Jobs go as ABC overhauls commissioning in Content

• New Head of Scripted to lead commissions across Comedy and Drama 
• New Head of Factual to be announced
• New Arts, Music and Events dept
• Genre priorities: Indigenous, Arts, Children’s, Scripted, Entertainment and Factual

ABC has announced departmental restructures of its new Content division, spanning Scripted, Entertainment, Factual, Indigenous, Arts and Childrens across television, radio and online from July 1st.

The Content division is headed by recently-appointed Chief Content Officer Chris Oliver-Taylor, who sits separately from the News division headed by Justin Stevens.

As part of the digital transformation changes, a number of ABC executives in commissioning and production will be made redundant. Up to 120 jobs are expected to go across the broadcaster today, including in News.

In a note to staff, Oliver-Taylor said the new Five-Year Plan 2023-28 provided context to the restructure meeting changing audiences and the reality of rising costs.

“A fundamental challenge we must recognise are that our audiences are declining on our broadcast platforms and the initial growth of our digital products has now slowed on both ABC iview and ABC listen. Today’s re-organisation of our content teams puts us firmly on a digital-first footing,” he said.

“All of these changes are important in securing the long-term health of the organisation but unfortunately there is an unavoidable impact on some roles. This is not an easy process, and we anticipate that some of our colleagues, our friends and teammates who have made outstanding contributions to the ABC, will be leaving us.”

The new Content Division will focus on Screen, Audio and Digital. From July 1st ABC Content operates to three key fundamentals:

1. How we select and commission our content.
2. A priority on our digital product (ABC iview and ABC listen)
3. A focus on audience and impact.

“In Screen, the Content Division will continue to commission the majority of its content in partnership with the Independent Production sector. There will be a reduction in a number of commissioning editor and management roles across Screen and we will transfer that funding to the commissioning of new content. This simply means less management, more content, better decision making and more accountability,” he said in a staff note.

“The ABC will continue to prioritise key genres such as Indigenous, Arts, Children’s, Scripted, Entertainment and Factual, ensuring strong public broadcasting values are inherent in what we commission, but ensuring that the ABC’s content is relevant for all of Australia.

“In the Factual team, we will bring together the Factual shows that were in the R&L and E&S division together to form the largest commissioner of Factual content in Australia. This department will be led by a new Head of Factual.

“In Scripted, a new Head of Scripted will lead all narrative commissions at the ABC across Comedy and Drama and will have oversight of the largest volume of scripted commissions in Australia. Continuing to drive major audience impact and leveraging off the success of recent commissions such as Utopia, Mystery Road, Total Control, Fisk and The Newsreader.

“In Children’s, the most successful Children’s commissioning team, arguably in the world, certainly in the Southern Hemisphere, will continue under Libbie Doherty’s leadership, and the ABC will commit more funding to attract our younger and co-viewing, family audiences.

“We have created a new department, Arts, Music and Events to be led by Kath Earle. Utilising the vast experience that Kath has gained during her tenure at the ABC, Kath will now lead a combined department focusing on the ABC’s continued and major commitment to the Arts as well as consolidating the significant impact of the ABC’s Events team. Such events include coverage of ANZAC Day, Gallipoli, the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras and Australia’s celebration of New Years Eve. Music continues to be a driver of our younger audiences and we have moved the production of rage from the Music Audio team to the Music screen team.

“Entertainment, led as a separate department by Nick Hayden, will continue to serve our broad audience, delivering hits such as The Weekly, Gruen and Hard Quiz and remains a critical audience driver to the ABC.

“We announced earlier this year the promotion and prioritisation of Indigenous Content right across the Content Division. This work will be led by Kelrick Martin. Kelrick will work with all genres, and all output to ensure a primacy of Indigenous stories are imbedded in everything we do. He will also be a key leader for our Indigenous staff and the main stakeholder with our external Indigenous bodies, colleagues and the production sector. Kelrick will continue to lead and be heavily involved in all Indigenous commissioned content, for example NAIDOC Week and Awaye.

“There will also be some minor changes across our Operations group and our Production team, now led by Head of Production Sacha Gregson. These changes are driven by efficiency and our new content priorities.”

Content Curation and Distribution will relinquish any responsibility for ABC listen and focus purely on ABC iview, programming and acquiring for screen.

Sarah McKenzie will join the Content Leadership team, with a role that focuses on long term content planning and commissioning of all content. There are no proposed changes to the Business affairs team, led by Helen MacDonald.

“Wherever possible we have separated audio from screen and reduced management across the new Division, with the one exception being Sport, where screen shows such as Offsiders will remain within the predominantly audio Sport team. They are responsible for coverage of our major sport output, including coverage of the AFL, NRL, Women’s World Cup and presently the Ashes from the UK. Sport remains a major audience driver for the ABC, and our commitment will continue to this key genre,” he continued.

“Angela Stengel leads the new Digital Content and Innovation team, and we have grouped as many of our digital people together under Angela’s leadership. Many will stay embedded in their program or genre team, but this centralisation will allow us to ensure we are best supporting our output into the future. Angela’s current team, the Innovation Lab will move from Strategy to the Digital Content and Innovation team, with Arul Baskaran taking on the leadership of our R&D focussed work. Angela will also take the lead on the curation of ABC listen and work with our Product and Technology teams to deliver the technology advancements required to serve our audiences.”

This post updates.