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EspañolAUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION
(Redirected from Australian Broadcasting Commission)
The 'Australian Broadcasting Corporation' ('ABC') is Australia's national non-profit public broadcaster. Prior to 1 July 1983 it was known as the ''Australian Broadcasting Commission'' [1].
The ABC provides television, radio and online services throughout metropolitan and regional Australia and overseas via its Asia-Pacific Television service and Radio Australia. The Corporation runs a chain of ABC Shops selling books and audio and video recordings related to its programs.
The ABC is sometimes referred to informally as 'Aunty'; the origin of this name derives directly from a nickname of the ABC's cousin, the BBC.
The first public radio station in Australia opened in Sydney on 13 November 1923 under the call sign 2SB with other stations following. A licensing scheme administered by the Postmaster-General's Department was soon established whereby certain stations received government funding but had restrictions placed on their advertising content.
Following a 1927 Royal Commission inquiry into radio licensing issues, the government established the 'National Broadcasting Service' which subsequently took over a number of the larger funded stations. It also nationalized the Australian Broadcasting Company which had been created by entertainment interests to supply programs to various radio stations. On July 1 1932, the 'Australian Broadcasting Commission' was established which took over the operations of the National Broadcasting Service and over a number of years established offices in each of Australia's capital cities.
In 1956 the Commission commenced television broadcasting and in 1983, with the passing of a new ''ABC Act'', the name was changed to the 'Australian Broadcasting Corporation'. As the publicly funded national broadcaster, the Corporation has been run with ''free-to-air'' radio and television broadcasting throughout its history.
The history of the ABC governance has been one of frequent change. At its conception on 17 May, 1932, the Australian Broadcasting Commission consisted of five commissioners appointed by the Governer-General. From these five commissioners, one was appointed to the office of chairperson and another was appointed to the office of vice-chairperson[2]. This board of directors then appointed a General Manager who did not have the office of commissioner2.
In 1942 an Act was passed which required that one of the commissioners be a woman.2 A 1948 Act was later passed to increase the number of commissioners to seven, specifying that two commissioners must be public servants; one each from the Treasury departments and the Postmaster-General's department. Although the requirement for public servants was dropped in the ''Broadcasting and Television Act of 1956'', the need for seven commissioners was retained; this allowed for each state to be represented.
The number of commissioners was increased in 1967 to nine.In 1975 the Whitlam government introduced, without legislation, a staff elected commissioner position, subsequently discontinued by the Fraser government.
Another Act was passed in 1976, which raised the number of commissioners to 11. In addition to requiring a commissioner from each state, this required two women to be on the Commission.
In 1983 the ''Australian Broadcasting Commission'' became the ''Australian Broadcasting Corporation'' by an Act conceived by the Fraser Government and passed by the Hawke government. This remains as the governing Act for the ABC today.
In 2006 the John Howard conservative government planned to restructure the ABC board and the position of staff elected director was abolished.[3] The elected director was nominated and elected by employees of the ABC. Nominees for this director office were to have been employed at least 24 hours a week by the ABC and the term of office was two years with eligibility for re-election to a second term. An elected director was not eligible for a third term of office.[4]
The operations of the ABC are governed by a board of directors.[5] The board is made up of appointed directors and a board appointed Managing Director. The authority and guidelines for the appointment of directors is provided for in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Act 1983 (ABC Act).About the board ABC website, accessed November 26, 2006[6]Membership of Board Scaleplus website, accessed November 26, 2006
The Governor-General is responsible for the appointments of between five and seven directors, recommended by the Federal Government. The ABC Act specifies that the Governor-General must be satisfied that the recommendations for director appointments are qualified through experience in one of the following areas; broadcasting services, communications, management, financial, technical matters, or cultural or other interests relevant to the oversight of a public organisation engaged in the provision of broadcasting services. The term of the appointment is up to five years, with eligibility for reappointment at the end of this term.
The Board currently maintains one national Advisory Council which advises it on matters relating to the Corporation's broadcasting programs. The ABC Advisory Council consists of 12 members, broadly representative of the Australian community and each serving staggered four-year terms. Vacancies are advertised across ABC programming in October / September each year. [7] The current Chair of the Council is Dr Jane Munro, Head of International House at the University of Melbourne.
The Managing Director is appointed by the board of directors for a term of five years, with eligibility for reappointment to a second term no longer than five years.[8]
:Mr Mark Scott - ''Managing Director.'' Appointed 5 July 2006.
:Mr Maurice Newman AC - ''Chairperson.'' Appointed January 2007.
:Mr John Gallagher QC - Appointed 9 December 1999.
:Dr Ron Brunton - Appointed 1 May 2003.
:Ms Janet Albrechtsen - Appointed 24 February 2005.
:Mr Steven Skala - Appointed 6 October 2005.
:Mr Peter Hurley - Appointed 14 June 2006.
:Mr Keith Windschuttle - Appointed 14 June 2006.
The ABC is non-commercial in its delivery of broadcasting content. It receives the vast majority of its funding by direct annual grants from the federal government budget to the tune of AUD$823 million for the 2006-07 fiscal year.[9] This funding is supplemented by commercial revenue from ABC Shop sales in their stores and online which amounts to AUD$162 million. In comparison the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation/Société Radio-Canada (CBC/Radio-Canada) and public broadcasting in New Zealand, receive substantial revenue from advertising, and the BBC receives the bulk of its revenue from licence fees and worldwide commercial operations. The American Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), is supported partly with federal funding, but is supplemented greatly by public donations.
Prior to 1974 the ABC was funded by a licence fee, but this was abolished.
The government's relationship with the ABC in both board appointments and funding have often created public scrutiny controversy. Methods of appointment to the ABC Board: Chapter 2 - The selection criteria - who should be on the board?
