★★★★★ 0/5

ABC boss: News 24 “will get better”

ABC's Mark Scott faced a series of questions on Media Watch, mostly relating to ABC News 24 and the future for the Australia Network.

11
Leave a comment

ABC Managing Director Mark Scott last night faced a series of questions from Media Watch host Jonathan Holmes, mostly relating to the launch of ABC News 24 and the future for the Australia Network.

In a climate of criticism (mostly from SKY News and News Limited), Holmes asked Scott about ABC News 24’s ability to deliver live content, given that it has missed two ‘very important press conferences since it’s been on air.’

Mark Scott: Well we want to get there, we want to provide as much live coverage as we can. I think we need to reflect on what it is we’ve actually achieved. In a very short period of time we’ve put this 24 hour news channel to air, we launched it right in the middle of an election campaign, which is the most fevered environment you can think of with more live events. We’re trying to cover press conferences wherein at times we only have ten minutes notice that the press conferences are going to start and where they’re going to be.

Jonathan Holmes: Well your rival Sky seems to be able to cope with that rather better than we can.

Mark Scott: Well but I think Sky’s had their moments as well and they’ve had 15 years to practice. And if you’re going to be a serious judge of these, go and look at Sky 15 years ago, go look at CNN 30 years ago. Our people are working very hard and I think they’re doing a great job and for three or four weeks in I think we’re very pleased with how the channel is. It’ll get better.

On the subject of the Australia Network, which SKY wants put up for tender, Scott said ABC was still the best placed to run the international service.

Mark Scott: What the Lowy Institute found was that the public broadcasters had the credibility and the independence to deliver that service. We have no other commercial agenda, we have no other business in those countries, there’s no distraction by commercial interests. All we have to do is deliver as an independent public broadcaster and nowhere else in the world, nowhere else in the world is this put out to tender. We don’t put our embassies out to tender, we don’t put our defence force out to tender and other countries don’t put their public broadcasting and their international broadcasting out to tender.

Alas there were no questions relating to the executive restructure with Channel Controllers, the state of Drama or the still unnanounced Head of Fiction.

You can read more of the interview at ABC.

11 Responses

  3. In my own opinion I think News 24 has been a worthwhile endevour, I do agree with the critisism brought up by Johnathon Holmes though but I think both men did an excellent job.

    Also if the ABC is looking for a head of fiction, I’m looking for a job…

    @Pietro: I don’t know what show you were watching, but Mr. Holmes looked well relaxed and in command of his show.

  4. It was a solid interview last night, and was honest about the issues ABC24 are facing.
    Iike others new ventures (eg. 7pm Project) we just need to go on the ride with them and over time I am sure it will improve.
    Just having multiple news bulletins through the evening has been a nice treat, and I have watched more news content in the past month than u normally would.
    Thumbs up from me.

  5. Its good we can now see footy results/highlights on Saturday night and not have to wait until the next morning.
    Sky News and Foxtel are just upset because they now have real competition. They’re also hell bent for sports on the Anti-Siphoning list to be televised on free-to-air digital multichannels because it means Foxsports loses content. So most Australians couldn’t really give a s**t what Sky and Foxtel thinks.

  6. I’m a bit disaponited with ABC24 or News24 whatever its called.

    Its a shame that there’s not much local content during the day via the news updates. While Election and world news is of interest, I still would like to know what’s going on in my own state.

    It is good for sports updates as on Saturday night I got to catch up with some A-league results.

    Though last Friday the “sports” presenter called John Worsfold – John WorsfoRd 3 times.

    At this point its not quite what I was expecting, but still I guess theres always room for improvement.

  7. I was a tad disappointed with the end result. Granted they only have 13 minutes to play with, it could have been more challenging in other areas. The replays were wasted duration in my opinion.

  8. I don’t have HD so can’t watch News24 🙁
    But I have watched a little streamed online, and the difference with Sky News is amazing, Sky looks like a cheap flashy commercial channel whereas ABC News24 has a distinct look of quality.

  9. News and current affairs are important on the ABC, however I, too, was disappointed they didn’t talk about anything else – in particular, as David refers to, the restructure, and the seemingly impossible task of finding a Head of Fiction. Australian drama has traditionally been a really important part of ABC programming, however it has been failing to deliver either quality or quantity for years and I’d like to know what’s being done about it.

  10. I still think the ABC should operate Australia Network as it carries a good line-up of news and current affairs programs, Australian-made dramas, documentaries, English learning programs and sport (AFL, NRL, V8 Supercars, Melbourne Cup etc.) If Sky News wins the rights to operate the channel it will just be filled with news and business programs 24/7 including on weekends. Then a separate channel may need to be set up to carry the AFL and NRL into Asia, or ESPN Star Sports will have to be involved.

Leave a Reply