Australia’s Streaming Quota, 10 Months In

Since 1 January, the biggest streaming services in Australia have been operating under a legal obligation to spend part of their money on new Australian programs. Nearly 10 months on, the rules are fully live, the first annual reports are due in February, and the question for viewers is what the quota will actually put on screen.

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Here is how it works, who it covers and what to watch for.

What the law says

Parliament passed the Communications Legislation Amendment (Australian Content Requirement for Subscription Video On Demand (Streaming) Services) Bill on 27 November 2025, according to the Office for the Arts. The requirement is administered by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), which says the obligation is now in effect, with each reporting year running from January to December.

At the time, the Minister for the Arts, Tony Burke, said that “no matter which remote control you’re holding, Australian stories will be at your fingertips.” The Minister for Communications, Anika Wells, said: “We need more Australian stories told by Australians.” The government presented the laws as delivering a commitment in its national cultural policy, Revive, alongside an extra A$50 million over three years, starting in the 2026 to 2027 financial year, for new ABC children’s and drama content.

Who is covered

The spending rule applies to what ACMA calls a major streaming service: a subscription video on demand service with at least one million paying subscribers in Australia whose content is likely to appeal to the Australian public. Once a service is regulated in a given year, ACMA says it keeps reporting even if its numbers later drop below one million, until its obligations are met.

Two details matter. First, ACMA counts subscriptions activated through a free trial or a promotional bundle as paying subscribers, so a generous trial offer does not keep a service under the line. Second, services that mainly carry user-generated video (ACMA cites YouTube as the example) are excluded, as are niche services built for a specific interest group, place or one-off event.

A second, lower tier applies at 250,000 paying subscribers. Those services must notify ACMA and supply information about themselves, but carry no spending obligation. Services that met the criteria on 1 January had to lodge that notification by 2 March 2026.

How much they must spend

By default, a major service must invest at least 10% of its total program expenditure for Australia in eligible new Australian programs. ACMA calls this the expenditure method.

The alternative is the revenue method: 7.5% of Australian revenue. ACMA says a service can elect this option only once every three years, must notify within 60 days of the start of the reporting year, and is then locked in. A service that picked the revenue method for 2026 must use it for 2027 and 2028 as well. Because the scheme began on 1 January, ACMA is allowing services that missed the window this year to nominate a method by working with the regulator, a concession it says applies to 2026 only.

There is also some room to manoeuvre over time. The Office for the Arts says the scheme includes a three-year carry-over period for acquitting annual expenditure, and ACMA says a service with an overdue shortfall at the end of a three-year period loses the right to choose the revenue method for the next one.

What counts

The money has to go into new Australian programs in five genres: drama, documentary, children’s, educational and arts, in either television or film formats. The test of what is “Australian” matches the one in the Australian Content and Children’s Television Standard, which applies to free-to-air broadcasters. In their annual reports, services must give details of each program they are counting, including evidence of Australian creative control.

Reality, sport and news do not appear on the list of eligible genres.

When the first reports land

ACMA says annual compliance reports are due within 45 days of the end of each reporting year. For 2026, that means 15 February 2027. Each report must cover paying subscribers, Australian revenue, total program expenditure, qualifying expenditure and the programs claimed, with supporting evidence. ACMA says it will publish further guidance on compliance before then. Until those reports arrive, there is no official figure for how much any service has spent under the rules.

What platforms have announced

The platforms do not frame their slates as quota spending, and none is obliged to say which titles it will count. But the local work is visible. In February, Netflix announced its 2026 slate for Australia and New Zealand, led by the third and final season of Heartbreak High, which premiered on 25 March. It also named My Brilliant Career, a series adaptation of Miles Franklin’s novel starring Philippa Northeast, which arrived on 13 August; Allen, a feature from Ludo Studio, the company behind Bluey; and Breakers, a surf drama led by Antony Starr and set in a fictional town based on Busselton, Western Australia.

My Brilliant Career shows how state agencies stack on top of the federal rules. The South Australian Film Corporation says the series was SAFC supported and filmed in South Australia in 2025, including at its Adelaide Studios. Netflix also says it has invested more than A$10 million since 2021 in training and development across the Australian and New Zealand screen industries.

What it means for you

• Expect more Australian drama, documentary and children’s titles on the largest services, though the rules do not set a quota for what appears in the catalogue or on the home screen.
• Free trials count toward the one million subscriber line, so promotional pricing will not let a large service slip below the threshold.
• The first hard numbers arrive after 15 February 2027, when ACMA receives reports for the 2026 year.
• Local titles already out under the new regime include Heartbreak High season three and My Brilliant Career, both streaming on Netflix.

Sources

• Office for the Arts: Australian screen content requirement for streaming services
• Minister Burke and Minister Wells: Backing local stories for Australian audiences
• Department of Infrastructure: New Australian content laws for streaming services
• ACMA: Understanding service types and obligations
• ACMA: Revenue method
• ACMA: Reporting to the ACMA
• Netflix: Next on Netflix ANZ 2026, 17 Feb 2026
• Netflix Tudum: My Brilliant Career
• South Australian Film Corporation: Watch the trailer, My Brilliant Career, 21 Jul 2026