# How Australia Lost Bluey

- Channel: [Gearside](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbZkFo9h0muNMQ1lJCKlMBA)
- Published: 2026-04-23
- Source video: [Watch on YouTube](https://youtube.com/watch?v=n5Pnkay8D5M)
- Read on ReadTube: https://www.read.tube/p/videos/n5Pnkay8D5M
- Language: Original (source language)

## Summary

**Australia's Bluey Blunder**

Australia missed out on Bluey’s massive global upside by failing to secure merchandise and international rights. The video argues this was not just a bad ABC deal, but part of a broader Australian habit of playing it safe, underinvesting in risk, and handing away the value of homegrown ideas.

Bluey became a global phenomenon, but the video argues Australia captured almost none of the financial reward because the ABC reportedly gave up world merchandise rights and overseas streaming royalties in exchange for only partial production funding. The creator claims the BBC has since reaped billions from the show, while Australia gained recognition but little money, and even failed to properly pursue a merchandise deal when the opportunity emerged.

The video uses that example to criticize the ABC, Australian public funding priorities, and a broader national tendency to avoid commercial risk. It contrasts the growth of publicly funded sectors with the slower private economy, arguing that Australia’s low appetite for innovation, commercialization, and venture investment helps explain weak wage growth, rising living costs, and the repeated export of ideas whose profits are captured elsewhere.

- Bluey’s success is framed as proof that Australian talent is not the problem.
- The ABC is criticized for not protecting or monetizing the property effectively.
- The BBC is said to have captured billions in value from merchandising and international rights.
- Australia is described as comfortable with safe bets, but reluctant to back its own ideas.
- The closing message is to own intellectual property, take more entrepreneurial risks, and build more Australian companies that keep the upside at home.