Australia has approved new legislation forcing major streaming platforms to invest a minimum share of their Australian takings into local programming, in a move widely seen as one of the toughest SVOD regimes yet.
Under the Communications Legislation Amendment (Australian Content Requirement for Subscription Video On Demand (Streaming) Services) Bill 2025, global streamers with at least 1 million Australian subscribers must spend at least 10% of their total Australian programme expenditure – or alternatively 7.5% of their Australian revenue – on “new eligible Australian programmes”. Eligible genres are limited to drama, children’s, documentary, arts and educational content, with reality shows excluded.
The government expects the rules to apply to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Stan, Apple TV+, Disney+, Paramount+ and Binge, with HBO Max likely to be captured once it reaches sufficient scale in the market. Unlike traditional broadcast quotas, the scheme is an expenditure obligation rather than a requirement to carry a fixed volume of Australian hours. Commercial free-to-air broadcasters are already required to show at least 55% Australian content on their primary channels in key dayparts.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) will administer the regime, with major SVOD services required to file annual reports on spend and allowed a three-year carry-over period to balance out investment. Services with more than 250,000 but fewer than 1 million paying subscribers must notify ACMA and provide data, but will not face an expenditure target. Non-compliance can attract substantial civil penalties, with local analysis suggesting fines of up to 10 times a service’s Australian revenue in extreme cases – equating to as much as A$975 million for Netflix.
Screen producers’ bodies and documentary groups have welcomed the law as a long-awaited guarantee of investment in Australian stories as viewing shifts from broadcast to streaming. Streamers, however, have warned that strict genre definitions and high penalty ceilings could constrain flexibility, potentially affecting licensing of existing Australian shows or feeding through into higher subscription prices.
