments to local and children’s quotas. </p>
<p>The emerging crisis – which may include the fire sale of a broadcast channel – results from repeated inaction by government to develop 21st century policy frameworks. Here are three ways we can encourage local production and break the policy inertia: </p>
<h2>1. Think beyond quotas</h2>
<p>Seven, Nine and Ten have been subject to <a href="https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/fact-finders/television/industry-trends/content-regulation">minimum local content rules</a>, including for children’s programs, since the 1960s. These have been a condition of receiving a broadcast license. The networks have lobbied determinedly against Australian quotas virtually since their introduction. </p>
<p>Quotas are not the only longstanding challenge. Australian broadcasters have been on notice for at least 15 years that digital distribution would disrupt the sector. But the challenges facing the networks, and Australian screen production more broadly, have been compounded by sustained regulatory inertia. </p>
<p>Multiple recent <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Environment_and_Communications/AustralianContent">inquiries</a> have yielded precisely zero action. The current situation cannot be solved with band-aid solutions. Delaying further risks doing more damage, particularly to the Australian screen production sector, which depends on local quotas to initiate production for programs in demand in international markets. </p>
<p>Hours-based quotas – the primary policy mechanism for broadcasters – are meaningless in the 21st century, where streaming services have libraries, not schedules. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318764/original/file-20200304-127951-1gxf57w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318764/original/file-20200304-127951-1gxf57w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318764/original/file-20200304-127951-1gxf57w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318764/original/file-20200304-127951-1gxf57w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318764/original/file-20200304-127951-1gxf57w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318764/original/file-20200304-127951-1gxf57w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318764/original/file-20200304-127951-1gxf57w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318764/original/file-20200304-127951-1gxf57w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hours-based local content quotas are meaningless when streaming services have libraries not schedules.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://image.shutterstock.com/image-photo/movie-time-little-girl-watching-600w-1648623052.jpg">Mladen Zivkovic/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We live in a world that wasn’t even fully imagined when local content policies were put in place. Today’s television ecosystem is far more complicated. It includes those governed by the logics of public service (in the case of the public broadcaster ABC and SBS) and commercial aims, by linear and on-demand availability, and by government, advertiser, and subscriber-supported services. It has become an ecosystem of <a href="https://theconversation.com/apple-disney-and-netflixs-streaming-battle-isnt-winner-take-all-125360">complementary services</a> rather than direct competitors – and one that needs to be regulated fairly and equitably. But these underlying differences make a “level playing field” an unreasonable goal. Just as we wouldn’t expect common policies to govern plane and train transportation – policies are needed that acknowledge the differences among 21st century video services. </p>
<h2>2. Learn from other countries</h2>
<p>The new ecosystem may warrant new tools and approaches, but it doesn’t justify releasing broadcast license holders from their responsibility to Australians, including children. However, it may be time to create a different mechanism of support. </p>
<p>In the UK, the <a href="https://www.bfi.org.uk/supporting-uk-film/production-development-funding/young-audiences-content-fund">Young Audiences Content Fund</a> was introduced in 2019 with nearly £60 million (A$116.5 million) in public funding. The fund provides 50% of the costs of programs made specifically for children and young people, with the rest to be sourced from broadcasters. </p>
<p>Germany <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/netflix-criticizes-european-content-quota-1152970">requires</a> streaming services to contribute 2.5% of their revenue to the country’s subsidy system to support German production. New Zealand’s peak funding body, New Zealand on Air, offered another experiment by launching the free children’s streaming service <a href="https://www.heihei.nz/config/browse/screen/home/">HEIHEI</a> in 2019. HEIHEI provides <a href="https://www.tvnz.co.nz/what-to-watch/news-feed/meet-heihei">locally-produced television to NZ children</a> in a market dominated by US imports. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/crunching-the-numbers-on-streaming-services-local-content-static-growth-but-more-original-productions-125804">Crunching the numbers on streaming services' local content: static growth, but more original productions</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>3. Revise the Incentives</h2>
<p>Those profiting from the Australian market must play a role in solving the current policy challenge. Requiring all commercial television services operating in Australia, including streaming services, to contribute to a fund available to all producers is one equitable way of creating authentically Australian and enriching children’s programs. </p>
