84 per cent want local content. 36 per cent say it is easy to find

Eighty-four per cent of Australians say access to local screen content is important. Thirty-six per cent say it is easy to find.

Those are the two numbers that matter in Screen Australia’s Screen Currency 2026 report, as reported by Mediaweek and Variety Australia. The gap between them is the report’s argument.

The figures

The headline findings, as released:

• 84 per cent believe access to local screen content is important.
• 75 per cent are interested in watching more of it.
• 60 per cent spend less than 30 per cent of their viewing time on Australian content.
• 36 per cent believe local productions are easy to find.

A fifth figure sits beside them. Seventy-one per cent of those surveyed reported taking an action after engaging with homegrown content: 43 per cent discussed it with others, 36 per cent researched a topic further, 27 per cent recommended it and 22 per cent said it changed their behaviour.

The demand is on the public record. The supply, by the same report, is not reaching it.

What the report blames

Discoverability. The findings put it at the centre of the challenge facing the industry, as audiences split their attention across streaming services, social media, gaming and short-form platforms.

The report found audiences increasingly rely on algorithms, recommendations and their peers to decide what to watch, rather than searching for it. Younger viewers in particular move between streaming services, social media, gaming and short-form platforms.

That changes what funding buys. A film or series that is made, funded and released is not the same as a film or series that is found.

What the agency says

Screen Australia chief executive Deirdre Brennan said the research demonstrated that Australian stories continue to hold considerable value, even as viewing habits become increasingly global.

‘While audience choices become increasingly global and algorithm-led, Screen Currency 2026 confirms local TV, film, direct-to-audience content and games matter deeply to Australians and clearly resonate around the world,’ she said.

Minister for the Arts Tony Burke said: ‘Australians know how valuable it is to see our stories, experiences and talent on screen.’

The report also points to what the agency says will be required of Australian screen businesses: building enduring intellectual property, strengthening audience relationships, improving discoverability and competing in global markets.

What it means for the books

The report does not change a funding line. It reframes one.

Funding rounds count what is produced. This report counts what is reached. A project that clears development, financing and release can still land with the 64 per cent who do not say local content is easy to find.

For producers, that moves a cost. Marketing and platform placement stop being the distributor’s problem and become part of the project’s viability. For the funder, it opens a question the figures cannot answer on their own: how much of the next round of support goes to making things, and how much to making sure they are seen.

That question will be settled in budgets, not in surveys. The survey has made it harder to avoid.

Figures are as reported by Mediaweek and Variety Australia from Screen Australia’s Screen Currency 2026 release. The full report was not reviewed for this article.