Of the fourteen chairmen that have been appointed to the ABC, at least five have had party affiliations or friendships. Both Richard Downing and Ken Myer publicly endorsed the Australian Labor Party at the 1972 election. Sir Henry Bland was an adviser to Malcolm Fraser during the 1976 election campaign. David Hill was close to Neville Wran and Donald McDonald was a close friend of John Howard. Aunty at seventy: a health report on the ABC
Appointments of commissioners and directors has also drawn criticism for partisanship. In the earliest days of 1932, a majority of the commissioners were publicly conservative. This continued to 1942, when the Curtin and Chifley administrations appointed a more politically balanced commission. After 23 years of Liberal Party and Country Party government, under Prime Ministers from Menzies to McMahon, the commission was once again solidly conservative in 1972. When Whitlam came to power, he replaced the whole board, mainly with supporters of the Labor Party. Fraser's government attempted unsuccessfully to replace the whole board with conservatives in 1976, but was only able to appoint two new conservative directors by adding two extra director positions onto the board.
In 1983, the Minister, John Button referred proposed board appointments to an all-party committee for the first time. However, this even-handedness did not survive to the end of Keating's government. Inglis cites journalist Alan Ramsey in a 1996 ''Sydney Morning Herald'' article:
The ABC's treatment of current affairs—including ''This Day Tonight'' and its successors ''The 7.30 Report'' and ''Lateline'' on television, and ''AM'' on radio—have been criticized by the political right for alleged left-wing bias in its reporting. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the conservative Liberal Party government made several attempts to curtail the ABC's political coverage by threatening to reduce funding to the news and current affairs division. In the late 1980s, the Labor Party government of Bob Hawke proposed commercialising the ABC, a move that was successfully resisted by the organisation itself and a significant groundswell of devotees among the public. The Hawke government also proposed to merge the ABC and its sister organisation, the Special Broadcasting Service; again, this move was unsuccessful, this time because the enabling legislation failed to pass the Senate.
Soon after coming to office in 1996, the conservative Liberal Party government of John Howard reduced the ABC's operating grants by 10 per cent.[10] From 2003 it also made several controversial appointments of leading Australian right wing figures to the ABC Board, including Janet Albrechtsen,[11]
, Ron Brunton,[12]
and Keith Windschuttle,[13] all notable contributors to the conservative literary and political journal ''Quadrant'' and, prior to their appointments to the Board, fierce critics of the ABC.
In 2003, former Communications Minister Senator Richard Alston lodged 68 complaints with the Independent Complaints Review Panel against ABC's ''AM'' radio program for its coverage of the US led invasion of Iraq. The panel upheld a small fraction of the lodged complaints. Overall it found no evidence of biased and anti-Coalition coverage as alleged by the Minister, nor did it uphold his view that the program was characterised by one-sided and tendentious commentary by program presenters and reporters. Of the 17 complaints by the Minister that were upheld, 12 displayed serious bias on the part of the reporters or the program's presenter Linda Mottram.[14]
In October 2006 ABC Managing Director Mark Scott formally released a new set of editorial guidelines covering news and current affairs, opinion programs, factual programs and performance pieces. The ABC must express "a full range of views in opinion-based programs and ensure that when an opinion is expressed, it is clearly marked as an opinion."[15] The guidelines came into effect in March 2007.
A Roy Morgan media credibility survey found that 25 per cent of Australian journalists viewed the ABC as Australia's most partisan media outlet, second only to News Limited. Although it should be noted that the same poll found that ABC Radio was seen as the most accurate news source in the country. [16]
Former ABC journalists and presenters sometimes make the transition to elected office. Labor's Bob Carr, Alan Carpenter, Clare Martin and Mary Delahunty, and the Liberals' Pru Goward and Eoin Cameron are particularly high-profile examples. Labor candidates Maxine McKew and Mike Bailey are also former prominent ABC journalists.
The ABC began as a network of twelve radio stations: eight in the capital cities and four regional relay stations. From its humble beginnings, ABC Radio now includes five national networks:
★ Radio National - national broadcast of news, current affairs, and regular programs;
★ ABC NewsRadio - regular round-the-clock news bulletins, international current affairs, parliamentary broadcasts;
★ Triple J - national youth network, with a focus on Australian, independent and live music;
★ DiG - digital music broadcasting service;
★ ABC Classic FM - classical music broadcaster.
The ABC also provides around fifty ABC Local Radio stations and a foreign language shortwave radio service, Radio Australia.
The twelve original stations were:
The ABC's news and current affairs coverage is the most independent in Australia as it is free of the commercial constraints of the commercial news networks. It is also widely regarded in the Australian media industry as the best news coverage in the country.
News and current affairs programs broadcast on ABC radio stations across the country are:
★ ABC Radio News (Hourly news updates on Radio National, Local Radio, Classic FM and Triple J)
★ AM (Half hour-long current affairs program broadcast on Local Radio at 8am and Radio National at 7.10am) AM website
★ The World Today (50 minute-long current affairs program broadcast on Local Radio and Radio National at 12:10pm)
★ PM (50 minute-long current affairs program broadcast on Local Radio and Radio National at 6:10pm)
★ Radio National also produces other news, business and current affairs programs, such as Background Briefing, the Health, Law, Religion and Media Reports and The National Interest.
★ Hack on Triple J the only current affairs program on FM radio
ABC Local Radio is the ABC's flagship radio station in each broadcast area. There are 46 different ABC Local Radio stations across Australia and they all follow a standard format with local hosts presenting light entertainment, talk back, music, sport and interviews. ABC Local Radio also carries nationally broadcast programming, including AM, PM, The World Today, sporting events and Nightlife. ABC's local radio stations cater for a diverse audience, though most are popular with older audiences. ABC Local Radio also produces a range of programs for Rural and Regional Australia, under the ABC Rural Department. This includes The Country Hour and the Heywire initiative for young people from rural Australia.
"Grandstand" is the banner used for the ABC's coverage of various sporting events broadcast on ABC Local Radio. In many cases, commentators are used to call various sports and are required to have knowledge on a wide range of sports, as opposed to a speciality.
ABC Radio National can be heard across Australia and broadcasts over 60 special interest programs per week. These programs are about a diverse range of topics including music, comedy, book readings, radio dramas, poetry, science, health, the arts, religion, social history and current affairs.
