Spending by subscription video on demand providers

Subscription video on demand (SVOD) services voluntarily report to us about their investment in Australian content in terms of spending and availability.

SVOD providers Disney+, Netflix, Prime Video and Stan have reported to us each financial year since 2019–20. For the 2021–22 financial year, Paramount+ – as a newer entrant into the Australian SVOD market – reported to the ACMA for the first time. 

Collectively, in the 2022–23 financial year, these SVOD providers spent $324.1 million on Australian content.

The interactive report below provides insight into the information we collected about SVOD providers. The data collected includes expenditure on commissioned and acquired Australian programs/titles, broken down by genre. It also includes the total number of titles and hours of Australian content on Australian services and rest-of-the-world services, as well as expenditure on Australian related programs. 

The report provides aggregated expenditure data and program information for SVOD providers for the 2019–20 financial year onwards. This year, we have also published some information about the discoverability of Australian programs on SVOD services.  

View the interactive report for SVOD spending on Australian content below.

View the data quality statement and access the data file for the SVOD content in Australia: Spending on Australian programs by SVOD providers report below. 

Spending by subscription video on demand: Data file 2022–23 financial year (5.43 KB)

Five SVOD providers, Disney+, Netflix, Paramount+, Prime Video and Stan – spent $324.1 million in the 2022–23 financial year on 1,583 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 decreased by $11.0 million, compared to the 2021–22 financial year ($335.1 million). 

Expenditure on commissioned and co-commissioned programs was down $34.6 million from the 2021–22 financial year. ($253.7 million in 2021–22 compared to $219.2 million for the 2022–23 reporting period).

Expenditure on acquired programs increased by $23.6 million compared to the 2021–22 financial year ($81.4 million in 2021–22 compared to $105.0 million for the 2022–23 reporting period). 

In terms of genres: 

• Australian children’s drama and sport expenditure saw modest increases compared to the 2021–22 financial year: 
  
  • Expenditure on children’s drama was up from $7.2 million in the 2021–22 financial year to $12.1 million in the 2022–23 financial year (up $4.9 million). The modest increase does not reverse a longer-term decline in expenditure on children’s drama, which was $33.1 million in the 2019–20 financial year and $22.5 million in the 2020–21 financial year.
  • Sports expenditure was up from $55.3 million in the 2021–22 financial year to $71.0 million in the 2022–23 financial year.
• However, expenditure on children’s non-drama programs decreased again following the reported decline since reporting started in the 2019–20 financial year.

Expenditure on commissioned or co-commissioned programs

In the 2022–23 financial year, SVOD providers spent $219.2 million on 67 commissioned or co-commissioned Australian programs.

Commissioned and co-commissioned programs/titles made up 68% of total SVOD provider expenditure on Australian programs. New Australian programs included:

• Matildas: The World at Our Feet (Disney+)
• Boy Swallows Universe (Netflix)
• Last King of The Cross (Paramount+)
• The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart (Prime Video)
• Bad Behaviour (Stan).

A list of non-confidential commissioned or co-commissioned Australian programs reported to us for the 2022–23 financial year is in the table below.

Table 1: The 2022–23 financial year titles of commissioned/co-commissioned Australian programs, for the Australian service during the reporting year

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

Expenditure on acquired programs

In the 2022–23 financial year, 1,516 Australian programs were acquired by SVOD providers. 

Acquisition expenditure amounted to $105.0 million. Approximately 86% of acquired titles fell within the sport genre. The sporting programs featured by SVODs include A-League Women and Rugby Championship.

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 official co-productions, Australian/New Zealand programs and New Zealand programs as expenditure on ‘Australian’ programs.

