Screen Producers Australia has applied for authorization to collectively bargain on behalf of its 800 member companies, with the aim of leveling the playing field between producers and broadcast/streaming buyers.
The trade org represents many well-known kids prodcos in the country, including Bluey‘s Ludo Studio, ACTF, Matchbox Pictures, Cheeky Little Media and Flying Bark Productions. SPA has filed two applications to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), and if they are accepted, it will be able to negotiate approved deal terms between producers and free-to-air/pay-TV broadcasters and streaming platforms (both domestic and global).
SPA wants to give producers more power when it comes to making deals with buyers, who typically wield much more power during negotiations. Streamers, for example, typically don’t share audience data with producers, which puts studios at a disadvantage when it comes to negotiating deals for new seasons.
Australia’s anti-competition rules prevent studios from coordinating their negotiations, which means they can’t establish shared baseline terms in deals. Instead, they have to craft complex bespoke contracts on a project-by-project basis. And most Australian businesses don’t have the resources to do this with every deal, SPA says.
If its applications are approved, the trade org plans to establish a baseline set of approved rights that producers and buyers can start from, promoting more consistency and fairness in contracting and reducing legal and admin costs for smaller producers.
It’s worth noting that even if SPA is authorized to do this, broadcasters and streamers wouldn’t be compelled to negotiate with it. But the org will still have the power to create a clear framework for negotiations.
For the kids industry, this change could be especially advantageous, since these producers have been hit hard by the loss of children’s content quotas and a general slowdown in the global market.
In November, Australia’s government passed legislation (lobbied for by SPA) requiring that streamers contribute to creating Australian kids content. But this change doesn’t address key issues like who owns the IP and controls the rights, both of which are deal points SPA could help broker if it had collective bargaining power, says SPA CEO Matthew Deaner.
Other Australian markets in which small businesses need to negotiate with large buyers, including farming, healthcare and franchising, have benefited from ACCC’s authorization to bargain, the org notes.
“Collective bargaining is about fairness, sustainability and efficiency,” says Deaner. “Without this capacity, the risk is a market dominated by fewer, larger businesses, with fewer Australian stories being told.”
The next step in the process is for stakeholders—including broadcasters and streamers—to provide feedback by January 27. SPA will then have an opportunity to respond before the regulatory body issues a draft decision analyzing whether the benefits outweigh any challenges to competition (also open for comment), and then a final decision.
The ACCC expects to release the draft decision in March and the final decision in April or May, according to a post about the application on its website.
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