There is also Hulu, another VoD and streaming service, which may too set its sights on Australia in the near future. With Amazon Prime now launching in Australia there will be two international VoD services competing with a single locally owned VoD service, Stan. Quickflix’s future is unclear despite a recent takeover, Presto will cease its service in January 2017 and Foxtel is reshaping its packages and pricing as it attempts to re-imagine itself in this ever changing space. The success of Netflix has also seen a shake-up of the local media landscape. In Australia, Netflix is the major VoD service, far outweighing the subscription numbers of local services. Netflix has seen great success after its global launch. There had been some speculation that The Grand Tour would be the flagship program used to launch the Amazon Prime service in Australia. So what impact could The Grand Tour – and the potential of a wider Amazon Prime launch – have on Australia’s changing media landscape and Australians’ viewing behaviours? A flagship launch program What is that accent for Holden Man 3,000? So it’s a big show with big expectations, from both fans and Amazon Prime.Īt the moment Amazon Prime is only available in US, UK, Germany and Japan but Amazon has just announced the show will be available in more than 200 countries from December. The opening title sequence for The Grand Tour itself is said to have cost £2.5 million (A$4.1 million) alone, set to show homage to Mad Max: Fury Road. The program is reported to have a budget of £4.5 million (A$7.4 million) per episode, ten times the budget allocated when the trio were hosting Top Gear. The Grand Tour in grand tent in California. So to alleviate this issue at least, the team will travel the world and host each episode from a giant tent.
The lawyers pointed out that we couldn’t host the show from a static location because, although it had been our idea, the BBC owned it. The Conversation UK receives funding from these organisations Queensland University of Technology and Victoria University provide funding as members of The Conversation AU. Marc C-Scott is a board member of C31 Melbourne (Community Television Station). Nic is also the Legal Lead of the Creative Commons Australia project and the deputy chair of Digital Rights Watch, an Australian non-profit organisation whose mission is to ensure that Australian citizens are equipped, empowered and enabled to uphold their digital rights. He also leads projects funded by industry groups, including the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) and the Australian Digital Alliance. Nicolas Suzor is the recipient of an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellowship (project number DE160101542) and receives other project funding from the ARC. Lecturer in Screen Media, Victoria University Associate professor, Queensland University of Technology