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Spending by subscription video on demand providers: 2021–22 financial year

Please note: The 2021–22 financial year reporting figures below are for 5 SVOD providers. In previous years, reporting was for 4 SVOD providers only.

Expenditure on Australian programs

Five subscription video on demand (SVOD) providers – Amazon Prime Video, Disney, Netflix, Paramount+ and Stan – spent $335.1 million in the 2021–22 financial year on 718 commissioned, co-commissioned or acquired 'Australian programs'.

'Australian programs' are programs that meet minimum requirements for key creative roles, including producers, directors, writers and cast. SVOD reporting adopts the definitions of Australian program, commissioned, co-commissioned and acquired programs, as well as genre definitions from the Broadcasting Services (Australian Content and Children’s Television) Standards 2020 (ACCTS).

The total expenditure on Australian programs grew by $156.2 million, compared to the 2020–21 financial year ($178.9 million). Driving this increase is a combination of the 5th reporting entity and greater investment in Australian adult dramas, documentaries, sport and light entertainment. 

However, expenditure on Australian children’s drama and non-drama programs has continued to decrease since reporting started in the 2019–20 financial year.

SVOD expenditure supported the production of Australian programs across a range of genres, with all providers contributing to commissioned or acquired Australian drama ($199.9 million) and Australian documentaries ($37.4 million).

Expenditure on commissioned or co-commissioned programs

In the 2021–22 financial year, SVOD providers spent $253.7 million on 55 commissioned or co-commissioned Australian programs.

Commissioned and co-commissioned programs/titles made up about 76% of total expenditure on Australian programs by all SVOD providers. New Australian programs included:

  • Luxe Listings (Amazon Prime Video)
  • Last Days of the Space Age (Disney)
  • Heartbreak High (Netflix)
  • Five Bedrooms (Paramount+)
  • Nitram (Stan).

A list of non-confidential commissioned or co-commissioned Australian programs reported to us for the 2021–22 financial year is below.

Table 1: The 2021–22 financial year titles of commissioned/co-commissioned Australian programs, New Zealand programs, Australian/New Zealand programs or official Australian co-productions for the Australian service during the reporting year

 

SVOD

Genre

Title 

Amazon Prime Video

Documentary

Burning

Drama

Deadloch

Drama

Five Blind Dates

Documentary

Kick Like Tayla

Light Entertainment – other

Luxe Listings: seasons 1–3

Documentary

Making Their Mark

Drama

The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart

Documentary

Warriors on the Field

   

Disney

Documentary

Fearless: The Inside Story of the AFLW

Drama

Last Days of the Space Age

Documentary

Matildas: The World at Our Feet

Drama

The Clearing

   

Netflix

Documentary

Down to Earth: season 2

Children’s Drama

Gymnastics Academy: A Second Chance: season 1

Drama

Heartbreak High

Drama

Irreverent

Documentary

Kangaroo Valley

Light Entertainment – other

Love on the Spectrum: season 2

Drama

True Spirit

Light Entertainment – variety

Wellmania

Drama

Why Are You Like This: season 1

Documentary

Wild Croc Territory

   

Paramount+

Drama

Appleton Ladies Potato Race

Documentary

Claremont

Drama

Five Bedrooms

Drama

Last King of the Cross

Drama

More Than This

Drama

North Shore

Documentary

Sky Blue: Inside Sydney FC

Drama

Spreadsheet

Other

The Bridge

Drama

The Far North (NZ)

Drama

The Secrets She Keeps

Light Entertainment – other

Undressed

Drama

6 Festivals

Stan

Documentary

Amongst Us – Neo Nazi Australia

Drama

Bump: series 2

Drama

Christmas on the Farm

Drama

Gold

Drama

Nitram

Documentary

No Mercy, No Remorse

Documentary

Show Me the Money

Drama

The Tourist

Drama

Wolf Like Me

Please note: Not all commissioned and co-commissioned Australian programs are in Table 1. SVOD providers have asked for commercial confidentiality over some titles/productions.

 

Expenditure on acquired programs

In the 2021–22 financial year, 663 Australian programs were acquired by SVOD providers. Acquisition expenditure amounted to $81.4 million. Most titles were in the Australian sport, Australian adult drama or documentary genres.

New Zealand programs

For the purposes of SVOD reporting and noting Australia’s international obligations, Australian and New Zealand programs are treated consistently. This aligns with sections 10 and 11 of the ACCTS.

SVOD providers reported expenditure related to Australian programs, official co-productions, Australian/New Zealand programs and New Zealand programs as expenditure on ‘Australian’ programs.

During the 2021–22 financial year, 8 acquired New Zealand programs and one co-commissioned New Zealand program were reported, with an expenditure of $2 million.

Expenditure on Australian-related programs

SVOD providers also support the production of content made in Australia in ways other than directly commissioning or acquiring Australian programs.

In the 2021–22 financial year, SVOD providers spent $333.4 million on acquiring, producing or investing in 16 Australian-related programs. This is less than spending on Australian-related programs in 2020–21, which was $449.8 million.

