Streaming giants like Netflix, Disney and Amazon would be required to reinvest a quota of their earnings into new Australian-made content under a proposal by leading industry figures.
The Make it Australian campaign, made up of Australian film and television bodies, has called on the federal government to require a quota of 20 per cent of investment in local productions.
While content quotas have been in place for network TV, similar quotas have not been put in place for streaming services.
The campaign has been spearheaded by Australian film and TV figures including actors Bryan Brown, Erik Thomson and Marta Dusseldorp.
Brown said quotas would help to get the balance right when it came to streaming services.
“(There’s) a lot of revenue coming from this country going into the streaming companies … we need some of that dough to be put into Australian productions,” he said.
“That will bring an enormous light for the industry and be able to tell our stories.”
Thomson said quotas for streaming services would allow for more Australian stories to be told.
“Half a dozen years ago, a lot of our free-to-air commercial networks were making all the drama – that’s not happening any more,” he told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.
“It’s a new playing field with streamers and we need to make sure they are required, as the commercial networks were, to have a bit of a quota of Australian content.”
Screen Producers Australia chief executive Matthew Deaner said while the industry had transitioned towards more streaming, regulations had failed to catch up.
“It’s been discussed for 10 years, but we haven’t got any regulatory framework on any of the streaming services in Australia,” he said.
“We think that (streaming services) have got the capacity to spend it, and we know our industry has the capacity to make it.”
Mr Deaner said should such quotas be implemented by the government, it would bring Australian talent who have had to work overseas back into the country for local productions.
“They want to be able to tell authentic Australian stories and with greater resources, we’ll be able to do that in Australia.”
– AAP
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