An " Entertainment " Tax ?

When television arrived in Australia in 1956 we ensured that " Australian content " laws prevented viewing being saturated with content from overseas countries.  As a result, we developed a flourishing industry that has exported that Australian content to world audiences and created a production industry within this country.

For a very long time the average Australian family settled each night for television programme choice between 9, 7 or 10 and the ABC.   Now SBS has been added and the commercial channels have their own second channels to widen the entertainment spectrum, but free to air television is now under challenge from new competitors vying for eyeball content.

Foxtel is aggressively marketing pay TV in this country and now Netflix is offering a wide programming choice and all this is being watched by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission with a view to imposing Australian content rules.   The Australian content rules that apply to television  do not cover these newer forms of entertainment.

We are about to welcome 5G to the communication and entertainment spectrum and that will hopefully increase transmission speed.   The days of sitting before a television screen have been supplanted by viewing on the move on mobile phones and tablets connected to the internet.  It is expected that this will expand dramatically under 5G.

This also raises the question of what the NBN should be allowed to charge for screening  movies on its network.  A discussion paper has mooted a " network tax " to compensate for the volume which is higher than general traffic and obviously that would be passed on to the consumer.

We are in the age of electronics and the pace is moving ever quicker.  The ACCC has the task of crystal ball gazing to predict how this mix of communications and entertainment will further develop and put in place the necessary rules to ensure that Australian content becomes part of that mix.  This form of entertainment production has been a rewarding part of the Australian art landscape and the opportunity for expansion is knocking on the door,.

The entertainment industry is dominated by digital giants and they will react to whatever rules govern their ability to present their product to Australian audiences.  It is essential that those rules clearly outline their responsibility to nurture Australian content and create that input from an Australian based industry sector.