Sydney Morning Herald Calum Jaspan | July 24, 2023
The ABC’s quest to woo younger audiences is being hamstrung by its stagnant budget and a structural shift towards streaming that threatens to undermine the public broadcaster’s ability to compete with the likes of Netflix.
The ABC launched its new five-year plan last month, as it looks to address the key issue facing almost all traditional media companies: reaching a younger audience.
The Australian Financial Review reported last week that less than eight per cent of viewers of its flagship news audience are under 40. It’s an issue that persists across the industry. An average of 10 per cent of Nine’s nightly news bulletin audience last week was under 40, and a similar 9 per cent on Seven.
However the ABC’s charter poses a unique challenge, given that the broadcaster has to cater to all Australians, not just those with broadcast television baked into schedules.
Bound to a stringent mandate and its every move closely scrutinised, the ABC’s future aspirations are also contingent on government funding.
And according to Michael Ward, former planning and policy head at the ABC and now academic at the University of Sydney and Boston University, the broadcaster’s real terms funding is now at a “historically low level” when adjusted for inflation, with income reduced by over $900 million between 2014-2021.
Ward, who recently completed a PhD on the ABC, is one of the country’s foremost experts on the funding of the broadcaster, says the reductions of the past decade continue to hurt its capacity to meet legislative objectives.
According to Ward, the ABC’s real funding fell by 14 per cent between 2013 and 2022, from $296 million (adjusted to 1983-84 dollars; $861 million in 2013 dollars) to $254 million ($881 million in 2021-22 dollars), with the funding allocated in the final year of the Morrison government the lowest budget allocation in 40 years.
With the first two Albanese government budgets improving the outlook somewhat, operational funding will total $1.015 billion by 2025-26, compared to a forward estimate of $919 million in the last Morrison budget, Ward says.
However, Liberal senator Andrew Bragg isn’t convinced funding is the ABC’s biggest challenge, saying that the perceived cuts to the broadcaster’s budget occurred during a decade of massive disruption for the media industry, during which “the ABC’s funding had remained pretty much the same”.
“The ABC is able to fund traditional television and online journalism in a way that others would dream of,” says Bragg, adding the broadcaster by and large does a “pretty good job” with the funding it receives.
The Albanese government moved last week to kickstart a review into the funding terms of the ABC and SBS, as well as the governance of the two broadcasters, including the composition of their boards. Ward warns that inadequate funding remains a critical policy issue despite the federal government restoring $83.7 million in indexation cuts made under the Morrison government, as well as moving to five-year funding terms in place of three.
One senior source close to the ABC, who requested anonymity so they could speak freely, said the Albanese government had got away with a “sleight of hand”, replacing the loss of $83.7 million yet keeping funding at a level below predictions, should the indexation pause not have taken place.
Ward says an additional $40-50 million in funding annually is still required to return it to its 1983/84 funding levels.
With the ABC announcing job cuts and shifting focus from TV and radio to digital in a bid to win younger audiences, former host of Media Watch and ABC journalist for 35 years Jonathan Holmes says even with a refreshed strategy getting younger Australians to connect with the ABC will be an uphill struggle.
“The biggest challenge for the ABC has always been being a visible part of young people’s media habits. It has always skewed old, with Australians coming back to ABC television in their 40s.”
The difference now, Holmes says, is that young people aren’t watching TV at all, with streaming services baked into their media habits.
Sport appears to be the anomaly for linear television. Of the 1.974 million Australians who tuned into the Matilda’s opening game of the Women’s World Cup last Thursday, 20.6 per cent were under 40, with 41.5 per cent under 55.
ABC’s content division arguably faces an even bigger battle, with ABC iview facing stiff competition from local broadcast video-on-demand (BVOD) services, as well as premium streaming players in Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+ and Stan (owned by Nine Entertainment, the owner of this masthead).
Former executives from streaming outfits are now littered across the ABC. Its new content division head, Chris Oliver-Taylor, was hired from the company earlier this year. Meanwhile, Rachel Okine arrived from Stan as head of scripted this month, and Susie Jones as head of factual, also from Netflix.
Last week, Oliver-Taylor hired Ben Latimer from Nova as his new head of audio content, overseeing both the ABC’s radio and audio teams. The appointment sees Oliver-Taylor move to get ahead of the looming radio review, after veteran capital city head Warwick Tiernan resigned earlier this month.
