2014 is turning into a grim year for public broadcasting. In June, Hubert Lacroix, the president of Canada’s public broadcaster CBC, announced an unprecedented series of job cuts. One-quarter of the staff…
The ABC’s focus on digital will not help it make a case for its uniqueness.
Dan Peled/AAP
Is the ABC trying to make itself redundant? Because that appears to be its strategy. Here’s why. The ABC is expensive. In 2013 it was allocated more than A$1 billion of taxpayer funds. The ABC claims…
Tony Abbott told Tuesday’s partyroom meeting he wanted to show the Rudd-Gillard years are not the new normal.
AAP/Lukas Coch
With the polling bad, some of his strongest media backers excoriating him and his pants on fire over the “no cuts to the ABC” pledge, Tony Abbott has assured his Coalition partyroom that, bar a couple…
ABC boss Mark Scott is strengthening the broadcaster’s digital offerings in response to budget cuts – a template established by the BBC.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Brian McNair, Queensland University of Technology and Adam Swift, Queensland University of Technology
While Australia’s elected representatives argue over what then-opposition leader Tony Abbott meant when he promised “no cuts to the ABC, or SBS” the night before the last election, directly to the electorate…
By cutting back in regional and remote areas, the ABC risks sending a message that some parts of Australia are more important to our national conversations than others.
AAP/Joel Carrett
ABC managing director Mark Scott undertook the unenviable task on Monday of wielding the axe to meet the Abbott government’s cut to the broadcaster’s funding. Government cutbacks to Australia’s publicly…
University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Stephen Parker and Michelle Grattan discuss the week in politics including Malcolm Turnbull’s cuts to the ABC, higher education, the frission in the Palmer United…
The ABC, known for innovating in digital media, is facing increasing budget pressure.
Sarah_Ackerman/Flickr
Of the many media organisations making the transition towards digital, the ABC is one of the most advanced. So in the face of a $254 million budget, or “back offices” cut, as Communications Minister Malcolm…
Not everyone is happy about Malcolm Turnbull’s cuts to ABC funding – but they may represent value for the taxpayer.
Michael Scott
Malcolm Turnbull’s well-telegraphed announcement yesterday that the ABC’s funding will be cut by A$254 million over five years is no surprise. But, broken election promise aside, this is actually something…
Malcolm Turnbull and the government have been unapologetic after breaking a pre-election pledge not to cut the ABC’s budget.
AAP/Nikki Short
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has announced a further cut to Australia’s public broadcasters. The ABC’s budget will be slashed around 4.6% per year, or A$254 million in total, over the next…
With little national history programming at the ABC, Hindsight and Rear Vision are precious.
Allan Foster
Last week it was widely reported that several of the ABC’s best-known programs on television and radio may be axed. Among those under threat is the ABC’s only program solely devoted to history across all…
There’s more than one way to decode ABC’s The Code.
ABC
ABC’s six-part political thriller The Code is shaping up as the most challenging political thriller on Australian television since the BBC’s House of Cards (1990). And, like the BBC series – and its recent…
Is the ABC biased against fossil fuels? The IPA thinks so, but it’s not really the most constructive question to ask.
AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy
It’s tempting to view The Australian’s latest broadside at the ABC as just another salvo fired between our nation’s two biggest media organisations. But the coverage, based on an Institute of Public Affairs…
On the day that the ABC released the results of a Newspoll survey on attitudes to the corporation, managing director Mark Scott addressed students at QUT with the message, ‘It’s our ABC’! ‘Us’ being the…
The ABC has a charter requirement to reflect the national identity – but it falls short when it comes to cultural diversity.
Velovotee
Australia’s national broadcaster this week launched a rebranding campaign for its flagship television channel, ABC1, that features Australians from diverse cultural backgrounds. But if you look at the…
The latest cuts are hardly surprising, except perhaps in their severity.
Pedro Vezini
Monday’s announcement that the ABC will make 80 positions redundant is just the latest move in an enforced process of change to the public service broadcaster. It has a long way yet to run. The announcement…
The new radio service will benefit residents of Warlpiri Country, in the Northern Territory.
Rusty Stewart
Some 40 years ago, on any remote island in the Arafura Sea, that stretch of water between Darwin and Papua New Guinea, if a group of Yolŋu were living on country for more than a few days there would be…
Precisely who proposed the new members for the panel that advises on appointments to the ABC and SBC boards? We know that Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull had no part in the selection of conservative…
Janet Albrechtsen has been named to the panel overseeing appointments to the boards of the ABC and SBS.
AAP/Tracey Nearmy
A conservative columnist and a former minister in the Fraser government have been appointed to the panel that advises on nominations to the ABC and SBS boards. Janet Albrechtsen, who writes a column for…
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has denied claims he is positioning himself for a tilt at the Liberal leadership.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Cabinet minister Malcolm Turnbull has made an extraordinary attack on conservative News Corp writer Andrew Bolt, describing his column today as bordering “on the demented”. Turnbull told reporters that…
Against all the odds, apparent “relics” from the golden era of radio appear to be undergoing transformation and renewal.
Andreanne Germain
Do you value the ABC’s Radio National? I would argue you should. Over the course of 80 years, Radio National (RN) has demonstrated it is more than just a broadcaster. From its earliest emanation as the…