This couldn’t be further from the actual situation. ABC has embraced new technology especially with on-line delivery complementing their core services. ABC’s iView is by far the top BVOD service in the country while ABC News is the number one news site. ABC has managed this while still delivering to their traditional audience.
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Statement from ABC Chair Ita Buttrose: ABC Funding 2022-2025
I am delighted with the Government’s decision to commit $3.3 billion over the next three years to the ABC.
It will allow the national broadcaster to continue doing what it does best – provide information and entertainment to Australians wherever they live.
Statement from ABC Managing Director David Anderson
On behalf of the ABC, I welcome the funding certainty this announcement brings to the national broadcaster for the next three years.
The $3.3 billion over the next triennium, announced by the Minister Paul Fletcher, sees the resumption of indexation, the continuation of the Enhanced Newsgathering (ENG) program that provides vital services across the country, and ongoing support for audio description services for blind or visually impaired audiences.
ENG funding has delivered more tailored news to local communities and has seen the ABC invest more in specialist resources that provide vital context and analysis about issues that matter to all Australians.
Importantly, this announcement also guarantees the ability of the ABC to continue to reinvest funds from the recently concluded Google and Facebook deals into rural and regional services.
As the ABC’s Managing Director, I have consistently made the case for the resumption of indexation on the ABC’s base funding and the continued support for ENG program.
The triennial funding announcement is an important recognition that the ABC is needed now more than ever, and this funding is required so it can continue to fulfil its vital role in our democratic society.
I would like to thank the Minister, Paul Fletcher, and the Government for recognising the enduring value of the ABC as we mark 90 years of serving Australians.
Thanks for the replies - a couple of points:
The vast bulk of staffers at the ABC have nothing in common with people in rural and regional areas: most people in the regions are trade or on the job trained and never had access to a higher education either through academic ability or having parents that could support them well into their 20’s. The bulk of ABC Broadcast Officers and Journalists in regional areas are just city kids doing their time in the bush until a capital city job comes up .
The new technology the ABC has embraced has been used by everyone else in the traditional media and lots of new outlets that never had a non-ionising radiation distribution system. While the ABC has to be commended for its Online and iView services, they a just a small part of the traffic the internet gets from regional Australia.
I am actually a greybeard who used to class the ABC as my main news source. Sadly this is no longer the case due to the large amount of political content in its news copy now. One has to wonder what % of management at the ABC are actually political and social activists and what their actual broadcast background is? While there are some ex-commercial broadcasting managers in the ABC one would imagine they would have to keep their heads down and opinions to themselves or they would be managed out.
The ABC is not above complaint or criticism. We need a strong national broadcaster (especially now more than ever as commercial options compete in a race to the bottom), but that cannot be at the expense of being held accountable.
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There’s no evidence to back up your claim that ABC staffers in regional Australia have nothing to do with people living in regional areas. Are you suggesting that to work for the ABC in regional Australia you can only have a TAFE qualifiation and be born and raised in regional Australia? How absurd. The ABC produces plenty of traditional regional content like the Country Hours, local news updates and regional local radio shows. Just because they run a story or segment you may not like or agree with, doesn’t mean they’re out of touch. After all, don’t we want the ABC to reach new audiences?
ABC staffers serving time in the country before moving to the city actually benefits regional Australia - those people making big news decisions for the 7pm news, 7:30, news channel, radio national breakfast have a far better understanding of life in regional Australia than staff who did not live in Australia. Again, do you want the ABC to have a deep understanding of regional issues or not?
As far as iView is concerned, ABC was the first mover in the Australian market for a professional and stable catch-up service. iView dates back to 2008. Meanwhile, 7 seems to relaunch their service every 18 months or so for reasons completely unknown. ABC would have taken a big risk in investing in the service back then and it’s paid off - for the taxpayer’s benefit.
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Who said the ABC is not above complaint or criticism? I’m only asking they be grounded in reality and fact. You can’t say the ABC is a relic of the past when it is the single most popular news website in the country and it’s on demand service is the number one broadcast on demand service in the country (see page 44 https://about.abc.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABC10150_00_v14_FILM_WEB-a11y_FINAL2-1.pdf).
I believe I’ve been pretty consistent on these pages in my own criticism of the ABC.
In my view, it is clearly too Sydney and NSW centric - a swag of shows and decision makers need to be moved out of Sydney (not just from Ultimo to Parramatta) but to Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Hobart, Adelaide, Bendigo, the Gold Coast, Launceston, Newcastle, Cairns, etc. I think the ABC is far too interested in lazy federal politics reporting and US news because it’s cheap to publish and gets them traffic online. I am critical of the structure of their foreign news offices - there is still too much of a focus on the US and the UK. Jakarta, Tokyo and Beijing* should be the most prestigious postings with the biggest teams and the most content going to air. They need to reopen the NZ office and focus more on the Pacific. The ABC should also do much more business reporting - an Alan Kohler package isn’t enough. The ABC should also trial online regional news updates and bulletins on iview and they should set up a ABC Parliament stream on iview so Australians can easily watch state and federal parliament proceedings and committee hearings.
