The public broadcasters are great assets to send to regional areas, the country continues to be too centralised in the main capital cities, with the urban sprawl and long travel times/congestion the result. They can deliver the same broadcast results generating employment outside of Sydney with the technology available these days.
Realistically, all Australian broadcasters (not just the taxpayer funded ones) are probably going to have to look at decentralised operations in the coming years - the pandemic has shown us how having just about everything in Sydney & Melbourne is a recipe for disaster.
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as long as Lib / Lab remain obsessed with trying to appeal to Western Sydney voters above voters anywhere else in the country, questionable moves like this will continue to happen.
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Are we forgetting that the ABC have main broadcast hubs in Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide?
Nothing like the BBC.
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Thereās still a perception the majority comes from Sydney. I recently had somebody from Melbourne insist News Breakfast was from Sydney and they change the backdrop depending on where youāre watching it. I tried to convince her, but I donāt think I succeeded.
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Iām just finding this conversation of decentralising from Sydney CBD and moving facilities to Western Sydney is absolutely odd and pointless. Itās a national broadcaster that should be looking interstate at smaller markets that need to be more represented (QLD/SA/WA). Heck even Tasmania and Canberra.
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TVNZ is too Auckland centric as well
Doesnāt it? I mean each capital city puts out a 7.00 news but pretty much everything else is played out or produced from Sydney and (to a lesser extent) Melbourne? News Breakfast and I think Insiders comes from Melbourne? Q&A moves around but is mostly Sydney-based.
There used to be some shows made in what ABC called the BAPH states (Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Hobart) but I think they are long gone.
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This is probably where the ABCās national HQ should be! Although if Iām not mistaken, 7.30 is sometimes presented from Canberra - especially when Laura Tingle is hosting the show.
As for the āBAPAā states, Iām pretty sure Behind The News is still produced in Adelaide?
Yes Insiders have been and still is based in Melbourne for as long as itās been on-air I think.
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Melbourne is well balanced. A large portion of news and entertainment production / shows are made within the Southbank studios. But I do believe the ABC should be looking at its smaller hubs in other states, not Western Sydney.
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Gardening Australia was always seen as a Tasmanian thing - with Peter Cundall and produced from Tasmania before moving to Melbourne (?) in the early-mid 2000ās I think.
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Landline is still seen as a Brisbane-based production
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There was a push in the early 2000ās to do more in the BAPH states (they used the 6:30pm weekday timeslot for programming from that area) but budget cuts put pay to that
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Iām usually a strong defender of the ABC, but moving staff to Parramatta shows a Sydney-centric sensitivity to the East-West suburb divide that doesnāt resonate in the rest of the country. Only an organisation already based in Sydney would see this as the main priority for decentralisation.
The ABCās annual report provides a breakdown of their employees by location. From this, you can calculate the number of ABC employees per 100,000 people, which shows the most over-represented states are NSW, the ACT and the NT. QLD, WA and Victoria are the least represented.
For reference (employees per 100,000 people):
NSW - 23.2
Qld - 8.0
South Australia - 14.5
Tas - 21.8
Vic - 8.7
WA - 7.2
ACT - 35.2
NT - 41.0
Journalists often have to move during their career, but a good metric would be whether or not someone can advance their career without ending up based in Sydney or Canberra. There should be more specialist and senior reports who are based in BAPH states and are able to build their reputations there. This involves actually distributing presentation and production of agenda-setting programming outside of Sydney (e.g. 7:30, RN).
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I think the moving of AM to Hobart and PM to Bega(?) is a good start as far as radio current affairs goes and shows that this content can come out of locations other than Sydney and Melbourne.
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Very true. Iām not sure if the actual production of these shows has moved, or just the presenters (e.g. producers)?
Think itās just the presenters but itās a start and itās the presenters who the average listener would relate with.
Well, that and the shows were mostly pretty ordinary:
- Head 2 Head (sports quiz in Brisbane)
- Second Opinion (health panel show in Hobart)
- Collectors (Hobart)
- Talking Heads (Brisbane)
- The Cook and the Chef was Adelaide and one of the few with longevity
- How the Quest Was Won (Perth - never understood what the fuck this show was about)
- Can We Help? (Perth, similarly pointless)
I think later these moved to 8pm - Collectors and Can We Help were Friday filler. That 6pm-7pm hour has always been tough for ABC - some real shockers of shoes over the years, and some real missed opportunities.
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While not setting ratings records, The Drum seems to be doing OK as itās been in the timeslot for some time now?
But yeah, the 6pm hour has long been a particularly awkward timeslot for ABC-TVā¦probably moreso years ago when it was the gap between afternoon kids shows and the 7pm news!