Cultural policy between television and digital platforms: the case of SVOD regulation in Australia

As subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services enter new markets, they become subject to national laws and regulations. This incorporation into national governance is driven by various priorities that include cultural diversity, censorship, and local protectionism. In this article, we provide a critical analysis of the attempted process of SVOD policy-making in Australia, where the entry of services including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ has prompted much concern about the future of local content production and distribution. Focusing on the years 2017 to 2022, under the former centre-right Liberal/National coalition government, we excavate the origins and outcomes of a protracted ‘harmonisation’ process that ultimately prioritised the interests of national commercial broadcasters. We also show how SVOD production incentives came to be preferenced over catalog quotas as a mechanism for cultural policy. In this way, our analysis explores how one mid-sized, English-speaking nation initially grappled with the challenges inherent in regulating global platforms, amidst a charged public debate about the future of local screen content.