Cont’d

As a public broadcaster the ABC calls heavily on its image of trust. Indeed recent “public surveys” (?) continue to support this claim, although it is in decline it is off a solid base.

There appear to be a number of factors that potentially cause further erosion of this support.

The first is investigative journalism and Panel programming, which seem to have aligned themselves more with alarmism and activism rather than reporting. Secondly, the ABC already uses syndicated news as do other outlets.

This potentially contradicts both the trustworthy/uniqueness claims of the ABC’s core business as it now drawing on similar sources to its competitors.

The investigative/activism oriented presenters (many self declared), are increasingly aligned with social/humanitarian causes so loved by the ABC. This is increasingly moving ABC perspectives away from mainstream issues and the wider public interest.

This is reflected in audience ratings for ABC. The most generous of these is OzTam’s 5 city metro average for ABC1 at 11.9%, ABC 2 at 2.5% with no other ABC channel getting over 1%.

More significantly this drops to national share figures of 6.1% and 1.1% against subscription households.

Of the Top 20 program content ratings- “free to air-all households”, Seven and Nine have six N&CA programs in the Top 20, the ABC Zero!

Their general presence is through “New Tricks” (No 10), “Gruen Planet” (No 14), “Miss Fisher” (No 17) and “Australian Story” (No 19).

The ABC has chosen to invest and focus its energies upon the most vulnerable of its endeavors, N&CA. From a purely marketing perspective this is the least sustainable part of the ABC’s marketing model, it will increasingly consume larger proportions of unsustainable funding, face greater competition, lose its differentiation and market share will continue to decline.

As evidenced, the ABC has already lost its trust, credibility and differentiation attributes as it uses the same sources as the rest of the market.

With minority ratings for minority audiences and a downward trend line, is this model sustainable at public expense?

Keep-Scrap-or Change?

Mr Menzies House Spindoc may I question when you last posted in any thread a not politics comment.
And may I hazard a guess the answer is never.
ABC clearly covers more in the Radio spectrum of our country than any other.
It like the BBC at least for now, is our international broadcast voice.
TV has seen many of the programs it once imported from the BBC now showing on commercial TV in between the morning show type news show poseing as Australian content.
Fire flood or other emergency nothing beats the ABC.
No case to remove it change it comes other than from the conservatives

Belly, I find trying to discuss issues with you and other left-wing socialists a complete waste of time. At least you are a grass-roots 'true believer' but other chardonnay socialists such as Poirot (who for her own reasons uses a man's nom-de-plume),Lexi, csteele and others are so far to the left that you are congenitally incapable of seeing the other side of view. How many times did you three warn me that the Libs could only win under Turnbull? When are you going to face the fact that you were wrong?

The only thing the ABC shows that is non-political is the Test Pattern! Years ago, circa 1993, I was listening to Doug Aiton on 3LO hand over the Drivetime program to the next anchorman who's name I forget but he was an ex-priest. Doug and his mate were joking about the number of Liberal voters that worked for the ABC and concluded that the only Lib supporter was an old fellow that ran the car park, a member of the Corp of Commissionaires! An ex-serviceman was the only Lib supporter that worked for the ABC!

The ABC is SO FAR to the left that they cannot conceive of a value that is right-wing. You only have to look at the current constant support for Climate Change. Clearly they are at variance with conservatives such as me.

If I was the boss of the ABC I would fire the lot, including the tea lady! They have hijacked my 8 cents a day for a quarter of a century. I despise them all, but Belly, I know they are your social heroes.

Cheers, Geoffrey Kelley.

Maybe the ABC support climate change because the bulk of scientists support it Geoffreykelly, and not for any paranoid political reason?

Surely if all the so-called right wing and conservative supporters are so unhappy with the ABC, they should just turn it over?

I don't vote for Libs or Labs, but I enjoy the ABC for the most part, and have no paranoid feelings about any 'leanings' that some people seem to imagine is there.

Is the problem that all the news reporters or journalists don't always report what you want them to?
Maybe the truth hurts?

Suseonline,

<< Is the problem that all the news reporters or journalists don't always report what you want them to? >>

If the sources of the news is syndicated globally, then not reporting or selective coverage is indeed a problem for the ABC. We can get any news we want from multiple sources and multiple technologies, so if the ABC fails to cover something they get caught out every time and it does become a censorship issue.

So when you say << Maybe the truth hurts? >> what you mean is that from a public funding perspective the “lack of truth hurts” and yes this does reflect badly on the ABC.

Spindoc,
To get back to your original question.
Yes I do think we should keep the ABC.
Yes it does need change as do all media sources right now. None are free from bias, that said and hopefully I can say without being abused, I think the ABC standard of presentation is better than most other sources when it comes to news and similar programs.
Am I elitist, no, never could be with my background. Am I a lefty, no, never cast my vote on that side of the political spectrum.
The TV in our house often gets turned off, no matter what the channel, when we think a program is not to our liking and the ABC is definitely not excluded when it comes to this. For info we are not avid TV watchers.
This is On Line Opinion and in my opinion the ABC provides a level of reporting as good and possibly better than their commercial competition.
I obviously bow to your superior knowledge and obvious education and hopefully will not offend you further with this post.
SD