ABC channels safe, for now…
David Anderson doesn't rule out switching off a channel in the foreseeable future, due to funding freeze.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under News
The Age reports ABC has not ruled out closing a channel in response to its funding freeze, announced in the 2018 federal budget.
“We don’t think we can bridge the gap purely from efficiency alone,” managing director David Anderson has said.
“That’s where you start to look at what it is you’re providing on what service. At the moment we have no plans to turn off a channel or a network, but I have to say that in the foreseeable future turning off a channel will happen one day. It’s just not right now.”
In 2018 the government announced it was freezing ABC’s annual funding indexation for three years from July 2019, costing the organisation $84 million.
But Anderson told the Senate estimates committee that coupled with budget cuts announced in 2014, the cut to the broadcaster’s bottom line will be almost $106 million in 2021-22.
He also said covering the bushfires had come at an additional cost to the ABC of around $3 million.
ABC KIDS Comedy (previously known as ABC2) usually draws the higher ratings share of ABC’s multichannels, although ABC ME has little primetime content when shares are tallied from 6pm – midnight.
With ABC’s commitment to Children’s and News both might well be safer than Comedy.
32 Responses
How many anti ABC people on here? Who are all happy to pay for right wing news and absolute BS on Sky( we are never wrong and a our guests are on because they agree with us) News.
This will probably answer your question. Every site survey / poll I have ever conducted has not only rejected the idea of a merge, it has been the lowest priority as an industry issue that needs addressing. Consistently. ABC and SBS have indicated they are looking at sharing backroom resources but not merging.
I want to extend what David said, and mention that both ABC and SBS has consistency been rated as more trusted when it comes to news and current affairs than commercial stations (and in particular Seven and Nine, which I have little trust in anyway) and News Corp. outlets (such as the Herald Sun, Daily Telegraph and Sky News among others) in surveys on which media outlets are more trusted.
It’s interesting that you single out “in particular Seven and Nine” because I’ve only seen research that categorises “Commercial TV news and current affairs” without making that distinction. The same with “News and opinion in daily newspapers”. However one point that is disturbing is that while the trust in “commercial” news in radio, TV and newspapers has increased over the year, over the same period the trust in the ABC has declined. (Source: Essential Report – Trust in Media). The other figure often reported is the Morgan poll which is about the “brand” and not news and current affairs, in that one the ABC scored over 80% coming in fourth behind Aldi, Bunnings and Qantas. To put that into perspective, the ABC’s leading percentage of “a lot of trust” is less than 20% when it comes to news and current affairs. Something that should be worrying Gaven Morris.
Definitely not a ABC hater. But I do think they (SBS/ABC) are too big. The Govt directly or indirectly funds the majority of FTA channels in Australia. That’s beyond crazy.
I would merge ABC/SBS and move some current channels online (ABC Kids, Viceland, SBS Movies and NITV). TV is moving online anyway.
I would leave radio as is.
To me, they seem to waste a lot of money and especially SBS don’t appear to be adhering to their initial charter (B99, Whiskey Cavalier, X Files etc.).
I would prefer to see SBS channels reduced, if there had to be a choice. As you say, they have moved significantly away from the original purpose and the excess of soft porn shows is unnecessary for a public broadcaster.
Moving channels online, I would see as contradictory to the charter for both channels. As much as it might be desirable, not everyone has internet access and many of those who don’t are the ones who most need reliable public information in a timely fashion. In particular quality children’s content must be easily available to every child, for the educational benefit delivered to underprivileged preschoolers etc. Australian society benefits when young children receive better education.
It’s sad to read these anti-public broadcasting comments from people who think they know what’s best for Australia i.e. Leave television to the free market as they do it oh so well. What a laugh!. Public broadcasting saves us from becoming a nation of nongs.
Agree
In this day of increasing concentration of media ownership here in Australia as well as throughout the world, a publicly-owned ABC and SBS are more important than ever. The only person who wants ABC and SBS privatised is Rupert Murdoch, a US citizen; as well as his mates in the Institute of Public Affairs as mentioned in the IPA’s 75 point plan for Australia (#50, break up the ABC and put each of its function out to tender, #51, privatise SBS).
Back in 1987, the French Government privatised TF1, and look how that turned out as its goal is now helping Coca-Cola instead of listening to the public by following trends and fads such as reality television shows. Type TF1 into Wikipedia for more information.
… so I’m guessing you would support a licence fee like in the UK so that the ABC (and maybe SBS) can indeed be directly “publicly-owned” rather than the government of the day having the ability to adjust the funding allocation as it sees fit?
The ABC should be privatised. Waste of tax payers money IMO.
