Australian content requirement for subscription video on demand services: expenditure

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

• 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.

Expenditure on ineligible programs must not be counted towards 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.

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
• during pre-production of the program
• investing in the program
• budget spent on license fees paid before a program is made available on the SVOD
• some post-production expenditure, including editing – like image post-production and sound post-production – and visual effects.

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.

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.

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

• This information is accurate as of February 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.