i would not be surprised if we start to see some winding back of multichannels in the not too distant future. It can’t continue to be sustainable given shrinking advertising market for FTA and the networks, except perhaps for SBS and to some extent ABC, have no idea or perhaps no back catalogue in terms of generating serious genre-targeted channels.
Its sad as I remember this being the way of the future from the mid 2000s. How times shave changed.
I cant see see 7flix and 9Ruch being around for much longer.
It was supposed to be FTA’s great weapon against pay-TV but I don’t think they’ve ever really been able to make the best use of it.
Look at the UK and US and they have had lots of genre-specific multi-channels on FTA but i guess maybe our population size and lack of access to huge catalogues of content doesn’t make it as viable option here?
Australia was also late to the party. Regulations didn’t really evolve until the late 2000s.
Let’s not blame regulations - networks didn’t want to spend the money. It’s that simple. Ten’s One could have been a real game changer and set themselves up for the streaming era. But Australian execs only care about the next quarter and not the next 3-5 years.
Thought ONE died when Murdoch Jr killed if off bit by bit to protect the family interest in Fox Sports? But yes, if it was allowed to evolve, ONE would have been a game changer.
Outside of providing operational flexibility for multiple live events, they’ve become quite a malaise, which doesn’t help either, but I think this largely is because while the networks want decent multichannel performance to help lift their network ratings, they don’t want them to be too popular to drag viewers away from the primary channel.
I’m surprised that someone hasn’t tried to mine their own content libraries. While I get that a lot of old network content is possibly tied up with deals with production houses, I would have thought the networks would have some content they could use (if they haven’t flogged it off)
i think it creates a lot of legal and admin paperwork and the effort, particularly in digitising analogue content, probably doesn’t justify what tiny amount of additional revenue it might attract. Whereas they can just fill slabs of airtime with US or UK re-runs with a lot less effort and probably get as many viewers.
A post was merged into an existing topic: Neighbours
Interesting that we’ve seen them do it for FAST channels to back their streaming offerings though
Correct. The ABC has in it’s archive lots of content from the 60s through to the early 90’s they 100% produced in-house and fully own but can’t repeat anymore. This is despite it having all been digitised. Being it is tied up in legal issues, mostly deceased estates of certain performers wanting wads of cash the ABC does not have. So much easier for the ABC to fill its multichannels and main channel too with lots of cheap foreign imports.
Also because we have had decades without local repeats filling prime timeslots (anything outside midnight to 6am), I don’t think there is the continuity to attract younger viewers to that content. J Bar calls it cultural cringe. I see it as all lost and with older viewers only.
Finally, streamers will be required to invest in Australian content.
Labor is set to introduce a bill to parliament this week that will impose quotas on Netflix, Disney and any other services with at least a million Australian subscribers.
Dubbed an Australian content obligation, the legislation will require services that meet the threshold to invest at least 10 per cent of their total expenditure for Australia in the production of new local drama, children’s, documentary, arts or educational programming.
Alternatively, they can opt to invest 7.5 per cent of their Australian revenues in the same. The obligation will apply to Stan and Paramount+ if they meet the subscriber threshold, even though each is associated with a free-to-air broadcaster (Nine and Ten respectively) that already has an Australian content obligation.
Can we expect more Aussie content shared between 9/Stan & 10/P+ in future then?
I reckon those two are already producing enough content to meet the obligation.