The Wisdom of Experience: What is the role of the ABC in modern day media?

This column “The Wisdom of Experience” is a new column where we want to seek your insights into tough topics of national, personal or commercial interest.  We’ll raise a discussion (or you can) and it is all about the rich conversation of over 60s, experienced in the world and insightful in their views.  Today we start with talking about the ABC.  

The ABC has been a fundamental part of Australia’s media and communications since 1932.  The federally funded national broadcaster has had the nation’s pick of audiences on radio and television through an era where the media industry was highly regulated, and even scarce.  And today I want to open a discussion on why and whether we should persevere with trying to make a national broadcaster evolve and compete with commercial media as media becomes prolific and opportunistic.  I don’t suggest to be right, just to open a rich and evocative conversation about the role of a pubic broadcaster, then, now and into the future.

The ABC have had a competitive advantage in our media environment since their inception, being given the lead on federal stories, ministerial presence and topics of great national interest.  Some would say they still have it, with most pollies choosing to release and discuss on ABC talkback before other stations.  They’ve created a market for local content, perhaps where it might have been unaffordable to sustain in some regions of the country.  They’ve supported Australian musicians as they have strived to stay Australian and they’ve been there for the regions.

But the tables have turned.  Media isn’t something the world lacks anymore, nor does it lack the will to create good content.  In fact, the question that has to be asked is, is it appropriate for taxpayers to fund a media entity when the media can clearly be funded by other forces, and is it necessary now in this highly proliferated environment to maintain the costs of a national broadcaster if that national broadcaster is potentially competing with private businesses?

Now don’t get me wrong… I love the ABC.  I listen to talk-back ABC local radio in my city every day.  I occasionally watch ABC TV, and I have an enormous respect for the online media force that ABC online has become.  I remember when John Howard, as Prime Minister stood up and praised the ABC’s role in shaping the national ethos, and its important place in Australia’s media ecology.

It has long been recognised that the ABC had to operate alongside commercial competitors in a way that is not dissimilar to how our health and education systems have.  Public and private have long been important in Australia.  But eventually, where private can provide a strong and supportive service at the right price, it has been allowed to provide it with dominance.  Could media go this way too?

The ABC have stepped up their game with the changes in the media environment quite well.  Their website and digital TV setup for iView is terrific for those few who use it.  And they don’t strive to be populous in doing so.  It’s about integrity not clickbait.  They don’t care to be measured on readers or ratings… not really.  But are they providing this extraordinary national service at too great a cost to the taxpayer at a time when others want and need to run businesses in the same environment, and should commercial organisations be allowed to step into the space they are taking up?   I wonder what station I would listen to if they took away 612ABC Brisbane?  Probably my local Fairfax station or an independent.  I wonder if I would be happy to tolerate advertising in between my talkback on ABC, if it were privatised… I probably would barely notice if it was managed well.

What really worries me, at this incredible point in time is that the ABC are being forced to compete with commercial media in a media market that is frankly quite saturated.  And they are doing so without advertising, through taxpayer funding, and are potentially drawing listeners and viewers away from legitimate commercial options at a time when the structural forces around the media make being in the business of media quite difficult.  And I don’t mean for the big guys.  I mean for those striving to make a legitimate voice for others using media.

And so I ask you today, without any political posture at all… What do you think the role of a public broadcaster should be into the future where there is a saturated media environment that is perhaps no longer driven by an oligopoly?  Has it changed from what it was set up to do back in 1932, and what it has been doing up until now?