In Australia, the ABC fulfills multiple roles as a public broadcaster.  Unfortunately one of those roles is to justify the value of that public broadcasting.  In this it is not alone, as one can see in an article listing the pressures imposed on another public broadcaster, in this case the BBC - Can the BBC Survive the British Government?  Apart from common pressure on public broadcasters, you might also want to consider the differences between the ABC and BBC.  Could the ABC be better, or is its current form optimal?