The federal government is launching a five-year policy for Australia's arts and culture sector - what it is calling the National Cultural Policy.
Under the plan, streaming giants will be required to spend a certain percentage of their company profits on Australian content.
Federal Arts Minister Tony Burke says from mid-next year, streaming quotas will apply for Australia.
"The government's announcement that we're making in cultural policy is on the timeline. We'll then sit down to work through exactly what the percentage needs to be, how quickly we get there, and what decisions we make about subquotas. There is obviously a story out there that people want a guarantee on a quota for TV dramas, and a guarantee on children's content. They're all decisions that will be made in the first half of this year, legislation in the second half of this year, quotas a reality from the middle of next year."
The CEO of Screen Producers Australia, Matt Deaner, says this is an important shift for the media sector.
"All of this is very very interesting, critical and transformative and so, so big in terms of once-in-a-lifetime, once-in-a-generation shift of strategy about our cultural industries and certainly our screen industries."
In 2021, viewing on streaming services, such as Disney Plus and Amazon Prime, overtook free-to-air television.