<p>Updating state-funded initiatives is also part of a sustainable solution. Australian television producers currently receive only <a href="https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/funding-and-support/producer-offset/guidelines/about-the-producer-offset">half the rate of tax offset</a> support that benefits Australian film producers. Bringing television support in line with film is necessary, but that expanded funding should come with new requirements appropriate for the new ecosystem. </p>
<p>Though the commercial networks decry the burden of local and children’s series, others are rewarded for their ambitious telling of Australian stories in the on-demand age. Last week, Netflix <a href="https://variety.com/2020/tv/festivals/netflix-swoops-global-rights-cate-blanchett-refugee-drama-stateless-1203512731/">acquired global streaming rights</a> to the new ABC drama <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4878488/">Stateless</a>. It also snapped up kids’ shows <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9184592/">The Unlisted</a> and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9332962/">The InBESTigators</a>, suggesting the value of these Australian productions. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318767/original/file-20200305-127904-qq4vv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318767/original/file-20200305-127904-qq4vv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318767/original/file-20200305-127904-qq4vv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318767/original/file-20200305-127904-qq4vv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318767/original/file-20200305-127904-qq4vv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318767/original/file-20200305-127904-qq4vv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318767/original/file-20200305-127904-qq4vv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318767/original/file-20200305-127904-qq4vv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bluey’s international success shows there is huge potential in Australian-produced content.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZjMxYzhiNjMtMzViYS00ODg0LWJjOGQtZGNmMjI4MDBmMzkxXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTE4NTE0NjU@._V1_.jpg">Bluey/IMDB</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Australian children’s shows have a global reputation for excellence, but are also expensive and require local network investment. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7678620/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">Bluey</a>, now up to 200 million views on iView, is streaming all over the world on Disney+. Series produced by <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0793291/?ref_=tt_ov_wr">Jonathan Schiff</a> such as <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0491603/?ref_=nm_flmg_prd_7">H20: Just Add Water</a> and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2548214/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Mako Mermaids</a> have been among government agency Screen Australia’s <a href="https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/sa/screen-news/2018/06-18-international-tv-sales-snapshot-for-2017/part-4-interview-with-jonathan-shiff">most profitable</a> shows.</p>
<p>Although broadcaster threats grab headlines, they won’t help us find a sustainable future for Australian television production. The changes in the competitive landscape offer as much opportunity as challenge, but that opportunity cannot be realised as long as the government relies on 20th century tools.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132758/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Potter has previously received funding from the Australian Research Council through the DECRA Project DE160100313 `International Transformations in Children’s Television 2013-18.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amanda D. Lotz receives funding from funding from the Australian Research Council Discovery programme (DP190100978).</span></em></p>With commercial broadcasters threatening to thumb their noses at local content quotas, it’s time government finds new tools appropriate for the 21st century television environment.Anna Potter, Associate Professor and Deputy Head of School (Research) School of Creative Industries, University of the Sunshine CoastAmanda Lotz, Professor of Media Studies, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/794962017-06-16T05:04:03Z2017-06-16T05:04:03ZWith the rise of subscription and online TV, we need to rethink local content rules<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173972/original/file-20170615-23542-fqy55g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan in The Katering Show (2015), which began as a short form web series.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">idmb</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The newly released Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) report on Film, Television and Digital Games <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/8679.0Main%20Features12015-16?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=8679.0&issue=2015-16&num=&view=">2015-16</a> offers fascinating insights into how our screen media landscape has changed over the past four years.</p>
<p>A key factor has been the <a href="https://theconversation.com/netflix-arrival-will-be-a-tipping-point-for-tv-in-australia-38386">introduction</a> of subscription video-on-demand services in early 2015. Indeed, the report notes that the income of subscription broadcasters and channel providers (A$5.3 billion), such as Netflix, Stan and Foxtel, now exceeds that of commercial free-to-air broadcasters (A$3.9 billion).</p>
<p>So, what does this mean for the Australian screen media landscape?</p>
