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Govt settles on ABC, SBS cuts -but ABC awaits confirmation.

Updated: Speculation up to 500 jobs may go, but ABC says it has had no official confirmation of the scale of funding cuts.

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abc uIf the government has, as reports indicate, settled on the figure of cuts to ABC then the broadcaster is yet to hear a final figure.

Fairfax reports both ABC and SBS face cuts of up to $200 to $300 million over five years.

But ABC’s Director of TV Richard Finlayson told Mumbrella “I have seen the story and this is all just speculation and we have had no official confirmation, as yet, to the scale of the cuts we will be receiving.”

Yesterday Malcolm Turnbull was asked by ABC Radio if Cabinet had signed off on the budget cuts to the ABC.

TURNBULL: “I can’t confirm what – Cabinet decisions are announced at the appropriate time and we’ll be making some announcements about all of that before too long but I won’t pre-empt it today.

ABC: It’s a pretty simple question though, have you signed off on the cuts.

MALCOLM TURNBULL: It is. We’ve come to a conclusion on the level of cuts, yes, and the management of both companies are aware of that and the nature of those cuts will be public before too long.

Asked about specific programming cuts, he said, “…there are always going to be programming decisions and as my old friend and mentor Bruce Gyngell used to say to me years ago, ‘the problem with the TV business is that everybody thinks that they’re a programmer’ so everyone’s got an opinion.”

ABC announces its 2015 programming highlights this afternoon.

UPDATED: Fairfax reportsABC and SBS are facing combined job losses as high as 400 to 500 people, while the pay-out figure from the expected cuts will run into the tens of millions of dollars.

As well as job cuts, a range of programs could go and the two broadcasters will be encouraged to make savings on transmission contracts, distribution costs for TV catch-up services SBS On Demand and ABC iView and contracts for services such as mobile phones.

13 Responses

  1. @eastwest101: Nope, and no it’s not – you’ve got that completely wrong.

    But since you haven’t actually disputed my comparison, provided any contrary info of your own, or even bothered to clarify what you’re asking about, I’ll have to assume you haven’t researched it for yourself and are just trolling.

    Nice try though. I guess you’re on Malcolm Turnbull’s mailing list too?

  2. Tex – just to clarify – are you relying/quoting numbers from the recent report by The Australia Insitute? Since that is where you copied and pasted your sources from?

  3. @eastwest101: Which one?

    ABC operational expenditure came from the last couple of ABC financial reports, and was compared to the operational expenditure of Nine Entertainment and Seven West Media from their respective reports.

    The comparison with mining exploration was based on the 2013-14 Federal Budget, associated Budget Review papers, and various reviews / papers / reports from government Estimates committees, ATO, Geoscience Australia, and KPMG.

    This isn’t the place for extended discussion, so I hope you can do your own research from there 😉

  5. @ William …’ABC and SBS won’t last forever as there will come a time where mainly everything will be on Pay TV and online, which including big sporting events’
    And I would suggest that there will always have to be FTA…as a lot of people…either by choice or lack or finances …will not be able to pay for TV and/or internet,

  6. Actually Pertinax there are people out there who neither read the Guardian or Murdoch papers but remain very loyal to a public service which services regional and national Australia with a huge diversity of media services from ABC Radio to Landline, extensive and diverse current affairs show to children’s programs without advertising. While one can be critical of the operations of the ABC and its management it an essential part of our media landscape and much loved by the population. What it really needs is stability and a political consensus that guarantees its funding and not this constant lurching from a Coalition which hates it and cuts it to Labor which then restores and extends services. Such stability would create better programming and a better experience for its audience.

  7. @Ted
    The ABC has not had its funding reduced in real terms in the last ten years. The ABC has had its funding increased in real terms every year except for 2014/15 to 2018/19 when its annual budget was cut by 0.1%.

    The ABC was spending over $150m p.a. on its TV news and current affairs dept a few years ago, and got an extra $70m from Gillard to expand the depth of its coverage which it used to set up a fact checking and investigative journalism depts.

    Nine spends around $50m a year on news and current affairs, Seven a similar amount, Ten a much smaller amount.

    If you don’t like Murdoch then read The Guardian instead.

  8. William: “It is pretty unfair that ABC have so much power as they have got 4 channels, 8 radio channels and 3 online channels.”

    By the way, you left out Radio Australia and a few dozen ABC local radio networks.

    Meanwhile, the total annual operational expenditure of the whole ABC – radio, TV, online, print, etc – is about the same as that spent by each commercial TV network for far less coverage, or ~1/4 the amount of the money the government gives to mining exploration companies each year…

  9. “No cuts to the ABC, no cuts to SBS”.. Mr T Abbott, before the last Federal election. If it’s not the verbatim quote it’s as near as you can get… should anyone be at all surprised at what’s happening now?
    Forget whether there is any “fat on the bone”, economies to be made / or which should be achieved, etc… wouldn’t it be nice if politicians just did what they ‘promised’ for a change?!

  10. @Bazza – they come in to effect after the next election I believe. It is pretty unfair that ABC have so much power as they have got 4 channels, 8 radio channels and 3 online channels. So it is understandable.

    ABC and SBS won’t last forever as there will come a time where mainly everything will be on Pay TV and online, which including big sporting events

  11. Consider that the ABC has in real terms had funding reduced for last 10 years enough is enough.

    For a fraction of the budget of Fox and other commercial networks. the ABC has delivered a wide range of services to every Australian for cents a day

    This gutting of the ABC is only the prequel to removing it, then you will have no choice but to pay Rupert $18 a week.

    Rupert has repeatedly said the ABC and the BBC are his biggest problem for his pay for everything model.

  12. Turnbull has proposed cuts to the ERC (expenditure review committee) which agrees with them. Cabinet is yet to discuss, modify and vote on them. This was reported 48 hours ago.

    Fairfax deliberately didn’t report this (until online two hours ago) so they could publish a headline of speculation of $300m cuts in todays paper.

    Those cuts over 5 years are cuts of 2.7-4%. But you would need to see the actual funding schedule in the minibudget to see what they are in real terms with inflation adjusted for.

    .

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