The streaming video giant's booming business (and stock price) will come into focus for investors this week as the company reports quarterly results on Tuesday morning (AEST). International growth has been the key driver of Netflix's booming business and share price: it is the best performing stock in the US benchmark index this year, and is now more valuable than the biggest old media pureplay, Disney. When Hastings gave the aforementioned GQ interview, Netflix had just 5 million international subscribers to its streaming video service. Now it has 64 million, more than it has inside the US (55 million). Hannah Gadsby's Nanette is arguably Netflix's first Australian hit. But Netflix has been so successful in foreign markets that governments around the world are now looking at measures to rein it in, with the aim (misguided or not) of protecting their local creative communities.

Australia, for example, is weighing whether to become the first country in the world to impose a local content quota on Netflix and other streaming services. (The European Union already has a proposal on the table, so it might get there first.) The decision could set a precedent for other markets to follow. This, in turn, could end up imposing more costs on Netflix (which, some short sellers have long argued, is financially stretched). Recommendations from the Australian government's Screen Content Review aren't expected imminently. But the review, being led by the Communications Department, and also involving two other agencies, remains a topic of much discussion in film industry circles. It is also proving to be tricky terrain for the people involved – a bit like the jockeying around media ownership reform. Changes to any of Australia's film production incentives tend to be zero sum: somebody wins, somebody loses, striking a compromise that keeps everyone happy is almost impossible. "No matter what we do, it will piss someone off," one person involved in the process put it. "And everyone involved is vocal."

Netflix argues quotas lead to cheap, low quality shows (like the reality TV so prevalent on free-to-air networks these days). It also points to the success of shows it has made in markets like Germany (Dark, a sci-fi thriller) and Mexico (Narcos, a crime drama) that have gone on to find global appeal, demonstrating that its formula works. Loading Most analysts on Wall Street see international markets as a key area of strength for Netflix. "Netflix’s leading global scale has created structural advantages that appear to us to be virtually insurmountable," Credit Suisse analysts wrote last week. "Netflix should be able to scale its local content around the world.

"Netflix should have an easier path to provide a superior video service in many foreign markets than it does in the highly competitive, well-developed US." Whether that extends to Australia – a market that is both developed and competitive on streaming – is the key question. Netflix has already had its first Australian "hit" – the acclaimed Hannah Gadsby special, Nanette. It also aired the has engaged in co-productions with the likes of the ABC, such as the popular kids' show, The New Legends of Monkey, and licensed various Australian shows and movies for their second run. The real test of its anti-quota argument though, will be the two original dramatic series it is developing in Australia at the moment (Tidelands, a thriller set in Queensland, and a yet to be titled project from comedian Chris Lilley). Netflix's biggest rival in streaming locally is Stan, a 50-50 joint venture between Fairfax Media (publisher of The Sydney Morning Herald, and The Age) and Nine Entertainment Co.

Despite being smaller than Netflix, Stan has had little difficulty producing local content (which it appears to now see as a key point of difference). But even Stan doesn't want quotas imposed upon streaming services because that someday may come back to bite it. The Emmy award coup over HBO is yet another sign that Netflix is proving to be pretty good at this whole content thing. Good enough that it should be exempt from quotas? That is what the government will have to decide.