This support includes:

  • commissioning Australian-related programs
  • producing foreign programs in Australia
  • providing long-term employment opportunities through local production facilities. 

Australian-related programs meet some but not all of the criteria for an 'Australian program'. For example, Disney-owned Industrial Light & Magic provided post, digital and video effect (PDV) facilities for international feature films. Disney also supported 5 foreign productions in Australia, which resulted in over 20 Australians hired as crew.

Australian programs available in Australia

At 30 June 2022, there were 2,345 Australian program titles (7,714 hours) available on the 5 SVOD services. This is an increase from the 2,030 Australian titles (6,019 hours) available at 30 June 2021. (Please note that June 2021 figures were reported for 4 SVOD providers only.)

Table 2 shows the number of titles and hours by all SVOD providers by genre as at 30 June each year.

Table 2: Australian programs made available on services in Australia as at 30 June 2020, 2021 and 2022, by genre

 

30 June 2020

(4 x SVOD providers)

30 June 2021

(4 x SVOD providers)

30 June 2022

(5 x SVOD providers)

  Hours*  Titles / Events^ Hours* Titles / Events^ Hours* Titles / Events^
No genre provided** 1,313 204 1,403 197 0 0
Australian drama 1,159 261 1,740 412 2,225 458
Australian children's drama 242 40 233 39 274 44
Australian children's non-drama 129 34 176 52 126 47
Australian documentary 116 40 152 56 282 92
Australian other programming 82 18 155 39 942 41
Australian light entertainment – other  41 21 59 24 326 101
Australian sport 0 0 2,101 1,211 3,539 1,562
Total 3,080* 618 6,019 2,030 7,714 2,345

Durations are rounded to the nearest hour.

^Each program series of non-sport is considered a title. The majority of sport events/matches, but not all, are reported as individual titles.

** In 2019–20 and 2020–21, SVOD providers were unable to provide a detailed breakdown of genres of some Australian programs.

 

Figure 1: Hours of Australian programs made available on SVOD services* in Australia as at 30 June 2020, 2021 and 2022, by genre (excluding where genre is not available)

Hours of Australian programs made available

* June 2020 and June 2021 figures report on 4 SVOD providers only, while the June 2022 figures report on 5 SVOD providers.

Australian programs available outside Australia

Some SVOD providers also reported the number of Australian programs made available on services outside Australia (Table 3). The aggregated data from the SVOD providers who supplied the information shows that:

  • all providers reported on Australian programs available in Canada, Spain, the UK and the US.
  • 3 providers reported on programs available in France and Japan.
  • 2 providers reported on programs available in Brazil, Germany, Italy and Mexico.

Table 3 and Figure 2 below include a sample of jurisdictions reported by SVOD providers where 2 or more SVOD providers reported overlapping jurisdictions.

Only one SVOD provider reported Australian catalogue information for Argentina, China, Denmark, Greece, India, Ireland, Israel, New Zealand, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea and Sweden.

Disney reported geographically aggregated data for some regions being Central and Eastern Europe, Nordics/Baltics, GSAL (Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Lichtenstein), Latin America, Benelux and North Africa. These jurisdictions are not comparable with other SVOD providers and have not been included in the table.

Table 3: Sample of jurisdictions where Australian programs are made available on SVOD services as at 30 June 2022

  US Canada UK Germany  Spain  France Japan Brazil Mexico Italy
Number of Australian program titles 300 211 198 153 153 144 143 137 137 57
Total hours of Australian programs 2,070 995 997 754 752 606 622 665 655 184

 

Figure 2: Number of Australian program / titles made available on SVOD services outside Australia, as at 30 June 2022

Number of Australian titles made available 

 

Points to consider regarding SVOD data

  1. Amazon Prime Video, Disney, Netflix and Stan have been reporting to us on their investment in Australian programs each year since the 2019–20 financial year. Paramount+ reported for the first time in the 2021–22 financial year. All 5 SVOD providers reported data for the 2021–22 financial year to the ACMA in September 2022.
  2. This report presents aggregated expenditure and program information reported by 5 SVOD providers in Australia. We have published information consistent with SVOD providers’ confidentiality requests.
  3. SVOD providers have voluntarily reported this information. We cannot confirm its accuracy. However, where possible, we have verified the information. This is based on publicly available information, data reported under Australian content requirements for commercial and subscription television broadcasters, and additional material provided by SVOD providers. We have standardised the information where possible to allow consistency with information reported by TV broadcasters and Screen Australia. However, due to differences between SVOD services and TV broadcasters, there are some areas where direct comparisons are not possible.
  4. SVOD providers reported total hours and numbers of distinct Australian programs available on their Australian services. We requested that this data include only Australian and official co-productions.
  5. If the provider did not have its own services outside Australia, commissioned Australian programs distributed to foreign-owned services were reported. We asked only for aggregated data for the number and hours of Australian programs on services outside Australia.
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