Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly owned body that is politically independent and fully accountable, with its charter enshrined in legislation, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Act 1983. ABC Commercial, a profit-making division of the corporation, also helps to generate funding for content provision.
This article is about the Australian public broadcaster. For the television service launched in 1956, now a network, see ABC Television (Australian TV network). For its forerunner/predecessor, see Australian Broadcasting Company.Formerly
Australian Broadcasting Commission (1932–1983)
Mass media
1 July 1932
Worldwide
- Kim Williams (chair)
- David Anderson (managing director)
- Broadcasting
- Web portals
- Television
- Radio
- Online
A$1.06 billion (2019–20)
A$1,401,757,000 (2019)
3,730 (2019–20)
The ABC was established as the Australian Broadcasting Commission on 1 July 1932 by an act of federal parliament. It effectively replaced the Australian Broadcasting Company, a private company established in 1924 to provide programming for A-class radio stations. The ABC was given statutory powers that reinforced its independence from the government and enhanced its news-gathering role. Modelled after the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), which is funded by a television licence, the ABC was originally financed by consumer licence fees on broadcast receivers. However, the licence fees soon proved to be insufficient due to Australia's small population compared with the vast area to be serviced and the need for individual divisions in each state such that by 1949 the Chifley government decided that the ABC would be directly funded by the government.[4][5] Licence fees however continued to be collected until 1947, however they were subsumed into the government's general revenue. Later funding was supplemented with commercial activities related to its core broadcasting mission. The ABC adopted its current name in 1983.[6]
The ABC provides radio, television, online, and mobile services throughout metropolitan and regional Australia. ABC Radio operates four national networks, a large number of ABC Local Radio stations, several digital stations, and the international service Radio Australia. ABC Television operates five free-to-air channels, as well as the ABC iview streaming service and the ABC Australia satellite channel. News and current affairs content across all platforms is produced by the news division.
The postal address of the ABC in every Australian capital city is PO Box 9994, as a tribute to the record-breaking batting average of Australian cricketer Sir Donald Bradman.[7][8][9]
Funding[edit]
The ABC is primarily funded by the Australian government, in addition to some revenue received from commercial offerings and its retail outlets. The ABC's funding system is set and reviewed every three years.[118]
Until 1948, the ABC was funded directly by radio licence fees; amendments were also made to the Australian Broadcasting Act that meant the ABC would receive its funding directly from the federal government. Licence fees remained until 1973, when they were abolished by the Whitlam Labor government, on the basis that the near-universality of television and radio services meant that public funding was a fairer method of providing revenue for government-owned radio and television broadcasters.
In 2014, the ABC absorbed A$254 million in federal budget deficits.[119]
Since the 2018 budget handed down by then-Treasurer Scott Morrison, the ABC has been subject to a pause of indexation of operation funding, saving the federal government a total of A$83.7 million over 3 years.[120] In fiscal year 2016–17, the ABC received A$861 million in federal funding, which increased to $865 million per year from 2017 to 2018 to 2018–19, representing a cut in funding of $43 million over three years when accounting for inflation.[52][53][121] In 2019–20, the federal budget forecast funding of $3.2 billion over three years ($1.06 billion per year) for the ABC.[1] The Enhanced Newsgathering Fund, a specialised fund for regional and outer-suburban news gathering set up in 2013 by the Gillard government,[122][123] currently sits at $44 million over three years, a reduction of $28 million per year since the 2016 Australian federal election. This came after speculation that the fund would be removed, to which ABC Acting managing director David Anderson wrote to Communications Minister Mitch Fifield expressing concerns.[119]
However, despite the cuts made by Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull and the freeze introduced by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Communications Minister Mitch Fifield, the ABC itself has published financial data that shows an increase in the taxpayer appropriation to the ABC of 10% in real terms (i.e. above inflation) between 1998 and 2021.[124]
The term "where your 8 cents a day goes", coined in the late 1980s during funding negotiations,[125] is often used in reference to the services provided by the ABC.[126] It was estimated that the cost of the ABC per head of population per day was 7.1 cents a day, based on the corporation's 2007–08 "base funding" of A$543 million.[127]
Independence and impartiality[edit]
Under the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Act 1983,[32] the ABC Board is bound to "maintain the independence and integrity of the Corporation" and to ensure that "the gathering and presentation by the Corporation of news and information is accurate and impartial according to the recognized standards of objective journalism".[167]
The ABC's editorial policy on impartiality requires it to take "no editorial stance other than its commitment to fundamental democratic principles including the rule of law, freedom of speech and religion, parliamentary democracy and non-discrimination".[168] The ABC follows the following "hallmarks of impartiality": "a balance that follows the weight of evidence, fair treatment, open-mindedness and opportunities over time for principal relevant perspectives on matters of contention to be expressed".[168]
The editorial policy on diversity also requires the broadcaster "to present, over time, content that addresses a broad range of subjects from a diversity of perspectives reflecting a diversity of experiences, presented in a diversity of ways from a diversity of sources". However, it also notes that this "does not require that every perspective receives equal time, nor that every facet of every argument is presented".[168]
Up until the installation of disc recording equipment in 1935, all content broadcast on the ABC was produced live, including music.[16] For this purpose, the ABC established broadcasting orchestras in each state, and in some centres also employed choruses and dance bands. This became known as the ABC Concert Music Division, which was controlled by the Federal Director of Music – the first of whom was W. G. James.[175]
In 1997, the ABC divested all ABC orchestras from the Concerts department of the ABC into separate subsidiary companies, allied to a service company known as Symphony Australia,[176][36] and on 1 January 2007 the orchestras were divested into independent companies.[177] The six state orchestras are: