When Opera Australia announced its expanded digital streaming platform in 2024, the arts community was cautiously hopeful. Finally, the national company was going to bring opera to the 95% of Australians who don’t live within walking distance of the Sydney Opera House. Two years on, I think it’s time for an honest assessment of how that’s going.

Spoiler: it’s complicated.

The Promise vs. The Reality

The pitch was compelling. Regional Australia has historically been underserved by our national opera company. If you live in Dubbo or Cairns or Albany, your chances of seeing a live Opera Australia production are close to zero. Streaming was supposed to fix that.

Opera Australia invested in multi-camera capture of mainstage productions, built a subscription-based platform, and partnered with the ABC for some free-to-air broadcast events. They hired a digital team, upgraded their capture equipment, and talked a lot about “democratising access.”

So what happened?

The Numbers

Opera Australia hasn’t published detailed streaming figures — which, candidly, probably tells you something — but from conversations with people inside the organisation and public statements at their 2025 AGM, here’s what we can piece together.

Paid streaming subscriptions are sitting somewhere around 15,000-20,000 nationally. That’s not nothing, but it’s not transformative either. For context, the Metropolitan Opera’s Met Opera on Demand service has roughly 40,000 subscribers in the US, serving a population 13 times Australia’s size. So per capita, Opera Australia is actually doing reasonably well by international comparison.

But here’s the rub: when you look at where those subscribers are, the distribution isn’t as regional as the marketing suggests. Industry sources indicate that roughly 60% of streaming subscribers are in Sydney and Melbourne — the same cities where people can already attend live performances. The platform is serving existing opera fans more than creating new regional audiences.

Why Regional Uptake Has Been Slow

Having spent a good chunk of my career watching how arts organisations try to engage new audiences, I’m not surprised. Several factors are working against regional adoption.

Internet quality still matters. Yes, the NBN exists. No, it doesn’t work brilliantly everywhere. Streaming a high-definition opera production with multichannel audio over a patchy satellite NBN connection in rural Queensland is not a great experience. And opera is a form where audio quality matters enormously. A crackling Tosca is worse than no Tosca.

Price sensitivity. Opera Australia’s streaming subscription runs about $17/month. That’s competing against Netflix, Stan, Disney+, and every other streaming service for household entertainment budget. In regional areas where incomes are generally lower, that’s a harder sell — especially when the content library is relatively small compared to mainstream platforms.

Cultural familiarity. This is the uncomfortable one. If you didn’t grow up around opera, a streaming platform won’t magically create interest. The barrier isn’t access — it’s affinity. And Opera Australia hasn’t invested enough in the curatorial and educational content that might bridge that gap for newcomers.

What’s Actually Working

It’s not all grim. A few bright spots deserve mention.

The free simulcast events — where Opera Australia streams one production live and free via the ABC and social platforms — have drawn significantly larger audiences. The 2025 simulcast of Carmen reportedly reached over 200,000 viewers, with strong regional representation. Free content removes the price barrier, and the “event” nature of a live broadcast creates urgency.

School programs leveraging streaming content have shown promise. Several regional schools have incorporated Opera Australia streams into their music and performing arts curricula. This is playing a long game — building familiarity with a generation of students who might become future audiences.

The on-demand archive is also quietly valuable. Having a library of past productions available for repeat viewing is something that live performance can’t offer. I know several singing teachers who use the archive for educational purposes, and that’s a legitimate use case.

What Needs to Change

I think Opera Australia needs to reckon with a few realities.

First, streaming isn’t a substitute for touring. Regional audiences have consistently said they want live performance, not a screen. Opera Australia’s touring program has been gutted over the past decade due to budget pressures, and no amount of streaming makes up for a company that doesn’t visit your town. Victorian Opera and Opera Queensland are doing more regional touring with smaller, nimble productions, and audiences are responding.

Second, the platform needs more accessible content. Not every entry should be a three-hour Wagner. Short-form content — behind-the-scenes documentaries, aria showcases, artist interviews, “opera in 30 minutes” condensed versions — would lower the barrier for curious newcomers. The Royal Opera House in London has done this well with their free YouTube content, which serves as a funnel to paid streaming and ticket sales.

Third, pricing needs rethinking. A free tier with limited content and ads, supported by a premium ad-free tier, would align more closely with how Australians actually consume streaming media. The all-or-nothing subscription model isn’t working for discovery audiences.

The Bigger Picture

Opera Australia’s streaming experiment reflects a broader challenge across performing arts: digital is necessary but not sufficient. You can’t stream your way out of an audience development problem. You need programming that speaks to diverse communities, pricing that reflects economic reality, and physical presence in the places you claim to serve.

The technology works fine. The production quality of their captured performances is genuinely excellent — some of the best I’ve seen from any opera company globally. The problem was never the cameras.

It was assuming that if you build it, they will come. In regional Australia, that assumption has never held true for the arts. You have to go to them. You have to earn the audience, one town at a time.

Streaming should complement that work, not replace it. Two years in, I think Opera Australia is slowly realising that. Whether their budget and board have the appetite for the messier, more expensive work of genuine regional engagement remains to be seen.