According to The Australian, the ABC has already spent $7.2 million on advertising between July 1 last year and May 31 this year – up 31 per cent compared to the entire 2019-20 financial year. The data also shows the ABC has splashed a total of $12.8 million across advertising, market research and promotion in the same period, overtaking the $12 million the broadcaster spent in the 2019/20 financial year in the same categories. The figures were obtained under Freedom of Information laws.
Did The Australian write that? It makes it sound like it’s an extravagance, rather than finding out if the organisation is serving the taxpayers that fund it.
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I don’t get this argument. (Typical of Pravda Oz’s ramblings on the ABC.)
Should the ABC not advertise?
I think the question is why is marketing spend increasing?
Edit: Particularly when they they are complaining about lack of funding, which is not true. They just have to manage it better, that’s why management is getting paid.
Ad rates are on the increase for starters.
Market research isn’t a bad thing to spend on.
30% is a very significant hike. What did they do in 20/21 that they didn’t do in 19/20?
Would be great to know but instead we just get an ideological attack as opposed to an article with details. (Complete with IPA)
The “article” suggests they’re spending on billboards and public transport - but there’s no indication whether there’s more of this, or it’s new.
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The article is based on this FOI disclosure from the ABC.
The amount spent by the ABC is around 1.2% of their total budget.
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100% anecdotal but they did a lot of outdoor advertising in the last quarter of the FY (I saw ABC News billboards in several locations in Perth, a few Triple J ones too) - I suspect they have a fixed budget for advertising that they use or lose? $12m to 12.8m year on year isn’t a particularly big change.
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I know, groundbreaking stuff 
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I’ve seen a big increase on ABC billboard advertising. They’ve got a massive ABC iView billboard with Bluey on the silos at White Bay at the moment and I’ve seen a few ABC News adverts around.
I can understand promotion of their new shows, but why does the country’s biggest/most popular news source need to advertise?
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Brand re-enforcement, probably.
Seven and Nine don’t really need to advertise their news services either, but they spend millions making sure that Mark Ferguson and Peter Overton are as recgonisable amongst Sydneysiders as Scott Morrison or Gladys Berejiklian.
ABC statement on Legal and Business Affairs
The ABC rejects any claim it allocates too many resources, either in staffing or cost, to its legal responsibilities.
Providing high-quality and courageous public interest journalism requires proper legal advice. And there are times when it is critical for the ABC – as for all media organisations – to be able to defend its journalism in the interests of press freedom.
With our colleagues at the Right to Know Coalition (RTK), which includes News Corp and Nine Entertainment, the ABC has continuously called for legislative reforms which could reduce this burden.
The ABC’s in-house legal team is highly cost-efficient compared to other media organisations. The ABC employs approximately 26 in-house lawyers across its Legal and Business Affairs teams, a number that has not changed since 2011.
ABC Legal employs both lawyers and non-lawyers, including support staff, to ensure the ABC properly meets its responsibilities across a wide range of areas. These include litigation and disputes; pre-publication and training; acquisitions and production; and technology, commercial and regulatory functions.
External legal fees vary from year to year but are consistently lower than those of commercial broadcasters.
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The important bit that The Australian wont report
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Updated ABC Statement on EXPOSED: The Ghost Train Fire
This year the ABC’s EXPOSED: The Ghost Train Fire investigated the fatal fire at Luna Park in 1979, in which six children and a man tragically lost their lives, and the police investigation that followed.
It raised serious questions about the cause of the fire and about the original police investigation of the tragedy. It also conveyed calls from families of the victims, as well as witnesses, magistrates, former investigators and judicial figures, for a fresh inquiry to be announced.
Following an application received after EXPOSED aired, the NSW Coroner directed NSW Police to review the evidence concerning the cause and origin of the fire and the circumstances surrounding the deaths as a result of the fire.
In June a majority of the Upper House of the NSW Parliament voted in support of an independent special commission of inquiry to investigate the Luna Park fire and the subsequent police investigation.
NSW Police has offered a $1 million reward for new information regarding the fire.
The ABC stands by the journalism of EXPOSED and is assisting NSW Police in the inquiry.
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In written replies to questions by Labor senator Tony Sheldon in Senate estimates, the ABC refused to provide a breakdown of research, investigation and production costs aligned to different segments of the Ghost Train Fire documentary, but said total expenditure was $1,911,028, reports The Australian.
Of course they did.
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I really do question the need for a post for every missive the Oz runs on the ABC.
Anyway, this is how you decentralise a national broadcaster, not just shifting some staff to Parramatta.
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