<p>Set against the <a href="https://theconversation.com/ten-networks-problems-are-history-repeating-79420">Ten Network’s woes</a> and media reforms being <a href="https://mumbrella.com.au/fifield-tens-voluntary-administration-wake-call-opponents-proposed-media-reforms-451413">debated</a> by the federal government, the ascendancy of subscription broadcasting adds to the worries of free-to-air broadcasters. </p>
<p>The number of commercial free-to-air broadcast businesses dropped over the four-year period measured by the ABS report from 24 to 14. Income declined from $4.6 billion in 2011-12 (the time of the last report) to $3.9 billion (2015-16) and operating profit before tax from $996 million to $420 million.</p>
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<p>Subscription broadcasters and channel providers saw a huge increase in income - from $4.6 billion to $5.3 billion - although their total expenses also increased. (The total number of businesses in the area declined slightly from 36 to 32 in this period).</p>
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<p>A recent Roy Morgan report found that more than one in three Australians now have <a href="https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/7242-netflix-subscriptions-march-2017-201706080957">Netflix</a>, an increase of 20% in the first quarter for 2017. <a href="http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/7118-netflix-subscribers-and-commercial-television-december-2016-201701310906">According</a> to Roy Morgan, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Netflix subscribers watch less commercial TV than others. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>And Foxtel last week announced a revision of its streaming and on-demand service, Foxtel Play - now called Foxtel Now - after buying out its joint venture partner in Presto, the Seven Network, and shutting Presto down. Meanwhile, we are still yet to see the full impact of Amazon Prime in Australia, which arrived here late last year.</p>
<h2>Other threats to free to air</h2>
<p>But free-to-air TV faces other threats. This report shows there has also been an enormous increase in non-TV production for online distribution. The makers of these shows use platforms like YouTube to gain access to a global audience, far greater than that available through traditional TV broadcast. </p>
<p>Many <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-battle-for-audiences-as-free-tv-viewing-continues-its-decline-58051">Australian YouTubers with large followings</a> and subscribers have a greater audience than some TV programs. For instance, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/Reslim">Jamie and Nikki</a>, a Melbourne-based couple, have more than a million subscribers and receive hundreds of thousands of views within days of uploading new videos, without any association to traditional TV networks.</p>
<p>There are also examples of shows such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/LeadBalloonTV">The Katering Show</a>, which have <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/the-katering-shows-kates-to-tackle-breakfast-tv-in-new-abc-series-get-krackn-20170215-gue17a.html">moved</a> from a short format web-series to a long format TV series. The Katering Show’s makers have created a new full-length series for the ABC titled Get Krack!n, which is co-funded by Film Victoria and NBC Universal’s US comedy streaming channel Seeso.</p>
<p>Screen Australia CEO Graeme Mason <a href="https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/sa/media-centre/news/2017/06-15-abs-survey-results?utm_source=email&utm_medium=media-release&utm_campaign=abs-survey-results">pointed out yesterday</a> that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>online content creators… have delivered exponential production growth, now representing $93.6m of non-TV production costs compared to just $5.5m in the 2011/12 survey.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The number of webisodes increased from 107 (2011-12) to 3248 (2015-16). As Screen Australia <a href="https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/sa/media-centre/news/2017/06-15-abs-survey-results?utm_source=email&utm_medium=media-release&utm_campaign=abs-survey-results">noted</a>, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Since 2012, Screen Australia has funded 107 online projects including Soul Mates, The Katering Show and Starting from Now.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qzbOBzQpUX4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The first episode of Starting From Now, which began as a web series and was later picked up by SBS 2.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The digital game developers’ sector has also seen an <a href="https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/sa/media-centre/news/2017/06-15-abs-survey-results?utm_source=email&utm_medium=media-release&utm_campaign=abs-survey-results">increase</a> in employment - up 26% since the 2011/12 survey. Income in the sector rose from $89 million to $111 million. </p>
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<p>Then there is the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-rise-of-the-pro-player-as-australia-hosts-its-richest-computer-gaming-event-76865?sa=google&sq=esports&sr=5">increased</a> interest in eSports. Sydney <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-rise-of-the-pro-player-as-australia-hosts-its-richest-computer-gaming-event-76865?sa=google&sq=esports&sr=5">recently</a> hosted a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event with a record $260,000 in prize money. The AFL is interested in this area, with the Adelaide Crows <a href="http://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/adelaide-crows-buys-professional-gaming-team-legacy-esports-best-known-for-their-league-of-legends-team/news-story/ad0a43e10f1d5a90f7fb2bc6412c5138">recently</a> acquiring its own eSports team.
