{"id":859978,"date":"2026-08-18T19:58:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T19:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/859978\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T19:58:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T19:58:10","slug":"why-australia-might-never-make-shows-like-bluey-again-australian-television","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/859978\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Australia might never make shows like Bluey again | Australian television"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bluey has been the most streamed show in the United States for the past two years<\/a>, but this homegrown success story has overshadowed a stark decline in Australian-made children\u2019s television, according to new research.<\/p>\n

Screen Australia\u2019s Screen Currency 2026 report, published on Wednesday, found that the average screen time dedicated to children\u2019s TV broadcasting was 65 hours per year between 2021 and 2024 \u2013 a 42% drop on the average between 2000 and 2020.<\/p>\n

The decline was driven by a shift in viewing behaviour and reduced commissioning by commercial networks.<\/p>\n

Channels Seven, Nine and Ten were once required to broadcast a minimum 260 hours of children\u2019s programs per year, but since this government quota was dropped the free-to-air commercial networks have \u201ceffectively stopped commissioning the genre\u201d, the report said. First-run children\u2019s TV reach in Australia in 2025 was predominantly made by the ABC, it said, with limited programming by SBS\/NITV and Seven.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just children\u2019s TV that commercial broadcasters are eschewing either; Australian TV drama is now more likely to be made by streaming services than the commercial networks. In total, an average of 403 hours of Australian TV drama was broadcast each year between 2020 and 2024, a 12.4% decline on the average between 2000 and 2019.<\/p>\n

Part of the reason why streaming services are investing cash in this genre is because they\u2019re obliged to: under Australian law they must invest at least 10% of their total Australian program expenditure, or 7.5% of their Australian revenue, in new Australian drama, children\u2019s programs, documentary, arts and educational content.<\/p>\n

The Australian teen drama Heartbreak High on Netflix, which is the most-watched streaming platform in the country. Photograph: Netflix<\/p>\n

Netflix, Stan and Amazon Prime Video are now \u201csignificant investors\u201d in Australian content, particularly for drama, the report found, whereas Australia\u2019s commercial broadcasters are spending their budgets on news, current affairs, lifestyle and sports programs.<\/p>\n

The Screen Currency report, which surveyed more than 13,550 respondents, found Australian audiences are increasingly led to shows by algorithms, despite simultaneously reporting that they did not trust algorithms. Only 36% said they found it \u201ceasy to locate\u201d Australian-made content \u2013 and though 84% of responders said they valued local content as important, the majority spent less than a third of their viewing time watching Australian-made film or television.<\/p>\n

Netflix came out on top as the most-watched platform in Australia, with 69% of respondents reporting they used the streaming service. Channel Seven, Nine and Network Ten were the second most-watched for all age groups, with a combined 63% tuning in to the commercial networks, followed by 56% watching content on YouTube.<\/p>\n

While TV drama has dipped, the report found more drama feature films are being made on average per year \u2013 a 43% increase when comparing the number of drama films commissioned between 2021 and 2024 to what was commissioned between 2000 and 2020 \u2013 despite box office returns being \u201cin decline over the past decade\u201d.<\/p>\n

In general, Screen Australia found that the Australian screen and games sector is growing, contributing more than $11bn to the economy in the financial year 2023-24 and directly employing nearly 70,000 people in 2024-25.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bluey has been the most streamed show in the United States for the past two years, but this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":859979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134],"class_list":["post-859978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=859978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/859979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=859978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=859978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=859978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}