'Australian content is super important': Netflix CEO rejects calls for streaming quotas

Billionaire Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings says the American streaming giant's plans to voluntarily produce high quality Australian programming that resonates with global audiences proves government-imposed local content quotas are unnecessary.

In an interview with Good Weekend, Mr Hastings reveals Netflix is planning to produce more Australian content for both local and international audiences."Having Australian content is super important for Australian culture, but also for Netflix," Mr Hastings says. "So then the question becomes, is it good to use incentive funds? Is it good to use quotas? Is it good right now just to monitor and write reports and see what’s happening?"

Reed Hastings: “You may not know what the threat is, but there’s always threats out there.”Credit: Kwaku Alston, courtesy of Netflix

When COVID-19 halted Australian screen production in April, the Morrison government suspended local content obligations for free-to-air networks until the end of the year. Those networks now are pushing to make the arrangement permanent.

Communications Minister Paul Fletcher is also expected to announce a "roadmap" for changes to existing local content obligations by the end of the year. Screen production groups want quotas imposed on streaming platforms such as Netflix, Amazon, Disney and Stan - which is owned by Nine Entertainment Co, the publisher of this masthead. But the streaming platforms are instead pushing for "voluntary" targets.

“What we want to do as we grow is develop content in many countries, and have all of that content be shared, which is possible on the internet and a lot harder on linear television. Nobody wants homogenous storytelling," Mr Hastings says. “Whether it’s our Spanish consumers or Australian consumers or Polish consumers - they want to see some of their stories."

Legendary local television producer John Edwards says the local industry is "carrying a sense of dread" about the potential quota removal. Almost none of his hit shows – from Offspring to The Secret Life of Us and Love My Way –would have been made without the current quota, he said, which compels free-to-air broadcasters to screen at least 55 per cent Australian programming each day. "Most shows fail. A quota forces a fair lot to be made despite that risk," he says. "If you don’t have that – if it’s unregulated and controlled by a couple of oligarchs – you’re not going to get the breadth of programming we need, and what we see on screen won’t reflect our country."

Que Minh Luu, a former ABC executive producer appointed Netflix 'director of local originals' in Australia, argues the company is already investing voluntarily. Netflix has spent more than $110 million on kids programming in Australia over the past four years, and also extensive 'invisible' investment in co-productions like The Letdown and Pine Gap. Under Luu, Netflix will ramp up local production even further.

"We find that when a show really leans into that locality and that authenticity - its sense of place - that those things tend to travel quite well," she says. "One of my favourite shows of the past six months was Unorthodox, and I know nothing about orthodox Jews in Brooklyn. So when it comes to what stories people want to tell, we expect them to tell us."

For Edwards, however, this amounts to trusting multinational streamers to invest in local content even if/when they begin churning out more losers than winners. "If you let them decide how much they want to make, and they don’t get it right, and their shows fail, they won’t turn tail and stop making money out of Australian customers - but they will stop investing."

For the full feature story, see Saturday's Good Weekend, or visit The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Brisbane Times.