There is also <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-rise-of-the-pro-player-as-australia-hosts-its-richest-computer-gaming-event-76865?sa=google&sq=esports&sr=5">The eSports Network</a>, a newly formed media company that plans to bring eSports to Australian screens in the near future. </p>
<p>Other key findings of the ABS report include a slight rise in the income of film and video production businesses and digital game developers. This is despite a fall in the overall number of game productions from 245 in 2011-12 to just 178.</p>
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<p>Based on Ten’s recent announcement and the continued discussion around the revenue decline in television, Australia’s television networks need to rethink what a network is in this ever-changing media landscape. </p>
<p>Seven has made the first move here, particularly in relation to its recent re-negotiations with Yahoo. Opting to keep both its <a href="https://7live.com.au">seven.com.au</a> website and <a href="https://au.yahoo.com">Yahoo7</a> separate, Clive Dickens, Seven’s chief digital officer, <a href="https://mumbrella.com.au/critically-important-seven-no-longer-seen-broadcaster-clive-dickens-following-amended-yahoo7-deal-451612">observed that</a>, “Seven is no longer purely a broadcaster, it is a total video company”. </p>
<h2>What about local content?</h2>
<p>These trends raise questions about how to provide adequate local content. Should <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-a-quota-the-key-to-getting-netflix-and-co-to-spend-more-on-australian-content-60308">Netflix and co</a> be subject to a local content quota in the same way that the free-to-air broadcasters are?</p>
<p>But this discussion needs to broaden beyond subscription TV providers: it must be consider all platforms and screens. According to the recent <a href="http://www.oztam.com.au/documents/Other/Australian%20Multi%20Screen%20Report%20Q1%202016%20FINAL.pdf">Australian Multiscreen Reports</a>, Australians now spend an average eight hours and 33 minutes per month watching online video via a PC or Laptop, up from six hours and 57 minutes just a year ago. </p>
<p>Australians’ viewing habits are continuing to change. We must rethink the local content quotas in light of this and the new media landscape. A quota on specific platforms will no longer be sufficient as the screen media industry evolves.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79496/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marc C-Scott is a board member of C31 Melbourne (Community Television Station).</span></em></p>New ABS figures on film, TV and digital gaming show that subscription broadcasters and online content creators are booming. Yet local content quotas only apply to free-to-air broadcasters.Marc C-Scott, Lecturer in Screen Media, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/619182016-07-18T19:53:52Z2016-07-18T19:53:52ZHow revenues from oil and gas in Africa can be made to work for ordinary people<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130881/original/image-20160718-2153-g3x8py.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Barrels in Nigeria used for transporting oil to communities.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/127688197@N07/15467016505/in/photolist-pyLv9n-phguhw-pyLtTg-phgyYW-pyujpz-pyuo1x-pyLpk8-pyujUn-phgsMY-pyLoYB-phgxiS-7WXdw8-phgWp9-pyJD5o-phfxWg-7X1c2U-pyLsS8-phgvVG-fmChWf-phgyCq-pyugnT-74eWMf-pyunAV-cwvvhm-phhhHp-gUB68D-pyLrJX-cwvzUU-5jQVjm-7WxtGc-89Dfvh-51ywWG-gUB8Um-6fwZfS-hjcd3z-4REjh8-d5puwq-pyugpg-rmjnhD-7fGRV-kJbkaT-4REoLF-74j238-cwvsmY-4LgBCr-kJd1aL-7fGtG-fmo8yD-7WXcZM-4REpnv">Stakeholder Democracy/Flickr</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Critics point out that ordinary people have not benefited from oil and gas exploitation in many African states. Billions of dollars in revenue have had little positive impact on the lives of most people in countries like <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-luandas-residents-are-asking-where-did-all-the-oil-riches-go-49772">Angola</a> and Nigeria. Local content policies have been <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301420716300502">expanding</a> across Africa and are currently being drafted in Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya and Mozambique. In a new book, <a href="http://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/petro-developmental-state-africa/">The Petro-Developmental State in Africa</a>, Jesse Salah Ovadia argues that this needn’t be the case and that a different approach focused on local content is possible. This involves regulations that encourage employment and nurture local companies to increase domestic participation in the industry. I asked him whether his proposed approach could be a game changer for economic development in Africa’s oil producing states.</em></p>
<p><strong>What is the petro-developmental state and why does it matter now?</strong></p>
