Part of the back story to rumours of restructuring at the ABC is the government review of public broadcasting, presently underway.
Submissions have now closed, and I hear there are a lot of them, but they have not yet been made public. The Government says it will consider the issues raised in the lead up to the next funding round, which starts in the middle of next year.
There is a lot to be considered here, as the discussion paper paper that kicked off the review makes clear.
Not all of it is about the “front end” of the ABC – the content the public sees, hears and reads. I understand the Government is getting seriously concerned that a large part of the taxpayers’ dollars goes straight to the Macquarie Bank, via Broadcasting Australia, under the transmission contracts that form the expensive “back end” of ABC and SBS’s ability to reach their audiences.
Broadcasting Australia types are in the habit of referring to the public broadcasters as their “captive clients”, which does not bode well for the deal the taxpayers are getting under the current arrangements.
One of the things the government review is considering is whether SBS and the ABC could combine their “back ends” when it comes to transmission, which would presumably bring an interesting level of scrutiny to the existing arrangements.
Once, of course, the transmission infrastructure was Government owned, but it was privatised in 1999, then sold to the Macquarie Bank and rebadged as Broadcast Australia. You can read the history here.
But lets move from the back end to the front end. One submission to the review has been made public by its authors, and makes interesting reading. It is co-authored by Queensland University academics Axel Bruns, Stuart Cunningham, Terry Flew and Jason Wilson, (shortly to be at the University of Wollongong). Cunningham, in particular, has a modicum of influence as part of the Austraian Research Council funded Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation*.
You can read their submission here, key points are summarised here and there is a discussion about it public broadcasting going on here . You are encouraged to get involved.
But here is a key point the authors make, which has relevance for the idea of a restructure of the ABC based on content and target audience, rather than delivery platform. The authors say:
In the 21st century digital media environment, where all media outlets are multi-platform and digitised in their modes of content production and delivery, it is better to understand the ABC and SBS as public service media organizations, rather than public service broadcasters. This emphasises how it is the services provided, rather than the delivery platforms, that are at the core of rationales for public support of the ABC and SBS.
Now there are those within the ABC that are relishing the suggestion of a return to a management structure based around content. Some within the organisation think that a lot of problems can be dated back to former managing director David Hill’s moves in the other direction – removing executive power bases that were based on content, rather than around radio, television and so forth.
All this debate is, in the long and the short run, a lot more important than the stuff about individuals – Sue Howard and all that.
But this blog likes to cater to all tastes, so more on the individuals in the next post.
*Declaration: I was a visiting fellow at the Centre for Creative Industries for six months of last year.
4 Comments
The debate about structuring based on content or on platform is old and pointless – like most debates about structures. The One ABC structure was partly intended as a content-based approach, bringing TV and radio together within the same divisions devoted to newscaff, regional, national and content production. Jonathan Shier got rid of it, apparently to everyone’s delight. Debates about structure tend to be excuses for ducking more fundamental questions about roles, resources and implementation.
Hey Bernard, You clearly have a view about these “more fundamental questions”. Why not spit it out?
I’m inclined to the view that the core functions of the ABC are genuinely independent newscaff and children and youth content. They’re socially critical functions that the market can never meet. Other aspects of the ABC’s role, like local drama, and regional and local content, and training, are worth debate and I don’t have hard and fast views – they all cost a lot of money but there may be real benefit in taxpayers funding them. The transition from public broadcasting to what you might call, unromantically, multi-platform content producers and distributors is something that has actually been handled by the ABC at least with some aplomb, despite, in the case of online, the complete lack of additional funding (they got plenty of funding for the transition to digital TV). But what’s the best strategy for completing the transition? I don’t know, and I look forward to seeing what the review produces in that regard.
But I’m damn sure going round and round the mulberry bush on what sort of divisional structure to have isn’t going to help at all. Not that my view matters – there’s plenty of experts out there who think that if you only get the right structure in place, then everything else will follow. Good luck to them.
Hi there – I’m one of the authors. I don’t think we intended to buy into long-running debates about ABC management structures. Those debates are utterly secondary to how Public Service Media can continue to meet their aims, and best serve the Australian people. The quote Margaret pulls out is important, but so is this one:
With this in mind, along with the ABC “core functions” you mention, Bernard, I’d argue that localism is crucial. Newscaff might seem more important from Canberra, but the ABC looms larger as a provider of all kinds of content – in a way that goes beyond local news – the further you are from metropolitan areas. In many areas, ABC local radio is crucial to giving communities a sense of themselves, and in driving civic life.
Speaking only for myself, I think that at a local level, the ABC’s attempts to drive online user-created content, and even basic online discussion, have been pretty disastrous. Yes, they’ve been underfunded, but I think that what’s required beyond cash is a pretty significant cultural change. Many people in the organisation are still clearly viewing User Created Content as a pretty insignificant add-on, whereas the opportunity exists for the ABC to bind itself even more closely with local communities, and to have a role in strengthening social capital and community identity. Changing this may have less to do with the shape of overall management structures, and more to do with the kind of service ABC staff and management see themselves as providing, and the advice they take on what sorts of platforms will be effective.