Screen Producers Australia has lodged a 22-recommendation submission to the Australian government’s National Cultural Policy consultation, putting the market power of streaming platforms over independent producers at the center of its push for structural reform.

The body’s submission argues that the shift to digital streaming has fundamentally altered commissioning practices, leaving small and medium-sized production businesses exposed to contract terms that threaten long-term sector sustainability. SPA is pressing for a “fairness” requirement to be embedded in Australian screen regulation – whether through a terms-of-trade model or as a condition of what qualifies as “Australian” content under domestic content regimes.

“SPA has tried every avenue available to bring this untenable situation to the Government’s attention as an area of urgent regulatory need, including this year, recourse to the ACCC,” SPA CEO Matthew Deaner said. “While these pressures are being acknowledged in other sectors through the News Media Bargaining Incentive and the ACCC’s Digital Platforms Inquiry Report, SPA is pressing for a better understanding from Government about the impact of these platforms on independent screen production in Australia.”

The submission identifies three principles that should govern commissioning relationships: good faith negotiations – including reasonable timeframes and a willingness to vary terms for mutual benefit; fair value for intellectual property, with commercial success factored into extensions and new-season deals; and transparency, with commissioners required to share data on viewership, audience reach and commercial performance.

“It is no longer the situation in which Australian SME screen businesses can negotiate commissioning contracts on the fair and reasonable terms that enable them to operate sustainably,” Deaner said.

SPA acknowledged recent progress on local content obligations for streaming platforms but characterized them as addressing only the opening phase of a more complex set of problems. The submission raises specific alarm about what it calls “Offset Passthrough Arrangements” – a practice whereby some streaming providers structure financing to effectively recover the value of the Producer Offset from producers, diluting their real content spend commitment from the mandated 10% to around 7–8% in practice.

The submission draws a distinction between tax incentives, which it describes as generous, and the absence of regulatory action on structural market imbalances – including, it notes, with government-owned broadcasters. SPA’s membership represents more than 800 production businesses driving over AUD3 billion ($2.1 billion) in annual production activity from the independent sector.

Among the most striking data points in the submission is the state of children’s content: new Australian children’s programming on commercial free-to-air television has collapsed from 391 hours before deregulation to just 48 hours in 2024, while children’s drama has fallen from 98 hours to 10. On streaming services, Australian children’s content accounted for less than 3% of the total hours of Australian content available across the five major SVOD platforms. The submission also cites Screen Australia data showing Australian films captured just 2.6% of the local box office in 2025.

The submission also flags growth in First Nations screen storytelling, with the number of First Nations majority-owned businesses among SPA’s membership rising to 27 from 18 over the past four years, spanning genres from science fiction and comedy to thriller and documentary. Other recommendations cover an export strategy review – noting that Australia imports eight dollars of cultural products for every dollar it exports – new and modernized co-production agreements, and the urgent legislating of two already-announced but still-unlegislated Producer Offset reforms.

“With the right policy settings that update our thinking and recognize some tough realities, our industry could once again witness a renaissance in Australian screen storytelling,” Deaner said.