The ongoing radio review is touted to bring sweeping changes to the ABC’s output, which in metro markets operates four stations. None of these stations have breached the 6 per cent share mark in the most recent survey in Sydney (ABC Sydney 5.6; Radio National 1; triple j 4.3; NewsRadio 1.4).
As well as shifting its news operations team from being linear-led, ABC managing director David Anderson said last month it was freeing up funds for investment in “high-quality distinctive Australian content” by reducing the number of ABC executives “involved in the commissioning and production process”.
In the 10 years from 2011-12 to 2021-22, first release Australian content broadcast on the main ABC channel declined by almost 40 per cent from 964 hours to 610 hours, according to past reporting from Ward, based on annual report data. First release Australian content (non-news) now accounts for just 10 per cent of total broadcasts on the main channel, down from 15 per cent a decade ago.
Sandra Levy, a prominent figure in Australian television and film, and former head of television at the ABC, says the broadcaster needs to address the decline in scripted content.
First-run drama, comedy and Indigenous scripted content on the ABC has been between 38 and 44 hours in the past few years, she says, referencing ABC annual report data.
Levy says between the years of 1988-90, while head of drama, she delivered 100 hours of scripted content, this figure excluding comedy or Indigenous drama, which is now included in reporting.
In each of these years, operational funding sat between $291-307 million annual the previously stated “real terms”. This is between $40-55 million above the ABC’s 2023-24 budget, per Ward’s earlier calculations.
Should the ABC want to compete for younger eyeballs effectively in a saturated market, Holmes says it needs to be equipped with a budget appropriate to produce more scripted content “than the pathetic amount it produces now”.
The radio review will be the next indication of how the broadcaster seeks to strive to survive, competing to challenge in its growing web of services, despite a stagnant stream of funding facilitating it to do so.
Former executives from streaming outfits are now littered across the ABC. Its new content division head, Chris Oliver-Taylor, was hired from the company earlier this year. Meanwhile, Rachel Okine arrived from Stan as head of scripted this month, and Susie Jones as head of factual, also from Netflix.
Last week, Oliver-Taylor hired Ben Latimer from Nova as his new head of audio content, overseeing both the ABC’s radio and audio teams. The appointment sees Oliver-Taylor move to get ahead of the looming radio review, after veteran capital city head Warwick Tiernan resigned earlier this month.
The ongoing radio review is touted to bring sweeping changes to the ABC’s output, which in metro markets operates four stations. None of these stations have breached the 6 per cent share mark in the most recent survey in Sydney (ABC Sydney 5.6; Radio National 1; triple j 4.3; NewsRadio 1.4).
As well as shifting its news operations team from being linear-led, ABC managing director David Anderson said last month it was freeing up funds for investment in “high-quality distinctive Australian content” by reducing the number of ABC executives “involved in the commissioning and production process”.
In the 10 years from 2011-12 to 2021-22, first release Australian content broadcast on the main ABC channel declined by almost 40 per cent from 964 hours to 610 hours, according to past reporting from Ward, based on annual report data. First release Australian content (non-news) now accounts for just 10 per cent of total broadcasts on the main channel, down from 15 per cent a decade ago.
Sandra Levy, a prominent figure in Australian television and film, and former head of television at the ABC, says the broadcaster needs to address the decline in scripted content.
First-run drama, comedy and Indigenous scripted content on the ABC has been between 38 and 44 hours in the past few years, she says, referencing ABC annual report data.
Levy says between the years of 1988-90, while head of drama, she delivered 100 hours of scripted content, this figure excluding comedy or Indigenous drama, which is now included in reporting.
In each of these years, operational funding sat between $291-307 million annual the previously stated “real terms”. This is between $40-55 million above the ABC’s 2023-24 budget, per Ward’s earlier calculations.
Should the ABC want to compete for younger eyeballs effectively in a saturated market, Holmes says it needs to be equipped with a budget appropriate to produce more scripted content “than the pathetic amount it produces now”.
The radio review will be the next indication of how the broadcaster seeks to strive to survive, competing to challenge in its growing web of services, despite a stagnant stream of funding facilitating it to do so.