There’s just a few of the issues I am critical about off the top of my head, I think you can argue they’re all based in reality without pointless allegations about staff being ‘social activists’ or whether the ABC cares too much about climate change that could impact the viability of 1000s of farms in the country or about the fact Aboriginal people die 10 years before white Australians.
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I do not see a problem with having qualifications. I have three university degrees. I might apply for a job at the ABC.
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make sure there’s a hyphen in your surname 
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I would like to call you out on that one: Arts/Journalism from a University is not the only way to learn to be a broadcaster. There are still some commercial radio schools run by the private sector and of course the publicly funded AFTRS. While the ABC does employ some people straight out of AFTRS, I would doubt any commercial radio school alumni would ever get a job straight into the ABC and even then unless they were already a commercial name in the market they would still probably not be considered for a gig at the ABC. The fact that you have to be a Uni Grad to get an entry level job there just reinforces that the ABC are a bunch of toffs. Same would go for older journo’s who did cadetships in the 70’s/80’s. there may still be some at the ABC due to their long tenure but anyone who trained that way would never get a start at the ABC now.
I agree about the need for a federal corruption body - that would open a Pandora’s box possibly even at the ABC!
I would be very surprised if commercial networks employed people directly into journalistic roles without experience or a qualification these days either.
I wouldn’t say it’s solely Sydney centric. I think it’s also got a lot of focus on Melbourne. I would argue the ABC focuses too much on both Sydney and Melbourne but can struggle at covering Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth or anywhere smaller.
I remember during the 2019 election just being aghast at how badly the ABC at the national level misread the mood of the electorate in Queensland. This wasn’t because journos in Queensland were ignoring the situation - it was because the editorial decisions being made back in Ultimo or Southbank were placing too much weight on the experiences in Sydney and Melbourne, and totally ignoring the reporting of other states.
And watching 7.30 most nights, it appears largely the same. Lots of stories have case studies from Western Sydney or suburban Melbourne, but I rarely see such examples from Adelaide or southeast Queensland.
I’m not saying the ABC’s news division does a poor job - it’s clearly superior to plenty of other broadcasters.
But it does have a real problem with basing too much of its emphasis on the Big Two and pretty much disregarding the other capital cities. Especially Brisbane and Perth. For instance, A bushfire near homes in Sydney will get rolling coverage on the News Channel- this would never happen if the bushfire was in Perth.
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It’s hard balance to get right… we also need to remember that half of Australia’s population is centred in the big two.
Could it be better around the country, certainly. But decentralised productions requires more money and funding.
Unfortunately, we need to be realistic, you’re not going to have a national breakfast or current affairs show coining out of Adelaide for example.
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A good thing was when they moved AM down to Hobart. The only problem with decentralising is how to get the production staff and the presenter required to make the show or program to move to that location. It can be hard thing to do especially because it normally means having to move to a whole new location.
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They’ve managed to make all these programs with people working from home for the last couple of years and all of the challenges those sorts of things have produced, surely that could help for other things. Even just more radio programs for starters, they can do that easily all the time - e.g. Christmas radio schedules or evening programs where they’ll often be across multiple states. When I see shows on the commercial TV in Melbourne or Sydney they seem to love to say that it’s Sydney’s own or Melbourne’s own so why can’t we have some ownership in the regional areas for other shows.
As for the other coverage, I don’t want to be one of the right winger Murdoch lovers against the Lefty loonies or whatever but I do have some issues with the way the ABC does approach and broadcast certain things. For years, there used to be religion stuff on the ABC on a Sunday night which was actually quite interesting to listen to, now there’s barely anything and anything covering religion will always be either positive for an Islam or Buddhism or Sikh etc… but very negative for Christian coverage. When are the only times you hear stories about Christian churches? Christmas or Easter with the boring, old services and mass. Then any other time will either be a child abuse story, a Hillsong story or a Christians hate the gays and trans and want them expelled. Never any coverage from any of the Christians or the schools who don’t support the proposed laws or the discrimination. Why only present one side of that argument? They pit the LGBTQ+ community against all the Christian community when they don’t all agree with it but that is never mentioned it’s just a chance to again create division against those of faith. Why not any of the other good stories either? There are plenty of Labor supporting Christians and left leaning Christians but the coverage from the ABC is quite offensive at times with it being very one sided and promoting the intolerance and bullying that they say they want to stop.
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I think a large part of it is that they don’t have enough staff in the other cap cities and in the regions to get a read on the rest of the electorate.
Well when ABCs funding was cut, those jobs had to go… Hopefully if Liberals are true to their word if they win (which they won’t) and pledge to fund the ABC with more cash so it can put its resources back in the regional areas.
I really disagree. I’ve seen the ABC’s bureax in some Australian capitals. They’re not lacking resources.
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That Hobart office looks pretty shitty with stained roof tiles
He’ll be known as C-MO from now on 