Why isn't Australia offered the same netflix content as America?

I negotiate media contracts for a living. In almost cases the motivations of content producers are fairly simple.

Maximize income: This is no different than than an individual taking a job that pays a higher wage. The delivery channels (netflix, foxtel, free to air TV etc) all bid against each other for the rights. The rights themselves are split. First run rights are more expensive than repeats. For example buying rights to re-run Friends is a lot cheaper than buying rights for Modern Family. Exclusivity also commands a premium and current series are normally only sold on an exclusive basis.

Amazon Clause: Content owners are very weary of creating another Amazon. By this I mean they do not want a single channel to have power over all the content producers. That means the content owners will never all license all the content to one channel, because doing that will give that channel all the power. They always hedge their bets. This means if you are getting Showtime content you probably will not get HBO. If you distribute BBC then you may not get Sky.

Even though many of you think that these series are immensely profitable most series barely make a return. If you are an investor in Australia, the Blue Chip stocks have returned more than double what you have made from investing in TV series. For example Game of Thrones costs around $7M-$11M USD per episode. This means around $100M-$120M per series. If you go to investors for this money they are looking for around 10%-15% return. So GOT for example would need to make $110M-$136M USD for the season. This is one of the most successful ever series and and a house in Melbourne or Sydney would have been a better investment over the same time period.

Unlike movies or games there is relatively little merchandising in TV series. There are exceptions.

English speaking markets (USA, Canada, UK, Australia/NZ) need to make around 70%-80% of the income for a series. The translated regions will make somewhere between 2%-20% depending on the series.

You may also think that the industry is full of millionaires. But if you remove the executive producers, the top billing stars the rest of the production crew and cast would be earning less than a tradie each year. Most of them get royalty checks each quarter/year for their work. For example I know some one who worked on the Matrix and they have earned a grab total of around $120,000 in royalties over the last 10 years.

/r/australia Thread