ABC Managing Director, David Anderson, recently told an ABC Friends audience that as the national public broadcaster, the ABC has to meet the “unique expectation of being everything to everyone”.
Photos: ABC Friends
“Australians expect us to understand their needs, their communities, the problems they face, and to provide them with the information, context, entertainment and services to help them make sense of the world around them,” he said.
Quoting recent data, Mr Anderson said that 81% of Australians rate the value of the ABC and its services to the Australian community as good (up from 78% at the same period in the previous financial year), while 65% of Australian adults had watched, read, or listened to ABC content in the previous week.
Audience levels remain strong, he said, with the ABC Network the number one ranked broadcaster in 2022-23, with a reach of 6.8 million people across the five-city metro population, while ABC radio networks reach five million Australians each week (+14% on 2012).
ABC can’t stand still
The ABC, Mr Anderson told the audience, has to “continue to offer our valued services to all Australians, while also investing in the future needs of younger generations”.
“If we were to stand still, the ABC would eventually lose cultural relevance. We know who would be delighted if this happened: those people who, for ideological and commercial reasons, do not support public broadcasting and do not value an independently informed citizenry.”
However, he also took the opportunity to again reassure older ABC viewers and listeners that the ABC “will remain in broadcast TV and radio for many years to come”.
“Of course, digital first for the ABC does not mean digital only. As we continue to change, we will accommodate the pre-digital generations that still want or need traditional broadcast TV and radio.”
News and information delivery is meeting Charter obligations
Mr Anderson addressed ongoing criticism of the ABC’s news coverage, particularly of contentious topics such as the recent referendum and the Gaza conflict, saying that when people say that the broadcaster is not meeting its Charter obligations, “they usually mean we aren’t taking a side. In fact this means our editorial policies are working exactly as they should”.
Journalists, he said, “operate within clear constraints at the public broadcaster” because of the need for them to ensure that “whatever the perspective an individual may bring with them, it does not influence our journalism”.
He said that while the ABC celebrates the diversity of its journalists’ perspectives, backgrounds, and culture, “there is an obligation that comes with the privilege of working for the most important cultural institution in the country and the most trusted and reliable source of news and information”.