ABC NewsRadio was previously called the Parliamentary and News Network (PNN). The station was set up to broadcast Australian Federal Parliament and is similar to the BBC Parliament television channel in the UK. It was built around the Parliament's existing broadcast service. PNN was originally set up to relieve other ABC Radio networks from covering Parliamentary sittings. When Parliament is not sitting, the station broadcasts news on a 24/7 format with updates on the quarter-hour. Most of its news comes from ABC News reporters, however it also uses the resources of BBC Radio, NPR, Deutsche Welle and CNN Radio.
A brief history of the ABC Rural Department.
The appointment of John Douglass in 1945 laid the foundation to formalise the broadcasting of specialist Rural information on ABC Radio. While The ABC had been providing some broadcasting of markets and rainfall figures prior to that date, Douglass set about establishing a new program, to be called ''The Country Hour'', which was first broadcast on December 3rd, 1945. It was hosted by Dick Snedden, a former cattle auctioneer from Scone in the Hunter Valley of NSW and broadcast from Sydney. Snedden was familiar to ABC listeners because he'd been describing events at the Sydney Show for the ABC since 1936.
Within a couple of years announcers were also appointed in other capital cities, providing state market and weather information and contributing stories to the nationwide Country Hour. Based on its growing popularity, ''The Country Hour'' later became a separate weekday specialist program in each state. An early and popular element of the program was a radio serial called ''The Lawsons''. In 1949, this was replaced by the serial ''Blue Hills'', which went on to run until September 1976 and becoming a daily institution in its own right.
In 1951, rural 'extension' officers had been appointed to a few rural areas to do local interviews and reports. The officers were so popular in the country areas that rural extension officers were appointed to major country areas throughout Australia.
After the introduction of television in 1956, several popular television programs were added to the ABC's rural coverage, including ''To Market To Market'', ''A Big Country'', ''Countrywide'' and ''Landline''.
By the 1980s, the extension officers were referred to as rural reporters, and their supervisors as executive producers. In 1999, the Rural Department opened its online gateway, ABC Rural, and continues to evolve and adapt to new means of communicating with its audience in rural, regional and urban Australia.
In 1998, ABC Rural launched Heywire, an annual competition which has provided a voice to the issues and aspirations of regional/rural youth by broadcasting their stories on ABC Local Radio and by coordinating an annual Rural Youth Conference in Canberra for Heywire participants.
Currently the ABC Rural Department employs over 70 staff and reporters. Its flagship program, ''The Country Hour'', is officially recognised by the Guinness Book of Records as being Australia's longest-running radio program, celebrating 60 years of rural broadcasting in 2005.
Triple J (or JJJ) is a national youth radio network, broadcasting new alternative music, particularly Australian music. The station's demographic is young people, aged 18 - 35. Triple J was formerly known as "Double Jay" when it first hit the airwaves (as an AM station) on 19 January 1975.
"DiG" radio broadcasts over the Internet, pay TV and digital radio. It is not available via a standard radio on AM or FM frequencies, except when simulcast on ABC Local Radio. DiG broadcasts a diverse range of music and also plays music submitted by listeners. It presently consists of ''DiG Radio'', ''DiG Jazz'' and ''DiG Country''.
ABC Classic FM was the ABC's first FM service. It was originally known simply as "ABC FM", and for a short time "ABC Fine Music". Its format borrowed heavily from community stations that eventually founded the Fine Music Network, as well as BBC Radio 3.
The ABC, through ABC Classic FM, has helped support the ABC-owned state symphony orchestras, chamber music, instrumental recitals, opera, choral and solo singers.
The ABC also operates Radio Australia, an international shortwave service with transmissions aimed at East Asia and the Pacific Islands, although its signals are also audible in many other parts of the world. It features programs in various languages spoken in these regions, including Mandarin, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Khmer and Tok Pisin.
Radio Australia concentrates on news and current affairs, but it also features historical documentaries, information about Australian lifestyle and culture, and light entertainment. Although it does produce some of its own programming, most of it content consists of relays produced by the domestic Radio National network.
Radio Australia bulletins are also carried on the World Radio Network, available via satellite in Europe and North America.
It is of little interest to domestic Australian audiences as most of its material is, or has previously been, broadcast simultaneously on the easier to receive domestic ABC networks.
The ABC operates two nationwide television channels, 'ABC TV' and the digital-only ABC2. In addition a separate digital network Australia Network provides commercial digital TV services into the Asia-Pacific region.
On March 7 2005, the digital-only channel ABC2 was launched.[18] It is largely a combination of the former ABC Kids Channel, short-format news and information programs and retransmission of main channel programs. It screens predominantly repeated ABC news and current affairs programs, compilations of ABC news bulletin stories with some additional reporting, children's programming, music documentaries and state football. Content on ABC2 is restricted by legislation, however these restrictions are being lifted by new digital broadcasting laws. ABC also broadcasts in the 720p high Definition format. They have chosen this for it allows them to broadcast ABC2 with very little loss in quality.
The Australia Network television service was previously known as ABC Asia Pacific and Australia Television. It is partly funded by Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), and partly by advertising. The channel is available free-to-air to East Asia and the Pacific Islands via satellite and local cable systems, and has recently been made available in South Asia and the Middle East. It can also be viewed online through ABC's main website.
The network is currently available in 8 million homes in more than 35 countries across the region, and more than 190,000 hotel rooms. The network screens a variety of programs from ABC TV itself, including tailor-made news bulletins for the region, and also from the other domestic Australian networks, as well as Sky News and independents. It also carries state-level Australian rules football and rugby league matches, such as the VFL and the Queensland Cup, and British drama serials. One of its foreign affairs programs, ''Hemispheres'', is co-produced with the CBC of Canada, and presented from both Sydney and Vancouver. Hemispheres has since been broadcast on ABC2.
An experimental Multimedia Unit was established in 1995, charged with developing policy for the ABC's work in web publishing. This unit continued until 2000, when the New Media division was formed, aggregating the Internet output from radio and TV as well as web-original material under one umbrella.
This division had over a million pages of material published by late 2003 and was instrumental in developing ABC content on other platforms such as mobile phones.
