Australian content requirement for subscription video on demand services: expenditure

There are 2 types of expenditure under Part 8C of the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA):

• total program expenditure
• qualifying expenditure.

Both types of expenditure need to be reported to us in annual compliance reports. These must be sent by major subscription video on demand services (SVODs) in February each year.

For each SVOD reporting year, major SVODs will need to provide information about their total program expenditure. This figure is used to work out the 10% Australian content expenditure requirement on SVODs. 

Total program expenditure for the SVOD reporting year is the SVOD’s combined spending on:

• Programs commissioned or acquired for the Australian market. These must be eligible Australian programs made or commissioned by the SVOD, or acquired  from a broadcaster or production supplier. Examples include Netflix’s Heartbreak High and Boy Swallows Universe, and Amazon Prime Video’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North.
• Programs licensed by an SVOD for its Australian service. Examples include the US series Yellowstone licensed by Stan for its Australian service from Paramount+.
• Programs available on an SVOD operating in Australia that are:
  • globally commissioned or licensed
  • not subject to a licensing payment for the Australian market. Examples include The Mandalorian on Disney+ and The Crown on Netflix. These programs are known as ‘global content’.

SVODs must count expenditure in the categories above on eligible programs (drama, children’s, documentary, arts and education) that are provided, or intended to be provided, on the service in Australia in the relevant year.

Ineligible programs are not required to be included when an SVOD is calculating total program expenditure. This includes spending on programs like:

• sports
• news
• reality shows
• magazine and variety shows
• infotainment
• light entertainment.

SVODs should be ready to explain how they calculated their total program expenditure.

SVODs will need to apportion a value for global content on their Australian service. It must be comparable to the value if they licensed it from a third party as part of an ‘arm’s length’ transaction. 

SVODs may choose the method they use to make the calculations. It must be robust and clearly explained. SVODs can demonstrate the methodology they use is robust by using one set out in the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. These methodologies are often used by multinational enterprises when they report to the Australian Taxation Office.

SVODs should contact us as early as possible to discuss their methodology. This is important when using a different method to those outlined in the OECD guidelines.

SVODs must calculate and report on qualifying expenditure using cash-based accounting. This encourages timely payment from commissioning SVODs to Australian production companies to help manage the cost of productions. 

We anticipate SVODs will not necessarily use cash-based accounting to report on total program expenditure. Like most businesses operating in Australia, SVODs are likely to use accrual accounting. This will appropriately capture the types of expenditure that must be reported to us.

This is the amount that an SVOD can use to reduce its Australian content expenditure requirement (10% of total program expenditure or 7.5% of their Australian revenue if nominated within the required timeframe).

SVODs can acquit their expenditure requirement using expenditure incurred:

• Acquiring an eligible Australian program.
• Producing or commissioning a program.
  • When a program is commissioned, an SVOD must make a material financial contribution to the to the production of the program before it is completed. This would not include minor (or token) payments or non-financial contributions to a program’s development.
• During pre-production of a program – including expenditure incurred on script development, location scouting and set design.
• Investing in the program.
• Budget spent on license fees paid before a program is made available on the SVOD.
• Some post-production expenditure related to making the production to the point where it could reasonably be regarded as being ready to be distributed.
  • Spending on editing – like image post-production, sound post-production (including music, VFX and sound editing) and visual effects.
  • The development of trailer materials.

The qualifying expenditure that SVODs report on must be incurred before the program is made available to the public in Australia. This applies to any service or location, other than a cinema.

When a program is commissioned, SVODs are not prevented from showing that program on any platform after the expenditure is incurred. When the program is a first-release acquisition, the program cannot be shown anywhere other than a cinema before expenditure is incurred by the SVOD. 

Once a program has been shown anywhere other than a cinema, it can no longer have qualifying expenditure claimed against it.

Commercial television broadcasting licensees (CTV licensees) also have Australian content obligations. While SVODs have an expenditure obligation, CTV licensees have a broadcast obligation. Each year, they must broadcast Australian programs:

• 55% of the time between 6 am and midnight on their primary channel and 1,460 hours across non-primary channels, known as the transmission quota, and set out in the BSA
• 250 points worth of first-release Australian programs, known as the points quota, and set out in the Broadcasting Services (Australian Content and Children’s Television) Standards 2020, or ACCTS.

