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ABC discloses cost to cover Queen’s funeral

Covering major news does not always come cheap, but we finally have some insight.

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The ABC has disclosed the expenditure to cover the death of Queen Elizabeth II and the funeral which followed, via freedom of information documents.

Between 6 and 19 September ABC had a total of 30 people in London, including correspondents already there covering other European news, 17 staff from Australia and 10 from international bureaus in Washington and Jerusalem.

It spent $373,417 on flights and accommodation for 27 staff, including business class flights costing $129,944 and economy flights costing $122,683.

The ABC has a charter which demands it cover events of national significance and spans digital, radio, TV, and on-demand programs and channels 24 hours a day.

Nine sent up to 100 staff to cover the same event.

Source: Guardian Australia

8 Responses

  2. Far less than I’d expected and truly excellent value for money!

    Business class flights are essential when you want people to arrive and commence work, being informed, alert and broadcast ready within hours of landing.

    It’s also likely a contractual requirement for some on-air talent to fly business if the flight is over a particular duration. In fact, this is quite common in many businesses who make the well-being and health of their team a priority.

    2. Scarcity of flights at such short notice (to get all the personnel over there in time) and other AUS networks sending larger amounts of people over at the same time. I’m sure premium economy would have been explored, if business wasn’t contractually specified.

      ABC still did an awesome job with less than half the resources of the commercial networks.

    4. Unless you are prepared to give them a couple of days to recover from the flight – at the expensive London hotel prices – then they definitely need to fly business class.

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