In 2001 the New Media division became New Media and Digital Services, reflecting the broader remit to develop digital platforms such as digital TV. In March 2005 the division launched the ABC2 free-to-air digital TV channel, the successor to the short lived Fly TV and the ABC Kids Channel digital services.
In conjunction with the ABC's radio division, New Media and Digital Services implemented the ABC's first podcasts in December 2004. By mid-2006 the ABC had become an international leader in podcasting with over 50 podcast programs delivering hundreds of thousands of downloads per week, including trial video podcasts of The Chaser's War on Everything and Jtv.
In February 2007, however, the decision was taken to split the ABC's online efforts up and pass their control out to the divisions they relate to - decentralising the ABC's online production. Essentially the New Media & Digital Services division was dissolved and divided up amongst other areas of the ABC - a new Corporate division was instated - and a new, as yet not clearly defined, Innovations area was also created. The effects of this move are still to be seen.
Among the most notable websites are:
A comprehensive local news coverage of Australia, including stories from the ABC's 36 regional bureaux. It also provides extensive national news and international news from an Australian perspective. It provides several daily broadband video bulletins of general news as well as sport, business and rural news.
ABC Science Online, also Known as the "The Lab", is an online service reporting science related news. It features in-depth articles and analysis on current scientific issues, and various pages for children, featuring Karl Kruszelnicki, a popular Australian scientist who made his debut on the ABC.
The ABC Rural Department's online gateway, providing a comprehensive coverage of rural and regional affairs from around Australia and the world. It incorporates the programs National Rural News, The Country Hour, Country Breakfast, Rural Reporter, The Resources Beat and Radio National's Bush Telegraph, as well as rural reports from every region of Australia.
ABC Enterprises is the commercial Division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The Division is comprised of ABC Retail, ABC Consumer Publishing and Content Sales, and ABC Resource Hire. It was established in 1974 with all profits from the sale of consumer product and production services returned to the Corporation to reinvest in program-making.
It now operates over 40 retail shops and 80 centres, an international delivery service on the Internet as well as developing and licensing ABC brands and programs, and providing production resource hire to the general public and industry alike.
The ABC Shop Online (at www.abcshop.com.au) is a shopping website operated by ABC Enterprises. It sells DVDs, CDs, books, toys, clothing, music downloads and mobile phone products related to programming on ABC TV and Radio, and Australian culture in general.
Develops and licenses products and brands related to ABC programming selling to both the general public and wholesale TV and radio markets worldwide.
Offers a range of production services including costume hire, sound stage and studio facilities, venue hire and event staging.
In the 1920s, recording technology was still relatively primitive. All ABC programs were broadcast live until 1935, including music. For this purpose, the ABC established broadcasting orchestras in each state, and in some centres also employed choruses and dance bands.
There are currently six state symphony orchestras:
★ Adelaide Symphony Orchestra
★ Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
★ Sydney Symphony
★ The Queensland Orchestra
★ Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra
★ West Australian Symphony Orchestra
The orchestras were incorporated in the 1990s but remain wholly under ABC ownership, co-ordinated by Symphony Australia. They have evolved into platform orchestras and play a major role in Australia’s culture life.
The ABC's mailing address is post office box number 9994 at the General Post Office in each state capital. A persistent urban legend maintains that 9994 is a reference to the lifetime Test batting average of Australian cricketer Sir Donald Bradman. Supposedly, Sir Charles Moses, a longtime managing director of the ABC and personal friend of Bradman's, arranged for this number to be used. The story has been denied by the ABC: indeed, the broadcaster was not assigned the box number until after Moses's successor, Sir Talbot Duckmanton, had retired.[19]
1. http://scaleplus.law.gov.au/html/pasteact/0/43/top.htm
2. Appendix 1: The Character and composition of the ABC'S Governing Body 1932-2001
3. Restructure of ABC Board
4.
Staff-elected Director
5. Establishment of Australian Broadcasting Corporation Board ScalePlus Website, accessed November 26, 2006
6. Australian Broadcasting Corporation Act 1983 Scaleplus website, accessed November 26, 2006
7. [http://www.abc.net.au/corp/nac/ The ABC Advisory Council} ABC Website, accessed 29 July, 2007
8. Tenure of Managing Director Scaleplus website, accessed November 26, 2006
9. ABC Budget 06-07, '' 'Australian Broadcasting Corporation' website'' Retr. June 18th, 2007.
10. See for example Senator K. Lundy, Adjournment speech, ''Senate Hansard'', 10 September 1996
11. ABC critic appointed to board of directors
12. Anthropologist on ABC Board
13. Govt appoints ABC board members
14. ABC bias review panel ruling released
15. Guidelines to counter ABC bias claims
16. Why Australians Don’t Respect The Media
17. About ABC Canberra
18. ABC broadcasts digital TV plans
19. Aunty at seventy: a health report on the ABC p8
★ ABC Kids
★ ABC Rollercoaster
★ Classic ABC TV shows of the 70s & 80s
★ List of Australian television channels
★ List of Australian radio stations
★ Boyer Lectures
★ ABC Online
★ ABC Shop
★ ABC Enterprises
★ Friends of the ABC
The 'Australian Broadcasting Corporation' ('ABC') is Australia's national non-profit public broadcaster. Prior to 1 July 1983 it was known as the ''Australian Broadcasting Commission'' [1].
The ABC provides television, radio and online services throughout metropolitan and regional Australia and overseas via its Asia-Pacific Television service and Radio Australia. The Corporation runs a chain of ABC Shops selling books and audio and video recordings related to its programs.
The ABC is sometimes referred to informally as 'Aunty'; the origin of this name derives directly from a nickname of the ABC's cousin, the BBC.
History
The first public radio station in Australia opened in Sydney on 13 November 1923 under the call sign 2SB with other stations following. A licensing scheme administered by the Postmaster-General's Department was soon established whereby certain stations received government funding but had restrictions placed on their advertising content.
