[Leon Della Bosca]

The ABC is in the gun for spending by $8.29m on advertising in the past year as it tries to fix declining radio and TV audiences and overhaul its digital strategy.

The Australian reported that, in the last financial year, the ABC’s total expenditure on advertising, promotions and market research jumped to $16.07m. This including the $8.29m ­advertising spend, plus $7.09m on audience research and $687,000 on promotions.

The director of the conservative think tank Institute of Public Affairs foundations of Western civilisation program Bella d’Abrera said the ABC’s spending showed it was “in the grips of a crisis of relevancy”, after its ratings had dropped “like a stone”.

“Now ABC management has had to resort to spending even more taxpayers’ money to dig ­itself out of a hole of its own making,” she said.

“Australians have every right to ask why they are continually forced to fund a broadcaster that is out of touch, biased and does not represent mainstream Australia.”

Should the ABC represent mainstream Australia or is it better to leave that to the commercial media outlets? Who should ABC represent? Do you think ABC is becoming irrelevant? What do you love/hate about the ABC?

[steprob11]

I love the ABC. A constant source of interesting/fascinating/funny/entertaining information. Time and time again it has been found to be unbiased by independent researchers. It’s not perfect but between all the stations it has plenty for everyone. It’s amazing just what a wide spread of topics it covers. If it doesn’t represent mainstream Australia, which I believe it does, then it would be a sad reflection on mainstream Australia. Perhaps the critics should actually listen to and watch ABC programs before they comment. Australia is lucky to have such a quality broadcaster.

[Cosmo]

I have gone from being a very strong supporter of the ABC to being an equally strong critic. The ABC is funded by everyone but it no longer represents everyone. It has two key biases, the Voice referendum and gay issues. The latter is represented by it’s disproportionate number of gay presenters. RN Breakfast has not had a straight presenter for years. The ABC should not allow presenters to use the publicly funded national broadcaster to push their own agendas as has been the case with Fran Kelly, Stan Grant and Patricia Karvelas.

The ABC needs to professionally train it’s interviewers. They are too keen on pushing their own points of view rather than listening to their guests, David Speers is an example of this. They nearly all exhibit the annoying and unprofessional habit of failing to acknowledge who they were interviewing at the end of the discussion. ABC TV seems more interested in giving us some irrelevant often outdated sports result on it’s crawler banner than telling us who is being interviewed.

The ABC is very good and plays an essential role in investigative journalism but increasingly it seems it needs the support of external media to do even that.

Those who claim the ABC is unbiased and of a high standard need to explain why listeners and viewers are turning away from it in droves also identify which ABC presenters present the alternative arguments or at least act as devil’s advocates.

[stevo]

I fully agree with Cosmo, it seems to me that they are continuing to push their own agenda and lefty views. SBS is out of the same mould, personally I would cut them loose and de-fund them.

[Fairdry]

Cosmo hit the nail on the head. I have some shows I still watch from time to time but basically anything political for example Q&A & insiders are that far left I get that frustrated I turn the channel in fear of TV damage:). Q&A ratings have been terrible for some time now. Also the ABC has had a lot of defamation cases filed against them in the past few years which is costing the Australian taxpayers. The Heston Russel case is going to cost $$$. ABC in the regional areas has strong support but our city journalism has lost the plot.

[Cosmo]

Another area that the ABC has failed is education. It occupies several TV channels which it seems challenged to put anything worthwhile on. By comparison the BBC pioneered distant education 52 years ago with University of the Air yet during Covid the ABC couldn’t even produce some basic maths, English and science programs to occupy and educate our children.

We have a major education problem in Australia with 40% of kids leaving school functionally illiterate and non-numerate consequently we have numerous adults with the same problems. The ABC could use it’s redundant channels to run education programs on science, engineering, first aid, driving safety, foreign languages and and a whole host of vocational subjects.

[Poppy]

And I disagree with you both. How we treat those who are different, weaker socially, politically or economically is how our society will be judged today and tomorrow by our descendants. They are entitled to a voice and the ABC gives them one. I’ve stopped watching the commercial stations as they show no programs that interest me at all. They sensationalize the news and while some things are sensational they don’t need to aggravate our fears and worries over the many crises we are living through. The government has been cutting the ABC’s funding for over a decade. If they are unable to appeal to a majority audience then I suspect that may have something to do with it. I can remember several programs on the ABC that ran for one season and then were cancelled. Good programs, that were funny and interesting.
As for the discussions on the Voice to Parliament. The ABC as a major broadcaster cannot ignore a debate on changes to our constitution. I have reservations that the Voice will introduce real change into our society but believe it is one step on the path to reconciliation. Either way I’m not interested in a broadcaster that caters to what appear to be rather the mundane tastes of the majority. I want programs that appeal to me and I only get those from the ABC or SBS.

[Terence French]

I find the presentation of the morning news flippant and largely uninformative on international affairs. The presenters spend a lot of time joking with each other rather than presenting informed and unbiased news. I find it necessary to balance perspectives on the news by listening to other news outlets in particular Al Jazeera and the BBC for international news, and Sky news for an alternate more right wing balance. The Voice Campaign has been extremely biased on the ABC, as have issues concerning Feminism, White Male Patriarchy, and Indigenisation. All Australians are, and should be, equal in status, and barriers between different groups should be discouraged and not promoted. Four Corners is an excellent program. The ABC Board appears unwilling to rein in and control defamatory and biased reporting. It’s charter requires unbiased and factual reporting and where opinions are expressed those with contrary opinions should be offered equal opportunity to present their opinions.

[Cosmo]

Poppy, My issue with the ABC is not that it covers the Voice but the bias with which it covers the matter. If you claim it is not biased tell us one ABC presenter who challenges the Voice because I can name several who publicly support it.

So even though the ABC is funded by every tax payer you don’t think an attempt should be made to cater to the majority of listeners and viewers so long as it caters to you?

[jennyb]

I don’t hear the blatant lies and mistruths from the ABC that I do from commercial media such as Sky News. The ABC Emergency Radio Broadcasts were the only means by which I could find out how close the Liberation Trail fire was to my home during the fires of 2019-2020 – 8 km. It was a terrifying time, I had only just been released from hospital after a cardiac emergency, in our area all internet and emergency communication (eg FiresNearMe) was down. The ABC Emergency Ratio Broadcasts probably saved my life.
There may be faults to the service but I find myself watching and listening pretty much only to ABC and SBS these days – through choice, as the pap on commercial broadcasting channels seems to me to be intent on dumbing us down, bigtime.

[Ron]

Most things on ABC radio, both local and national seem to be strictly scripted. Interviews are repeats of interviews on other programmes, stations or even countries with the track that contains the interviewers questions being replaced by a local interviewer asking the same questions. Lazy. Even people alledgedly ring up 612 with a joke appear to be scripted and “put on” with the same joke and the same intro (including questioning if it is a clean joke) being identical. There is no originality left ob the ABC.

[Author]

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