I agree. As a minimum it should 1) be able to allow advertising between shows to assist in paying for itself rather than leaving it to taxpayers to fund completely and 2) be actually balanced rather than just claim to be. Been watching the breakfast show in the morning at the gym before we started working from home a few weeks ago. How anyone can say that is a balanced service is kidding themselves.
There is now a global depression which will have effects lasting for years. After 30 years of putting our head in the sand, Australia is finally going to actually have to make reforms to lift productivity and efficiency as everything gets rebuilt. Future budgets will look nothing like past budgets and we will be repaying hundreds of billions of dollar of debt.
Whether the ABC broadcasts News 24, their version of outdated cable news, and a few hours a day of Kids, Me and Comedy, in an age where Broadcasting is dying anyway, is pre-Coronavirus problem. As are two public broadcasters competing in TV and Radio for the same audience.
Incorrect, we are not in a Depression at all. An economic depression is defined by 2 -3 years of negative growth, as opposed to a recession being two consecutive quarters of negative growth. I learnt that from watching a leading economist speak on the ABC.
We don’t know where we are now. It could end up being a depression.
I don’t see your logic here.
Wonder what percentage of SBS revenue is from advertising ? It still requires government funding so can not be fully funded by advertising.
Last figures I saw were $12m compared to $250m from the Government. But that was some years ago and both will be smaller now as the Government cut SBS’s budget and TV ad revenue is still falling at 13% p.a. as advertising moves online.
Sbs has commercials so why not the abc as well?
No no no no and no
I didn’t mind when SBS had advertising blocks before and after the programming with no advertising during programming. It wasn’t intrusive and I was more inclined to watch the advertising whilst waiting for the next programming. But unfortunately now the advertising breaks are throughout the programming.
SBS and ABC need to be merged.
The Federal Government funds the majority of FTA channels in Australia. Crazy!!
Also, the ABC finds money to buy the commercial dud – A League soccer. They’re not doing too bad.
ABC comedy should go completely and ABC3 and kids should only stream on iview. That should save a fair amount.
Leave my ABC alone
I thinks its fantastic we have a broadcaster who can come out and say they are going to be putting together content for the students who are now at home. To make that happen wouldn’t be easy to do I’m assuming. The channel name ABC Me Comedy seems too hard read, ABC 2 was far easier. As for funding, the ABC is times like the past 6+ months now, shows the real reason we need to ensure they are propped up. I’m not saying tax payers should give it endless amounts of money, they should be able to be the best broadcaster on offer (within reason and budget)
They never mention how they come up with the $84 million figure. They’re clearly using a higher inflation rate than the current 1.8%
Note the ABC isn’t subject to the efficiency dividend (currently 2%) that other portfolios are (such as the one that includes Centrelink).
ABC funding slashed by $84m in budget to help broadcaster ‘live within their means’
The Guardian, 8 May 2018:
“Funding for the ABC has been cut by $84m with the treasurer, Scott Morrison, saying the reduction is justified because “everyone has to live within their means”.”
…
“The cut will be phased in over three years, with a $14.6m cut in 2019-20, $27.8m in 2020-21 and $41.2m in 2021-22. Total funding for the national broadcaster will go from $1.131bn in 2017 to $1.122bn in 2018-19.”
The Media describing it as a cut when in fact their funding has been frozen – ie, not being increased in line with the CPI. Again, no explanation from the ABC as to how they come up with the figure.
Coupla things – the ABC did not “come up with the figure”, Treasury did, but it was based on CPI modelling that is now well out of date and shouldn’t be used today; the second is that it’s people who call themselves journalists, particularly in the SMH/Age and Guardian, who keep using the word “cut” instead of “freeze” and even claiming that the figure of $84mil was an “annual” reduction rather than over three years Their reporting of this subject has led to several complaints to the Press Council and the offending publication has admitted its “error”, but the next story still says the same. It’s just an example of the declining standard of honesty in journalism today, particularly when the subject affects their “mates” in the ABC newsroom. So don’t blame “the ABC” as a whole for this.
Ah, yes – just had a look at the 2018 budget papers. Expected savings to the budget of $83.7 million dollars over three years. ABC and the media have used that figure, without explaining what it is since then. CPI forecast in the budget was 2.25% (June quarter 2019) and 2.5% (June quarter 2020). Actual CPI at June quarter 2019 was 1.6%. Current CPI as at December quarter is 1.8%.
If the Gummint doesn’t realise just how important the ABC is in all its guises after the last 6 months, then I despair for any sort of sanity from it. The Minister should be protecting the ABC on behalf of the shareholders – us – not sacrificing it to other departments who want the $ for a new pony club showroom somewhere or some such nonsense.
I would also expect the ABC to wear a significant portion of the costs of Covid19 in terms of government expenditure. That’s why I suggested merging ABC and SBS on here a couple of weeks ago.