Radio
Following a 1927 Royal Commission inquiry into radio licensing issues, the government established the 'National Broadcasting Service' which subsequently took over a number of the larger funded stations. It also nationalized the Australian Broadcasting Company which had been created by entertainment interests to supply programs to various radio stations. On July 1 1932, the 'Australian Broadcasting Commission' was established which took over the operations of the National Broadcasting Service and over a number of years established offices in each of Australia's capital cities.
Television
In 1956 the Commission commenced television broadcasting and in 1983, with the passing of a new ''ABC Act'', the name was changed to the 'Australian Broadcasting Corporation'. As the publicly funded national broadcaster, the Corporation has been run with ''free-to-air'' radio and television broadcasting throughout its history.
Governance
The history of the ABC governance has been one of frequent change. At its conception on 17 May, 1932, the Australian Broadcasting Commission consisted of five commissioners appointed by the Governer-General. From these five commissioners, one was appointed to the office of chairperson and another was appointed to the office of vice-chairperson[2]. This board of directors then appointed a General Manager who did not have the office of commissioner2.
In 1942 an Act was passed which required that one of the commissioners be a woman.2 A 1948 Act was later passed to increase the number of commissioners to seven, specifying that two commissioners must be public servants; one each from the Treasury departments and the Postmaster-General's department. Although the requirement for public servants was dropped in the ''Broadcasting and Television Act of 1956'', the need for seven commissioners was retained; this allowed for each state to be represented.
The number of commissioners was increased in 1967 to nine.In 1975 the Whitlam government introduced, without legislation, a staff elected commissioner position, subsequently discontinued by the Fraser government.
Another Act was passed in 1976, which raised the number of commissioners to 11. In addition to requiring a commissioner from each state, this required two women to be on the Commission.
In 1983 the ''Australian Broadcasting Commission'' became the ''Australian Broadcasting Corporation'' by an Act conceived by the Fraser Government and passed by the Hawke government. This remains as the governing Act for the ABC today.
In 2006 the John Howard conservative government planned to restructure the ABC board and the position of staff elected director was abolished.[3] The elected director was nominated and elected by employees of the ABC. Nominees for this director office were to have been employed at least 24 hours a week by the ABC and the term of office was two years with eligibility for re-election to a second term. An elected director was not eligible for a third term of office.[4]
Structure
ABC governance
The operations of the ABC are governed by a board of directors.[5] The board is made up of appointed directors and a board appointed Managing Director. The authority and guidelines for the appointment of directors is provided for in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Act 1983 (ABC Act).About the board ABC website, accessed November 26, 2006[6]Membership of Board Scaleplus website, accessed November 26, 2006
The Governor-General is responsible for the appointments of between five and seven directors, recommended by the Federal Government. The ABC Act specifies that the Governor-General must be satisfied that the recommendations for director appointments are qualified through experience in one of the following areas; broadcasting services, communications, management, financial, technical matters, or cultural or other interests relevant to the oversight of a public organisation engaged in the provision of broadcasting services. The term of the appointment is up to five years, with eligibility for reappointment at the end of this term.
The Board currently maintains one national Advisory Council which advises it on matters relating to the Corporation's broadcasting programs. The ABC Advisory Council consists of 12 members, broadly representative of the Australian community and each serving staggered four-year terms. Vacancies are advertised across ABC programming in October / September each year. [7] The current Chair of the Council is Dr Jane Munro, Head of International House at the University of Melbourne.
The Managing Director is appointed by the board of directors for a term of five years, with eligibility for reappointment to a second term no longer than five years.[8]
Current Board
:Mr Mark Scott - ''Managing Director.'' Appointed 5 July 2006.
:Mr Maurice Newman AC - ''Chairperson.'' Appointed January 2007.
:Mr John Gallagher QC - Appointed 9 December 1999.
:Dr Ron Brunton - Appointed 1 May 2003.
:Ms Janet Albrechtsen - Appointed 24 February 2005.
:Mr Steven Skala - Appointed 6 October 2005.
:Mr Peter Hurley - Appointed 14 June 2006.
:Mr Keith Windschuttle - Appointed 14 June 2006.
Funding
The ABC is non-commercial in its delivery of broadcasting content. It receives the vast majority of its funding by direct annual grants from the federal government budget to the tune of AUD$823 million for the 2006-07 fiscal year.[9] This funding is supplemented by commercial revenue from ABC Shop sales in their stores and online which amounts to AUD$162 million. In comparison the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation/Société Radio-Canada (CBC/Radio-Canada) and public broadcasting in New Zealand, receive substantial revenue from advertising, and the BBC receives the bulk of its revenue from licence fees and worldwide commercial operations. The American Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), is supported partly with federal funding, but is supplemented greatly by public donations.
Prior to 1974 the ABC was funded by a licence fee, but this was abolished.
Politics
The government's relationship with the ABC in both board appointments and funding have often created public scrutiny controversy. Methods of appointment to the ABC Board: Chapter 2 - The selection criteria - who should be on the board?
Of the fourteen chairmen that have been appointed to the ABC, at least five have had party affiliations or friendships. Both Richard Downing and Ken Myer publicly endorsed the Australian Labor Party at the 1972 election. Sir Henry Bland was an adviser to Malcolm Fraser during the 1976 election campaign. David Hill was close to Neville Wran and Donald McDonald was a close friend of John Howard. Aunty at seventy: a health report on the ABC
Appointments of commissioners and directors has also drawn criticism for partisanship. In the earliest days of 1932, a majority of the commissioners were publicly conservative. This continued to 1942, when the Curtin and Chifley administrations appointed a more politically balanced commission. After 23 years of Liberal Party and Country Party government, under Prime Ministers from Menzies to McMahon, the commission was once again solidly conservative in 1972. When Whitlam came to power, he replaced the whole board, mainly with supporters of the Labor Party. Fraser's government attempted unsuccessfully to replace the whole board with conservatives in 1976, but was only able to appoint two new conservative directors by adding two extra director positions onto the board.