The scenarios below assume program elements meet the requirements of the SVOD and CTV rules, unless stated otherwise. That is: 

• the program is an eligible type
• is an Australian program
• has been commissioned as defined under the rules
• the SVOD counts and claims qualifying expenditure in the year it’s incurred
• that the CTV licensee broadcasts the programs between 6 am and midnight.

Scenario 1: SVOD A and CTV licensee B co-commission an eligible Australian program; a drama. It’s first made available to the public in Australia when CTV licensee B broadcasts it. 

✅ CTV licensee B can claim the program to its transmission and points quotas.

✅ SVOD A can claim eligible expenditure on the program up until it’s broadcast by CTV licensee B.

Scenario 2: SVOD A commissions an eligible Australian program; a drama film. It is shown in a cinema as part of a film festival in January, and the SVOD makes it available on its service later that year in July. CTV licensee B then acquires the film and broadcasts it in March the following year, and no other CTV licensee has broadcast it.

✅ SVOD A can claim eligible expenditure on the program until the SVOD makes it available in July (noting that the cinema release is an exception to the rule that spend must occur before the program is made available to the public in Australia). 

✅ CTV licensee B can claim the program to its transmission quota, and also to its points quota, noting acquired Australian films are eligible.

Scenario 3: CTV licensee B commissions an Australian program – a documentary – and broadcasts it in March. SVOD A acquires it in June of the same year, and shows it on its service in August.

✅ CTV licensee B can claim the program to its transmission and points quotas.

❌ SVOD A cannot claim the expenditure, as the program had been made available to the public in Australia before SVOD A spent money acquiring it.

Scenario 4: SVOD A and CTV licensee B co-commission an eligible Australian program; an educational program. It is made available to the public for the first time when CTV licensee B broadcasts it in June. SVOD A makes it available on its service in December of the same year.

✅ SVOD A can claim eligible expenditure on the program until it is broadcast by CTV licensee B in June. 

✅ CTV licensee B can claim the program to its transmission quota. 

❌ CTV licensee B cannot claim the program to its points quota, noting it’s not an eligible program type (documentary, drama or children’s non-drama). 

Scenario 5: SVOD A and CTV licensee B co-commission an eligible Australian program; a drama. SVOD A contributes 95% of the budget and CTV licensee B contributes 5%. It’s first made available to the public in Australia when SVOD A shows in it April, and CTV licensee B broadcasts it in November of the same year. 

✅ SVOD A can claim eligible expenditure on the program up until it’s made available in April. 

✅ CTV licensee B can claim the program to its transmission quota.

❌ CTV licensee B cannot claim the program to its points quota, as contributing 5% of the program’s budget program would not be considered a material and meaningful financial contribution, as required by the definition of ‘commissioned’ in the ACCTS.

The following will not be qualifying expenditure amounts. They cannot be used to deduct from the Australian content expenditure requirements for SVODs. 

• Commissions or acquisitions of ineligible programs.
• Purchases or licences of previously released Australian programs.
• Renewals of a licence for the rights to a program that was a first-release acquisition or commission in a previous SVOD reporting year.
• Payments made between provider entities. For example, if SVOD 1 is a joint venture comprising several entities, payments between those multiple entities do not count as qualifying expenditure.
• Payments made between provider entities. For example, if SVOD 1 has multiple registered providers, payments between those providers do not count as qualifying expenditure. This prevents SVODs from claiming qualifying expenditure that is not expenditure on new eligible Australian programs.
  • This example relates to subsection 121FZK(2) of the Broadcasting Services Act. This subsection does not prevent scenarios where a provider of an SVOD has been nominated to collate expenditure figures from different parts of its business (including from overseas) in order to report accurately to the ACMA. 

If you have any questions, please email svodauscontent@acma.gov.au.

• This information is accurate as of May 2026.
• It may be updated as content requirements are implemented.
• This is not legal advice.
• SVODs should seek their own advice about their obligations under the Broadcasting Services Act.
• The term ‘SVOD’ refers to providers of subscription video on demand services.