During the 2022–23 financial year, one Australian/New Zealand co-commissioned program and 2 acquired New Zealand programs were reported, having an aggregated expenditure of $3.3 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 2022–23 financial year, SVOD providers spent $452.9 million on acquiring, producing, or investing in 39 Australian-related programs. Australian-related program spending increased from the 2021–22 financial year when it totalled $333.4 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, including Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Obi-Wan Kanobi. Disney has also supported 21 foreign productions in Australia, including Drug Lords: The Takedown and The Secrets of the Octopus which resulted in over 2,500 Australians hired.

At 30 June 2023, there were 3,757 Australian program titles (10,465 hours) available on the 5 SVOD services. This is an increase from the 2,345 Australian titles (7,714 hours) available on SVOD libraries at 30 June 2022.

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

Table 2: Australian programs made available on services in Australia at 30 June 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 by genre

Notes on Table 2: 

• Durations are rounded to the nearest hour.
• SVOD providers acquired sports programming for the first time in the 2020–21 financial year.
• For sports programs, some SVOD providers report entire seasons as a single title while others report individual matches/games as a single title. 
• For reasons of confidentiality, the 'sports' and 'other' genres were combined for the 2020–21 financial year.
• The genre 'light entertainment' is a combination of reporting categories 'light entertainment – other' and 'light entertainment variety' (see also the glossary).
• Where SVOD providers were unable to provide a detailed breakdown of genres of some Australian programs, they have used the 'no genre provided' categorisation.
• The genres of some programs reported in previous years have been recategorised and are reflected in this 2022–23 financial year report.

Some SVOD providers also reported the number of Australian programs made available on services outside Australia (Table 3). The data was aggregated into continental regions and averaged out between countries reported on in those regions. 

SVOD providers reported making Australian programs available to international audiences in nearly 50 countries throughout the world. The largest number of Australian program titles and hours are available in North and South American countries. 

Table 3: Average number of Australian program hours and titles available across countries within each content, by financial year.

Notes on Table 3: 

• The average figures quoted are the average number of titles or hours across the reported countries in each continent. Continental figures are reported where 2 or more SVOD providers reported for countries within a continent. 
• The decrease in the number of and hours of Australian programs in the 2021–22 financial year can be attributed to one SVOD provider’s shift in their reporting framework.

In the 2022–23 financial year, for the first time, SVOD providers reported on how they make Australian content discoverable on their platforms. 

Discoverability is the degree to which Australians are able to access Australian content. It concerns the degree to which an SVOD provider makes Australian content easily accessible via mechanisms which enhance the prominence of particular content to users. 

SVOD providers use a range of discoverability methods, promoting Australian content via Australian content collections, carousels, marketing, and recommendations.

In July 2023, the ACMA provided the SVOD providers with training on genre categorisation. The aim of this was to encourage consistency in reporting across program genre selections between SVOD provider's and across past and future years. 

As a result of this training, the genres of some programs reported in previous years have been recategorised. Where these amendments have been made, they are contained in the 2022–23 financial year report only. Please note that in some cases, the recategorisation of genres was not possible as to do so would reveal confidential expenditure information. For the most up to date data, please rely on the 2022–23 financial year report.

Previous financial years’ reporting is available below: 

Spending by SVOD providers 2021–22

Spending by SVOD providers 2020–21

Spending by SVOD providers 2019–20

1. Disney+, Netflix, Prime Video and Stan have been reporting on their investment in Australian programs since the 2019–20 financial year. Paramount+ reported for the first time in the 2021–22 financial year. 
2. The reports present aggregated expenditure and program information reported by SVOD providers in Australia. All information published is 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 based on publicly available information, data reported under Australian content requirements for commercial and subscription television broadcasters, and additional material provided by SVOD providers. 
4. We have standardised the reports where possible to allow for consistency with information reported by TV broadcasters and Screen Australia. Due to differences between SVOD services and TV broadcasters, there are some areas where direct comparison is not possible.
5. 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.
6. If the provider does not have its own services outside Australia, commissioned Australian programs distributed to foreign-owned services are reported on an aggregated basis for the number and hours of Australian programs on services outside Australia.