In 1983, the Minister, John Button referred proposed board appointments to an all-party committee for the first time. However, this even-handedness did not survive to the end of Keating's government. Inglis cites journalist Alan Ramsey in a 1996 ''Sydney Morning Herald'' article:
The ABC's treatment of current affairs—including ''This Day Tonight'' and its successors ''The 7.30 Report'' and ''Lateline'' on television, and ''AM'' on radio—have been criticized by the political right for alleged left-wing bias in its reporting. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the conservative Liberal Party government made several attempts to curtail the ABC's political coverage by threatening to reduce funding to the news and current affairs division. In the late 1980s, the Labor Party government of Bob Hawke proposed commercialising the ABC, a move that was successfully resisted by the organisation itself and a significant groundswell of devotees among the public. The Hawke government also proposed to merge the ABC and its sister organisation, the Special Broadcasting Service; again, this move was unsuccessful, this time because the enabling legislation failed to pass the Senate.
Soon after coming to office in 1996, the conservative Liberal Party government of John Howard reduced the ABC's operating grants by 10 per cent.[10] From 2003 it also made several controversial appointments of leading Australian right wing figures to the ABC Board, including Janet Albrechtsen,[11]
, Ron Brunton,[12]
and Keith Windschuttle,[13] all notable contributors to the conservative literary and political journal ''Quadrant'' and, prior to their appointments to the Board, fierce critics of the ABC.
In 2003, former Communications Minister Senator Richard Alston lodged 68 complaints with the Independent Complaints Review Panel against ABC's ''AM'' radio program for its coverage of the US led invasion of Iraq. The panel upheld a small fraction of the lodged complaints. Overall it found no evidence of biased and anti-Coalition coverage as alleged by the Minister, nor did it uphold his view that the program was characterised by one-sided and tendentious commentary by program presenters and reporters. Of the 17 complaints by the Minister that were upheld, 12 displayed serious bias on the part of the reporters or the program's presenter Linda Mottram.[14]
In October 2006 ABC Managing Director Mark Scott formally released a new set of editorial guidelines covering news and current affairs, opinion programs, factual programs and performance pieces. The ABC must express "a full range of views in opinion-based programs and ensure that when an opinion is expressed, it is clearly marked as an opinion."[15] The guidelines came into effect in March 2007.
A Roy Morgan media credibility survey found that 25 per cent of Australian journalists viewed the ABC as Australia's most partisan media outlet, second only to News Limited. Although it should be noted that the same poll found that ABC Radio was seen as the most accurate news source in the country. [16]
Former ABC journalists and presenters sometimes make the transition to elected office. Labor's Bob Carr, Alan Carpenter, Clare Martin and Mary Delahunty, and the Liberals' Pru Goward and Eoin Cameron are particularly high-profile examples. Labor candidates Maxine McKew and Mike Bailey are also former prominent ABC journalists.
Radio
The ABC began as a network of twelve radio stations: eight in the capital cities and four regional relay stations. From its humble beginnings, ABC Radio now includes five national networks:
★ Radio National - national broadcast of news, current affairs, and regular programs;
★ ABC NewsRadio - regular round-the-clock news bulletins, international current affairs, parliamentary broadcasts;
★ Triple J - national youth network, with a focus on Australian, independent and live music;
★ DiG - digital music broadcasting service;
★ ABC Classic FM - classical music broadcaster.
The ABC also provides around fifty ABC Local Radio stations and a foreign language shortwave radio service, Radio Australia.
The twelve original stations were:
Capital cities: ★ 5AN, Adelaide ★ 4QR, Brisbane ★ 2CY, Canberra (1938)[17] ★ 7ZL, Hobart ★ 3AR and 3LO, Melbourne ★ 6WF, Perth ★ 2FC and 2BL, Sydney (702 Local) ★ 8DDD, Darwin | Relay stations: ★ 2CO, Corowa ★ 2NC, Newcastle ★ 5CK, Port Pirie ★ 4RK, Rockhampton |
Radio news and current affairs
The ABC's news and current affairs coverage is the most independent in Australia as it is free of the commercial constraints of the commercial news networks. It is also widely regarded in the Australian media industry as the best news coverage in the country.
News and current affairs programs broadcast on ABC radio stations across the country are:
★ ABC Radio News (Hourly news updates on Radio National, Local Radio, Classic FM and Triple J)
★ AM (Half hour-long current affairs program broadcast on Local Radio at 8am and Radio National at 7.10am) AM website
★ The World Today (50 minute-long current affairs program broadcast on Local Radio and Radio National at 12:10pm)
★ PM (50 minute-long current affairs program broadcast on Local Radio and Radio National at 6:10pm)
★ Radio National also produces other news, business and current affairs programs, such as Background Briefing, the Health, Law, Religion and Media Reports and The National Interest.
★ Hack on Triple J the only current affairs program on FM radio
ABC Local Radio
ABC Local Radio is the ABC's flagship radio station in each broadcast area. There are 46 different ABC Local Radio stations across Australia and they all follow a standard format with local hosts presenting light entertainment, talk back, music, sport and interviews. ABC Local Radio also carries nationally broadcast programming, including AM, PM, The World Today, sporting events and Nightlife. ABC's local radio stations cater for a diverse audience, though most are popular with older audiences. ABC Local Radio also produces a range of programs for Rural and Regional Australia, under the ABC Rural Department. This includes The Country Hour and the Heywire initiative for young people from rural Australia.
ABC Radio Grandstand
"Grandstand" is the banner used for the ABC's coverage of various sporting events broadcast on ABC Local Radio. In many cases, commentators are used to call various sports and are required to have knowledge on a wide range of sports, as opposed to a speciality.
ABC Radio National
ABC Radio National can be heard across Australia and broadcasts over 60 special interest programs per week. These programs are about a diverse range of topics including music, comedy, book readings, radio dramas, poetry, science, health, the arts, religion, social history and current affairs.
ABC NewsRadio
ABC NewsRadio was previously called the Parliamentary and News Network (PNN). The station was set up to broadcast Australian Federal Parliament and is similar to the BBC Parliament television channel in the UK. It was built around the Parliament's existing broadcast service. PNN was originally set up to relieve other ABC Radio networks from covering Parliamentary sittings. When Parliament is not sitting, the station broadcasts news on a 24/7 format with updates on the quarter-hour. Most of its news comes from ABC News reporters, however it also uses the resources of BBC Radio, NPR, Deutsche Welle and CNN Radio.
