Labour commits to introducing levy for streaming giants, National still coy

Wednesday, 14 January 2026

Labour is promising to implement a levy on local profits of streaming giants like Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video if elected, but National says it is still considering its options and won’t commit to any plan yet.

It follows Australia introducing a law in late 2025, in which streaming services with more than one million Australian subscribers are required to invest at least 10% of their total spend for Australia, or 7.5% of their revenue, on new local drama, children’s, documentary, arts and educational films and TV programmes.

New Zealand’s screen industry has been grappling with a major downturn in screen production, with senior workers sitting idle and one leading industry figure telling The Post in October last year that it was the “hardest I’ve ever known it”.

Labour’s Reuben Davidson, the party’s spokesperson for broadcasting, media and the creative economy, said it was committed to local content and its “strong economic and cultural value”.

“A levy on streamers would ensure big international streaming operators fairly invest directly in local content,” Davidson said. “We will seek advice to implement a streaming levy as early as possible after the election, taking learnings from similar legislation in Australia.”

But a spokesperson for Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Paul Goldsmith said no decisions had been made yet, regarding whether National would commit to introducing a levy.

The Government was considering its options, and wanted to evaluate how Australian legislation played out, the spokesperson said.

Irene Gardiner, president of the Screen Production and Development Association, said it would be lobbying hard for streamer regulation.

The guild estimated if global streaming companies were made to pay even 5% of their New Zealand revenues, that could equate to somewhere in the vicinity of $25 million a year, which she said would make a big difference.

Gardiner said Australia’s policy meant global platforms were being made to invest, commission and develop Australian screen projects in exchange for profiting off its local market.

While Australia opted for a quota system, New Zealand screen producers were instead advocating for the introduction of a levy on streamers’ Kiwi revenue, which could then be invested back into local production via screen funding agencies including the Film Commission, NZ On Air and Te Māngai Pāho.

Gardiner said it made sense for New Zealand to introduce a levy now, as the streaming giants were adapting to new investment obligations across the Tasman.

The likes of Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video do not pay any tax in New Zealand and early last year the Government considered regulating the companies, by way of potentially introducing some form of levy, however nothing had happened since then.

Gardiner said streaming platforms had contributed to the New Zealand production downturn, by drawing audiences and advertising spend away from the domestic market.

Delaying the decision any further “risks long-term damage to local production, jobs and the ability to tell New Zealand stories on screen”, she added.

Curiously, as part of Australia’s new law, both New Zealand content and co-productions which workers of the countries create together, can count towards the streamers’ Australian reinvestment requirements.

While this may seem like positive news for New Zealand if our screen producers are able to convince the streamers to commission content in Aotearoa and have it count towards their Australian requirements, it is still likely that the bulk of the reinvestment will go towards Australian programming.

New Zealand could also benefit in a small way from Australia’s law, by having existing content bought by the streaming giants.

But Gardiner said inclusion was not guaranteed, and was not a substitute for having local policy settings that supported local production and sustainability.

Levy-style or contribution models are already in place in several comparable markets including France, Canada and Germany.

The screen guild was also lobbying for tweaks to be made to the Film Commission-administered domestic screen production rebate, so more local content could be eligible for it.