<p>The petro-developmental state is a vision of what sub-Saharan countries can achieve through their oil and gas resources. It is tapping non-renewable resources for <a href="http://www.africaneconomicoutlook.org/en/theme/structural-transformation-and-natural-resources">structural transformation</a> and improving people’s lives in the long term for an eventual transition to post-carbon economies.</p>
<p>In a petro-developmental state, local content policies support infant industries. The approach is anchored in oil and gas due to the state’s leverage with this commodity to regulate local participation. These industries can grow and develop comparative advantage over time in areas of economic activity that have non-oil applications and eventually employ large numbers of people and contribute to building a more robust economy.</p>
<p>In fact, it’s a vision of state-led industrialisation and job creation anchored in oil that actually diversifies economies away from oil. The value of local content is <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214790X14000604">just as great as the revenues from oil</a>, while the benefits are much more <a href="http://www.e-ir.info/2016/02/10/is-natural-resource-based-development-still-realistic-for-africa/">important for long-term development</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Is local content the way forward following the oil price shock?</strong></p>
<p>The oil price shock has actually deepened my belief that local content is the key to how petroleum resources can be developmental. Oil prices will always be volatile and have provoked economic crises in Angola and Nigeria. That’s one of many reasons a development strategy cannot be based on use of petroleum revenues alone. </p>
<p>Even when prices drop, oil production continues. So the opportunities for development through local content remain because the companies producing the oil still require all of the same goods and services from local suppliers. The benefits are much more consistent and they also reduce the reliance on oil over the long term as local companies expand and diversify from the oil sector into the non-oil economy.</p>
<p><strong>What are the possible benefits of local content for communities in areas of oil and gas production?</strong></p>
<p>There are a number of different things meant when people talk about local content. In Ghana, Kenya and other new oil states in Africa, local content is often understood to direct benefits to communities. I don’t really see it that way, for me it’s about national development through expanded manufacturing and services sectors.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130864/original/image-20160718-2150-1ng07l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130864/original/image-20160718-2150-1ng07l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130864/original/image-20160718-2150-1ng07l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130864/original/image-20160718-2150-1ng07l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130864/original/image-20160718-2150-1ng07l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130864/original/image-20160718-2150-1ng07l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130864/original/image-20160718-2150-1ng07l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130864/original/image-20160718-2150-1ng07l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A focus on local content, in countries like Angola, can see communities benefit.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>There may be some ways communities can participate in the industry in lower-skilled jobs and supplying basic services and this should be encouraged. But other policies are needed by governments to redistribute the revenues and benefits from petroleum and for companies to obtain their social licence to operate by giving back to the communities they work in.</p>
<p><strong>How might Africa’s new oil producers approach local content?</strong></p>
<p>There are a variety of factors to consider as Africa’s new oil producers <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301420716300502">set up their approaches</a> to local content. The days of high oil prices are gone and we have to remember that local content involves a cost to both government and the private sector. </p>
<p>Governments should start by evaluating the existing levels of education and skills as well as industrial development. These factors, combined with the amount of oil the country has, how hard it is to extract and how long it will last, are important to consider when determining how to promote local content.</p>
<p>Setting unrealistic targets for local content will reduce the benefit. Rather than creating hard targets across all oil service activities, it would be better to try to build comparative advantage in selected areas. It is worth sacrificing some oil revenues in order to maximise local content if additional regulation would increase in-country value creation. </p>