ABC Rural Radio
A brief history of the ABC Rural Department.
The appointment of John Douglass in 1945 laid the foundation to formalise the broadcasting of specialist Rural information on ABC Radio. While The ABC had been providing some broadcasting of markets and rainfall figures prior to that date, Douglass set about establishing a new program, to be called ''The Country Hour'', which was first broadcast on December 3rd, 1945. It was hosted by Dick Snedden, a former cattle auctioneer from Scone in the Hunter Valley of NSW and broadcast from Sydney. Snedden was familiar to ABC listeners because he'd been describing events at the Sydney Show for the ABC since 1936.
Within a couple of years announcers were also appointed in other capital cities, providing state market and weather information and contributing stories to the nationwide Country Hour. Based on its growing popularity, ''The Country Hour'' later became a separate weekday specialist program in each state. An early and popular element of the program was a radio serial called ''The Lawsons''. In 1949, this was replaced by the serial ''Blue Hills'', which went on to run until September 1976 and becoming a daily institution in its own right.
In 1951, rural 'extension' officers had been appointed to a few rural areas to do local interviews and reports. The officers were so popular in the country areas that rural extension officers were appointed to major country areas throughout Australia.
After the introduction of television in 1956, several popular television programs were added to the ABC's rural coverage, including ''To Market To Market'', ''A Big Country'', ''Countrywide'' and ''Landline''.
By the 1980s, the extension officers were referred to as rural reporters, and their supervisors as executive producers. In 1999, the Rural Department opened its online gateway, ABC Rural, and continues to evolve and adapt to new means of communicating with its audience in rural, regional and urban Australia.
In 1998, ABC Rural launched Heywire, an annual competition which has provided a voice to the issues and aspirations of regional/rural youth by broadcasting their stories on ABC Local Radio and by coordinating an annual Rural Youth Conference in Canberra for Heywire participants.
Currently the ABC Rural Department employs over 70 staff and reporters. Its flagship program, ''The Country Hour'', is officially recognised by the Guinness Book of Records as being Australia's longest-running radio program, celebrating 60 years of rural broadcasting in 2005.
Triple J
Triple J (or JJJ) is a national youth radio network, broadcasting new alternative music, particularly Australian music. The station's demographic is young people, aged 18 - 35. Triple J was formerly known as "Double Jay" when it first hit the airwaves (as an AM station) on 19 January 1975.
DiG
"DiG" radio broadcasts over the Internet, pay TV and digital radio. It is not available via a standard radio on AM or FM frequencies, except when simulcast on ABC Local Radio. DiG broadcasts a diverse range of music and also plays music submitted by listeners. It presently consists of ''DiG Radio'', ''DiG Jazz'' and ''DiG Country''.
ABC Classic FM
ABC Classic FM was the ABC's first FM service. It was originally known simply as "ABC FM", and for a short time "ABC Fine Music". Its format borrowed heavily from community stations that eventually founded the Fine Music Network, as well as BBC Radio 3.
The ABC, through ABC Classic FM, has helped support the ABC-owned state symphony orchestras, chamber music, instrumental recitals, opera, choral and solo singers.
Radio Australia
The ABC also operates Radio Australia, an international shortwave service with transmissions aimed at East Asia and the Pacific Islands, although its signals are also audible in many other parts of the world. It features programs in various languages spoken in these regions, including Mandarin, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Khmer and Tok Pisin.
Radio Australia concentrates on news and current affairs, but it also features historical documentaries, information about Australian lifestyle and culture, and light entertainment. Although it does produce some of its own programming, most of it content consists of relays produced by the domestic Radio National network.
Radio Australia bulletins are also carried on the World Radio Network, available via satellite in Europe and North America.
It is of little interest to domestic Australian audiences as most of its material is, or has previously been, broadcast simultaneously on the easier to receive domestic ABC networks.
Television
The ABC operates two nationwide television channels, 'ABC TV' and the digital-only ABC2. In addition a separate digital network Australia Network provides commercial digital TV services into the Asia-Pacific region.
On March 7 2005, the digital-only channel ABC2 was launched.[18] It is largely a combination of the former ABC Kids Channel, short-format news and information programs and retransmission of main channel programs. It screens predominantly repeated ABC news and current affairs programs, compilations of ABC news bulletin stories with some additional reporting, children's programming, music documentaries and state football. Content on ABC2 is restricted by legislation, however these restrictions are being lifted by new digital broadcasting laws. ABC also broadcasts in the 720p high Definition format. They have chosen this for it allows them to broadcast ABC2 with very little loss in quality.
The Australia Network television service was previously known as ABC Asia Pacific and Australia Television. It is partly funded by Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), and partly by advertising. The channel is available free-to-air to East Asia and the Pacific Islands via satellite and local cable systems, and has recently been made available in South Asia and the Middle East. It can also be viewed online through ABC's main website.
The network is currently available in 8 million homes in more than 35 countries across the region, and more than 190,000 hotel rooms. The network screens a variety of programs from ABC TV itself, including tailor-made news bulletins for the region, and also from the other domestic Australian networks, as well as Sky News and independents. It also carries state-level Australian rules football and rugby league matches, such as the VFL and the Queensland Cup, and British drama serials. One of its foreign affairs programs, ''Hemispheres'', is co-produced with the CBC of Canada, and presented from both Sydney and Vancouver. Hemispheres has since been broadcast on ABC2.
Online
An experimental Multimedia Unit was established in 1995, charged with developing policy for the ABC's work in web publishing. This unit continued until 2000, when the New Media division was formed, aggregating the Internet output from radio and TV as well as web-original material under one umbrella.
This division had over a million pages of material published by late 2003 and was instrumental in developing ABC content on other platforms such as mobile phones.
In 2001 the New Media division became New Media and Digital Services, reflecting the broader remit to develop digital platforms such as digital TV. In March 2005 the division launched the ABC2 free-to-air digital TV channel, the successor to the short lived Fly TV and the ABC Kids Channel digital services.
