I watch quite a lot of the ABC and their excessive in-house advertising irritates me to bits. The only good thing about it is that the volume is not ramped up as it is on the commercial channels. I'd happily pay more than my 8 cents a day (or whatever it is now - does anyone know?) to have less promotional stuff on the ABC.

I agree about overseas news being more diverse and with better coverage. I like the English version of Aljazeera for a quick round-up of what's happening in the world. Asia turns out to be a very newsworthy place once you leave the confines of our Australia-centric media.

The ABC/SBS has been dumbed down for years. Advertising will make little difference to that. The ALP/Greens will continue to see the ABC/SBS journalist as a recruiting ground as they usually sprout socialism. The ABC/SBS are apologist for Islam, promoters of porn and homosexuality and very unkind to Christians. I personally think they are a waste of taxpayers money. Even play school sees fit to promote 'two mummies' rather than a father and a mother. To think that the tax payers dollars go to this propaganda is a disgrace.

Plerdsus

You need to chill out a bit and slow down. Sitting and relaxing with a paper (regardless of content or editorial slant)and a cup of coffee is far more enjoyable than being transfixed by a flickering screen. It's one reason why papers are still selling in reasonable quantities. It allows someone to go to place away from other forms of communication and really concentrate on what they are doing, rather than succummbing to the 20 second attention span of the internet.

Phil Matimein,

I understand your delight in relaxing with a printed copy of the Herald, instead of having to read a computer screen. That is not the problem. The problem is that Fairfax is not a government funded charity, and needs revenue to cover the ever increasing cost of printing the Herald. The copy you read every day costs far more than the cover price to print, and the difference is subsidised by advertising revenue (the so-called rivers of gold). Unfortunately, the rivers are drying up, and no new source of finance is in sight.

Specifically, the problems are:

1. In the coming downturn, advertising revenue as a whole will be in severe decline.

2. To help them survive, businesses are re-directing their advertising away from print onto the net, which is much cheaper and more effective.

3. Most ominous of all, the demographic of Herald readers is ageing rapidly, with most now over 50, and advertisers are not interested in that demographic.

If you don't believe these figures, have a look around next time you take a train trip in morning rush hour, and see how many people are reading the Herald. You will find that those not just sitting are working their ipods, or mobile phones.

Various commentators in the media have commented recently that the Herald's advertising revenue has been in free fall since July, and that this sparked the latest round of redundancies.

I am afraid the writing is on the wall for the printed Herald.

Unfortunately the average 1hr TV program only runs for 46 mins - the remaining 14 mins is for advertising. This allows the channels to change programs on the hour/1/2 hour. The ABC/SBS therefore have to fill this 14mins else their programing isn't locked into the commercial channels. SBS fills the time with commercials, the ABC with it's station promos.

The alternative is to show 14 min programs such as Media Watch, or the recent "making of DR Who" that followed the recent series.

I suspect that the station promos are the cheapest solution.

I have yet to be convinced that the placement of ads in the middle of SBS programs has improved the quality of the programing. In fact SBS is a disaster since it was taken over by the Kiwi.

The ABC is still the most innovative channel available - their pioneering shows such as Spicks and Specks, Hollowmen, Q&A etc make it my No1 viewing experience and I'm happy to tolerate the promos as necessary.

Janama

I'm right there with you. Especially Hollowmen, Dr Who, Spics and Specs, but also for Clarke & Dawe. Also innovative TV that would never be shown anywhere else like that from Chris Lilley (Summer Heights High).

Also recently thoroughly enjoyed an architectural history doco, the name of which I can't recall, but never would see on the commercial channels.

Open slather commercial advertising on the ABC would be the death of it.