And yet, it doesn't work that way. The argument is - in fact - sound, because it has decades of ground under its feet. This is not new. It is merely new to AU.

That's quite the wall of text talking about what you like and don't like. Insight: the other eight billion-ish consumers on the planet are not you.

You are incorrect. The bar is very high. Which is why the streaming leaders (such as Disney+) are dominant. And yes, advertising budget is huge. Not necessarily the most important factor, but it's gargantuan.

I have an example elsewhere in this thread explaining that consumers have limited dollars and foreign mega-streamers exert pressure on local industry that is not proportionate. The lure of big-ticket franchises and heavily-advertised water-cooler-topic shows influences spending. This isn't a trade war or a culture war. It's enabling customers to be able to get what they want.

Lesser-known stuff too. Obviously Letterkenny has some international awareness, but for instance my wife and I have found Late Bloomer to be interestingly funny and illuminating.

Imagine a family has $20/mo to spend on streaming content.
Imagine Disney+ has the billion shows you already know about; Star Wars, Marvel, all the princess things.
Imagine Stan! has a decent selection of Australian content. Obviously not Disney's massive library worth, but a reasonable library.

Now imagine Disney+ wants $15/mo and Stan! wants $8.

Finally, imagine you've got kids. You can't afford both. You have to pick one or the other service.

You've got to pick Disney, right? Even though Stan! has a bunch of content that stars people like you, in places like yours, written by people who think like you and understand your regional sensibility. Because not having the giants cuts you off from so much "must see" content you've kind of got to pick them.

Wouldn't it be nice if Disney+ was mandated that they had to pick up and license some of that local content? So you can get at least some of that stuff you crave. And as a bonus, people in other countries may get to see it - and like it - too.

And this is why a} you're modded a troll and b} your mother put you up for adoption but there were no takers. But seriously, stereotypes from the outside just demonstrate why local content is important; outsiders don't often "get it".

Wait, what? I totally missed that. My wife and I started with Ghosts (the original, UK version), and have been watching the US version as it comes out. But an AU version? Neat!

Thank you.

Haha only... there's a healthy-sized Australian TV industry with some very good shows.

While the bulk of content for English-speaking people seems to come from the US, as a Canadian I actively look for content from here, from the UK, Australia and NZ because frankly there's some really excellent stuff out there. It's another benefit to sailing the seven seas... when you're not fettered to the big streaming companies you can find things you'd never otherwise know exist.

According to Google, Starliner is a fixed-price contract, so (in theory) they should only get paid for meeting milestones. There's no extra profit to Boeing in dragging this out (again, in theory).

Paid for with U.S. taxpayer funds. Contractors are paid by the government which paid for by the people. It's government, and our, IP.

There is also the Mountain Pass Rare Earth Mine in California.

It has been opened and closed several times as the Feds and state of California tussle over it.

California greenies want it closed. The Feds want it to operate, even at a loss, for supply chain security.

It is currently operating with DoD subsidies, but production needs to be ramped up.

And the copyrights for them go to ... publisher, AI/LLM owner ... ?

Won't really know for sure until someone shuffles across Mars in socks and touches the rover. :-)

Over 1/3 of the world's population, really? Although, think of how much money OpenAI will have lost by then. /s

Are we sure they're American? 'Cause elsewhere... Top MAGA Influencers Accidentally Unmasked as Foreign Trolls via new X account location information.

Google: X location feature

Pete Hegseth is concerned enough that he's switching from Signal to SMS to leak battle info ... :-)