Netflix Australia: Your Children’s Entertainment is Worth $110 Million

Online entertainment in Australia drastically increased over the course of a few years. Netflix, a streaming giant, invested $110 million to produce Australian original children shows in the past four years.  Netflix sees Australian entertainment as superior, hence, it commissioned materials from Australia. They did not give any quota for Australian tv-shows to stray away from breeding mediocre entertainment.  

Commercial TV broadcasters are required to air at least 26 hours for the first time release of Australian C-rated drama in a year. On top of that, 8 hours of children drama repeats must be shown. 

Last April, when corona virus begun to spread havoc across the world, production schedules and advertising were greatly affected. Thus, local children shows were suspended along with adult dramas. Despite, TV broadcasters were still obliged to air Australian contents between 6PM to midnight in their respected channels. 

On the same month, the government options paper were released containing possible overhaul in the Australian content regulations. It resulted to new streaming services rules implemented to Netflix, Disney Plus and other online streaming platforms. 

According to Netflix’ spokesperson, they used the same strategy as the free-to-air broadcasters to identify Australians children programs. $109.4 million were invested to create nine series filmed in Australia. 

On top of $109 million spending, investment from funding bodies, co-commissioning partners, and international rights acquisition for more than 100 Australian kid shows were additional expenses. 

Another $16 million were committed by Netflix to film upcoming shows next year. With that said, it is a concrete proof that Netflix prefer to fund and produce Australian kids’ shows and partner with Australian networks. The quality of both its contents and cinematography shows global high standards. Netflix sees how in-depth the understanding and experience of local Australin networks in creating childrens’ TV shows. It has great potential for global market and budget can also significantly increase. 

Netflix’ financial support in creating childrens’ TV shows made shooting 2 seasons simultaneously possible. The reason for such is that, kids grow up fast, thus, shooting each season far apart from schedule will cause big difference in childrens’ appearance. 

The show The Inbestigators made it to Netflix Brazil, Romainia, and South Korea. Despite it was targeted specifically for Australian kids, the concept of the show is universal to 10-year old kids.

Moreover, Netflix’ spokesperson said that they need no encouragement in investing a lot of money in Australian TV programs. He said it is one of the topnotch globally. The talent of actors are impeccable and the production and writers are one of the best.  Lastly, another factor that made Netflix continue investing more and more money is the Australian tax incentives. It may seem like a cost-saving for Netflix, but they consider it as an encouragement to produce more sophisticated childrens’ shows.

Here are some of the best Australian TV shows backed by Netflix: 

The Inbestigators (Netflix partnered with ABC Network)

The Inbestigators is a comedy-drama about a detective agency created by kids. Robyn Butler and Wayne Hope are the creators of this show. It has a total of 40 episodes across two seasons. 

The New Legends of Monkey

The New Legends of Monkey is a 1970’s Japanese inspired chidrens’ show called Monkey. It is an Australian-New Zealand series that became popular across Australia. There are 20 episodes for each season while the first season was backed by ABC and TVNZ networks. 

Beat Bugs (Seven partnership)

Beat Bugs was created by Josh Wakely. It is an Australian-Canadian series about the life of five insects living in an overgrown backyard. It has a total of 52 episodes within 3 seasons and a special episode, with a total of 53 episodes. 

Motown Magic (Seven partnership)

Motown Magic is another brilliant kids’ show created by Josh Wakely. It is about a boy who has a magic paintbrush which he uses to bring to life the street art in Motown.  It has a total of 51 episodes across 2 seasons. 

Kazoops!

Kazoops! is a British-Australian animated series with 26 episodes within three seasons. The series focused on a boy with impeccably vivid imagination having adventures with his sidekick pet pig. 

Bottersnikes and Gumbles

This TV show is based on books written by S.A. Wakefield illustrated by Desmond Digby. It is another animated series about the fictitious creatures who are living across the Australian bushes. It has an overall 52 episodes in two seasons. 

Izzy’s Koala World

Izzy’s Koala World is a TV show that revolves around the life of an Australian girl and her veterinarian mother rescuing koalas around Queensland’s Magnetic Island. The first season will launch on September 2020. Eight episodes were made for its first season. 

Australian kids shows are slowly dominating the global market. The unique and top quality production of Australian talent encouraged Netflix to invest more. As online streaming is now becoming the primary source of entertainment in Australia, it is likely to become bigger and better in the future.