<p>I worry though that over time as new producers develop their local content policies, they are bowing to pressure to take a less regulatory and more voluntary approach – something I call “soft local content policies”. This doesn’t work because local content is about national development, not creating shared value or win-win outcomes.</p>
<p><strong>What is meant by the dual nature of local content? How can it be reconciled with development objectives?</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02589001.2012.701846">Dual nature</a> is the idea that local content can both benefit local elites and have positive developmental effects. But I think it will be a struggle in Angola and Nigeria as well as newer oil producing countries like Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya and Mozambique to have the positive effects outweigh the negative ones.</p>
<p>Angola’s <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-02/angola-president-appoints-daughter-as-head-of-state-run-oil-firm">recent appointment of Isabel dos Santos</a>, the president’s daughter, as the head of the state’s oil company has a dual nature. Clearly she’s there to ensure her father’s continued access to a key source of rent and patronage. But paradoxically she’s also there to reform and professionalise the company as it struggles to deal with the low oil price environment. I think she was put there for both of these reasons. This demonstrates the dual nature of Angola’s attempt to build a developmental state.</p>
<p>Angola’s top-down approach requires significant political reform to be successful because the balance between elite benefit and national development is so one-sided. The lesson for the citizens of Africa’s new oil states is to pay attention, engage on the issues and make their voices heard on questions of petroleum management and oil-backed development.</p>
<p><strong>How much of a game changer could local content be for the emergence of a petro-developmental state?</strong></p>
<p>I’m often accused of being overly optimistic on this matter, as there is a lack of evidence about the impact of various local content policies. But I believe I’m making a more nuanced argument about a shift in the limits of the possible and a new opportunity for petro-development. Obviously an actually-existing petro-developmental state would be game changing.</p>
<p>It’s a vision though that I theorise alongside a less optimistic vision of new forms of elite accumulation and rent-seeking. There is an open question about how successful old and new African oil producers will be in using local content to bring about developmental outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/61918/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeremy Lind receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). </span></em></p>It is important to nurture local companies and increase domestic participation in Africa’s emerging oil economies.Jeremy Lind, Research Fellow, Institute of Development Studies, University of SussexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/606562016-06-09T13:15:40Z2016-06-09T13:15:40ZLocal content quotas on TV are global – they just don’t work everywhere<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125712/original/image-20160608-3513-xxckpx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Strict security at the South African Broadcasting Corporation before the country's 2004 national elections.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Jon Hrusa</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The Chief Operating Officer of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), Hlaudi Motsoeneng, announced early in May 2016 that 80% of all films broadcast on one of the public broadcaster’s channels, SABC 3, will from July be locally made. It was welcomed by producers in the television industry, but cautiously so. The Conversation Africa’s arts & culture editor, Charles Leonard, asked Jared Borkum, who teaches film and television at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, how practical Motsoeneng’s edict is.</em></p>
<p><strong>In what shape is the South African film and television industry?</strong></p>
<p>As an industry serving overseas productions that are shooting in South Africa, the country’s <a href="http://nfvf.co.za/home/index.php?ipkContentID=236">film industry</a> is growing rapidly and has experienced one of its <a href="http://www.mediaclubsouthafrica.com/themedia/3819-government-incentives-grow-south-african-film-industry">busiest seasons</a> yet. Furthermore, local film production, especially in the <a href="http://news.nwu.ac.za/south-african-film-industry-why-not-more-ballades">Afrikaans language market</a>, has seen the production of some of the biggest grossing films in South African film history.</p>
<p>But besides the Afrikaans films, the industry is not growing as rapidly as one would hope. The filmmakers and talent are there, but the funding is not. In general South African movies – other than some Afrikaans ones – do not make money at the box office. This leads to fewer executive producers wanting to fund new ventures. The government also does not provide enough money to help in the production of new films.</p>