In conjunction with the ABC's radio division, New Media and Digital Services implemented the ABC's first podcasts in December 2004. By mid-2006 the ABC had become an international leader in podcasting with over 50 podcast programs delivering hundreds of thousands of downloads per week, including trial video podcasts of The Chaser's War on Everything and Jtv.
In February 2007, however, the decision was taken to split the ABC's online efforts up and pass their control out to the divisions they relate to - decentralising the ABC's online production. Essentially the New Media & Digital Services division was dissolved and divided up amongst other areas of the ABC - a new Corporate division was instated - and a new, as yet not clearly defined, Innovations area was also created. The effects of this move are still to be seen.
Among the most notable websites are:
ABC News Online
A comprehensive local news coverage of Australia, including stories from the ABC's 36 regional bureaux. It also provides extensive national news and international news from an Australian perspective. It provides several daily broadband video bulletins of general news as well as sport, business and rural news.
ABC Science Online
ABC Science Online, also Known as the "The Lab", is an online service reporting science related news. It features in-depth articles and analysis on current scientific issues, and various pages for children, featuring Karl Kruszelnicki, a popular Australian scientist who made his debut on the ABC.
ABC Rural Online
The ABC Rural Department's online gateway, providing a comprehensive coverage of rural and regional affairs from around Australia and the world. It incorporates the programs National Rural News, The Country Hour, Country Breakfast, Rural Reporter, The Resources Beat and Radio National's Bush Telegraph, as well as rural reports from every region of Australia.
ABC Enterprises
ABC Enterprises is the commercial Division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The Division is comprised of ABC Retail, ABC Consumer Publishing and Content Sales, and ABC Resource Hire. It was established in 1974 with all profits from the sale of consumer product and production services returned to the Corporation to reinvest in program-making.
It now operates over 40 retail shops and 80 centres, an international delivery service on the Internet as well as developing and licensing ABC brands and programs, and providing production resource hire to the general public and industry alike.
ABC Shop Online
The ABC Shop Online (at www.abcshop.com.au) is a shopping website operated by ABC Enterprises. It sells DVDs, CDs, books, toys, clothing, music downloads and mobile phone products related to programming on ABC TV and Radio, and Australian culture in general.
ABC Consumer Publishing and Content Sales
Develops and licenses products and brands related to ABC programming selling to both the general public and wholesale TV and radio markets worldwide.
ABC Resource Hire
Offers a range of production services including costume hire, sound stage and studio facilities, venue hire and event staging.
Orchestras
In the 1920s, recording technology was still relatively primitive. All ABC programs were broadcast live until 1935, including music. For this purpose, the ABC established broadcasting orchestras in each state, and in some centres also employed choruses and dance bands.
There are currently six state symphony orchestras:
★ Adelaide Symphony Orchestra
★ Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
★ Sydney Symphony
★ The Queensland Orchestra
★ Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra
★ West Australian Symphony Orchestra
The orchestras were incorporated in the 1990s but remain wholly under ABC ownership, co-ordinated by Symphony Australia. They have evolved into platform orchestras and play a major role in Australia’s culture life.
GPO Box 9994
The ABC's mailing address is post office box number 9994 at the General Post Office in each state capital. A persistent urban legend maintains that 9994 is a reference to the lifetime Test batting average of Australian cricketer Sir Donald Bradman. Supposedly, Sir Charles Moses, a longtime managing director of the ABC and personal friend of Bradman's, arranged for this number to be used. The story has been denied by the ABC: indeed, the broadcaster was not assigned the box number until after Moses's successor, Sir Talbot Duckmanton, had retired.[19]
Management
;General Managers Submission to the Senate Environment, Communications, Information Technology and the Arts References Committee # Sir Charles Moses (1935–65) # Sir Talbot Duckmanton (1965–82) # Keith Jennings (1982-83) ;Managing Directors # Geoffrey Whitehead (1983–86) # David Hill (1986–94) # Brian Johns (1994–99 ) # Jonathan Shier (1999–2002) # Russell Balding (2002–06) # Mark Scott (2006–present) | ;Chairs # Sir Richard Boyer (1945–61) # Sir James Darling (1961-67) # Sir Robert Madgwick(1967-73) # Dame Leonie Kramer (1982-83) # David Hill (?–1986) # Ken Myer (? - 1992; died in office) # Bob Somervaille # Professor Mark Armstrong # Donald McDonald (1996–2006) # Maurice Newman (2007-present) |
References
1. http://scaleplus.law.gov.au/html/pasteact/0/43/top.htm
2. Appendix 1: The Character and composition of the ABC'S Governing Body 1932-2001
3. Restructure of ABC Board
4.
Staff-elected Director
5. Establishment of Australian Broadcasting Corporation Board ScalePlus Website, accessed November 26, 2006
6. Australian Broadcasting Corporation Act 1983 Scaleplus website, accessed November 26, 2006
7. [http://www.abc.net.au/corp/nac/ The ABC Advisory Council} ABC Website, accessed 29 July, 2007
8. Tenure of Managing Director Scaleplus website, accessed November 26, 2006
9. ABC Budget 06-07, '' 'Australian Broadcasting Corporation' website'' Retr. June 18th, 2007.
10. See for example Senator K. Lundy, Adjournment speech, ''Senate Hansard'', 10 September 1996
11. ABC critic appointed to board of directors
12. Anthropologist on ABC Board
13. Govt appoints ABC board members
14. ABC bias review panel ruling released
15. Guidelines to counter ABC bias claims
16. Why Australians Don’t Respect The Media
17. About ABC Canberra
18. ABC broadcasts digital TV plans
19. Aunty at seventy: a health report on the ABC p8
See also
★ ABC Kids
★ ABC Rollercoaster
★ Classic ABC TV shows of the 70s & 80s
★ List of Australian television channels
★ List of Australian radio stations
★ Boyer Lectures
External links
★ ABC Online
★ ABC Shop
★ ABC Enterprises
★ Friends of the ABC
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