Netflix launched 10 years ago.
Marking the anniversary, screen and culture experts have released the 10 Years of Netflix in Australia: Streaming Players and Local Content report, which pulls together research from screen researchers and commentary from industry insiders.
"Australians love streaming. Rather than just one or two platforms, our small nation has been able to sustain a diverse and competitive streaming market," said Dr Alexa Scarlata, co-lead of the Streaming Industries and Genres Network (SIGN), which published the report.
"This report includes profiles on the major subscription and broadcaster video-on-demand services operating here a decade in and remembers the platforms that failed along the way. It also shares industry insights about the deeper implications, opportunities and challenges of streaming on key local genres and formats."
State of streaming
Prior to the launch of Netflix and Stan in 2015, Australia was the "pirate capital of the world". Now, we are avid users of streaming.
Nearly half (42 per cent) of Australian adults used more than five online video services in the first half of 2024, according to a 2024 Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) study. Across a significantly fragmented market, Australians spent AU$3.5 billion in streaming subscriptions in the 2023-24 financial year.
Netflix has retained the top spot among Australian streamers for a decade.
Television broadcasters have faced plummeting audiences, ad rates and revenues. The number of Australian adults watching terrestrial broadcast free-to-air TV dropped to less than half (46 per cent) for the first time in 2024.
But this doesn't mean Australians have abandoned free-to-air TV completely. A recent RMIT study found about three quarters (71 per cent) of smart TV users in Australia combine free-to-air viewing with streaming apps from free-to-air channels, compared to only eight per cent who have abandoned free-to-air TV. This shows that most Australians prefer to integrate broadcast and streaming media.
Panel discussion on Australian unscripted/reality television at the Australian Content in the Streaming Era Symposium, presented in partnership with ACMI.
Calls for regulation of streaming services
From 2017 to 2022 there were eight official inquiries addressing subscription video-on-demand and similar digital platforms that produced no concrete reform.
In January 2023, the federal government's five-year plan to revive the arts in Australia - Revive - included a formal commitment to ensuring continued access to local stories and content by introducing requirements for Australian screen content on streaming platforms by July 2024.
But in 2024 the federal government instead focused on the introduction of a bill that expanded the scope of the anti-siphoning scheme and introduced a new prominence framework for local services on connected TV devices. July came and went without mention of subscription streaming regulation. In November, Federal Arts Minister Tony Burke confirmed that this had been shelved indefinitely amid concerns new rules might be seen as a violation of Australia's 2004 free trade agreement with the United States.
Throughout this period, Australian content has continued to decline across the board. Quotas on children's content for commercial broadcasters were removed in 2020, with ACMA reporting a drop in locally made children's programming of 84 per cent between 2019 and 2022. The question remains whether streaming is going to be able to replace the losses experienced in the broadcasting sector for Australian children's screen content, and what the consequences will be for the industry and for children.
"When a 'streaming war' kicked off in Australia in 2015, so too did a hearty debate about whether and how new SVOD players should be regulated," said Scarlata.
"The process to screen policy reform has been convoluted and inefficient. This has had a devastating impact on key local genres and our production sector, which is desperate for promised reform."
Ones to watch: future predictions
Warner Bros Discovery's Max streaming service is about to launch in Australia. It will be a real blow to Foxtel and Binge, which has long touted its exclusive rights to much of the Warner catalogue.
Sport is an area to watch. Back in 2016 Netflix publicly announced it had no intention of investing in live sport. But we've now seen that Netflix, Prime Video, Apple TV+, YouTube and others have started buying into sports rights around the world.
This year some Australians watched the Olympics on Nine, but many paid for an enhanced and much broader experience on Stan. Kayo's localisation and personalisation strategy saw the platform hit 1.5 million subscribers in July.
We have barely begun to tackle the effect of streaming on niche sports, the fragmentation and affordability of the genre, and the rise of what Netflix has called "the drama of sport": the sport docuseries.