<p>As far as the television industry goes – it is growing too, but not at a pace to supply <a href="http://www.channel24.co.za/TV/News/sabc-set-to-bulldoze-sabc3-schedule-20160601">80% local content</a> on TV.</p>
<p><strong>Are there other places in the world where local content quotas are in place?</strong></p>
<p>Many countries in the world have local content quotas, as the authoritative <a href="http://musicinaustralia.org.au/index.php?title=Broadcasting_Content_Quotas_%E2%80%94_An_International_Overview">Music in Australia</a> site writes:</p>
<p>• Australia: An overall local transmission quota of 55% for commercial free-to-air broadcasting, with sub-quotas for adult drama, children’s programmes and documentaries. A 10% expenditure requirement for predominantly drama subscription television channels. A music quota graduated according to genre of up to 25% for commercial free-to-air radio.</p>
<p>• Brazil: Taxes foreign film and television programmes. For “open” (free-to-air) television broadcasters, 80% of programmes must be local.</p>
<p>• Canada: Local content quotas for television and radio. Up to 35% for music on radio.</p>
<p>• Europe: Television without Borders Directive – 50% quota for European programming. The European Union Directive on Audiovisual Media Services was implemented in 2009.</p>
<p>• France: Bound by the European Union Directives but goes further, with a quota of 60% for European programming and 40% for French programming. At least 40% of songs broadcast on private and public broadcasters must be in French. Cinemas must reserve five weeks per quarter for French films.</p>
<p>• Indonesia: In 2009 this country declared that no more than 60% of films screened could be foreign.</p>
<p>• Korea: Until 2006, it enforced a screen quota requiring cinemas to reserve 146 days per year for Korean films. It was cut to 73 days per year in response to pressure from the US during protracted free-trade negotiations. Foreign popular music capped at 40% of all music broadcast.</p>
<p>• Malaysia: 80% of television programmes must be produced by local companies owned by ethnic Malays. At least 60% of radio programming must be local.</p>
<p>• Ukraine: Local content quotas for radio and television, but not enforced.</p>
<p>• Venezuela: Local content quota of at least 50% on television. Half of radio programming must be local. In the case of music, 50% of the Venezuelan-produced material must be traditional Venezuelan songs. Annual distribution and exhibition quota for Venezuelan films.</p>
<p>• Namibia: It said last year that all broadcasting networks in the country are to produce at least <a href="http://www.observer.com.na/entertainment/5644-nbc-struggles-to-meet-local-content-quota">20% local content</a>. But they have been unable to achieve this.</p>
<p>A number of countries in <a href="https://www.article19.org/data/files/pdfs/publications/local-content-rules.pdf">Africa</a> have local content quotas, but this differs in degree of percentage.</p>
<p><strong>What are the pros for local content quotas here in South Africa?</strong></p>
<p>The pros will be more work for locals in all aspects of production, from producers, to actors, to all crew, to non-film staff too, for example caterers. It will be a real boon for the industry as it will provide a lot of jobs. Moreover, new stories will emerge, new South African genres will emerge with new stories and, most importantly, new voices will be heard.</p>
<p><strong>What are the cons?</strong></p>
<p>I just don’t think it is feasible. It is cheaper to buy American content than to produce locally. This has been the case since TV started in South Africa in 1976. The SABC spends less buying a 12-part series from the US than putting up the money to make a good 12-part series in South Africa.</p>
<p>It costs a lot of money to make a good series in South Africa. Where is this money coming from? The SABC has been in financial difficulty for years – where is it now going to get all this funding from?</p>
<p>The SABC generates its money from TV licences (which fewer and fewer people are paying) and government funding, but mostly from advertising revenue. Advertisers pay a lot of money to have their adverts placed around the top shows that have a lot of viewership.</p>
<p>If locally produced content is not as good as the imported content, then the SABC might lose viewers. If is loses viewers, it loses advertising revenue. Less advertising revenue will place the SABC into further financial difficulty.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60656/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jared Borkum does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many broadcasters around the world enforce local content quotas to ensure their television industries’ survival. But the success of these measures varies widely.Jared Borkum, Lecturer in Directing, Producing, Entrepreneurship, Cape Peninsula University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.