News Corp’s tabloid papers published a vicious attack on the ABC on Friday 14, and another on Saturday 15 February. .  Their content has been endlessly regurgitated on Sky News.

It looks like a continuing campaign to abolish the ABC will be a feature of News Corp's election coverage.  ABC Chairman Kim Williams issued a robust response to the first front-page article on Friday.  You can read it by clicking on this link to the ABC's website.  

To back up Kim Williams, ABC Alumni director Dr Michael Ward, an acknowledged expert on ABC funding, has some other points to make – about the ABC, and about News Corp Australia. They provide excellent ammunition if you find yourself having to defend the ABC and its so-called “waste”.  

GETTING THE FACTS STRAIGHT

by Dr Michael Ward

1. "40% of Aussies never use it [ABC]"

As usual, News Corp’s enthusiasm to attack the ABC has been undone by a failure to get the facts right.  Some corrections and a brief analysis of the issues follow.

Having got around to reading the ABC’s 2023/24 Annual Report (it was published in October 2024), News has highlighted a decline in the ABC’s ‘combined weekly reach’ figure.  This is the proportion of Australian adults that ‘accessed any ABC content each week’.[1]

It’s true that national and local commercial and public service media are losing audience to global streamers like Netflix and Amazon Prime and to digital platforms such as YouTube.  The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) noted what’s happening across metropolitan and regional communities as media services are cut (local television and radio news and information) and local newspapers (many of them owned by News Corp Australia) close.[2]

For the ABC, despite audiences shifting to the global digital platforms, each week it directly connects with 62 % of adult Australians, around 14 million people.[3] And that figure increases to over 20 million Australians each month.

It’s not easy to compare the audience details with News’ outlets such as Sydney’s Daily Telegraph, as there is no regular independent data published on their performance.  That’s in contrast to the ABC, which publishes a detailed Annual Report (used by The Daily Telegraph for its article) and regularly updated information on its website. However, parent company News Corp US reporting shows The Daily Telegraph’s monthly audience (digital and print) has dropped by 600,000 or 13 % over the past two years.[4]

The Tele omitted reference in Friday’s articles to the ABC’s increasing audience on third party platforms such as YouTube, Apple News, Instagram and TikTok, or to the fact that the ABC was the number two news media website used by Australians in December 2024 with 11.7 million monthly users, just pipped by News Corporation’s news.com.au (The Daily Telegraph didn’t make the top 10).[5] The ABC and news.com.au fight it out for number one each month, with the ABC in the top spot in November 2024, for example.

2. Comparing the cost of the ABC versus a Netflix subscription

The Daily Telegraph compares its estimate of the ABC’s annual cost per Australian household of $104 with a Netflix subscription of $7.99 per month ($96 per year).  What the Tele leaves out of course is that figure is for a base subscription that includes advertising.

If you want ad-free viewing like the ABC, you need to pay Netflix at least $18.99 per month.  So, the comparison becomes $228 a year for subscription video on demand versus $104 for the ABC.

The Telegraph omits to mention that to get a digital subscription to one of the Murdoch tabloids (just one newspaper) costs a minimum of $5 per week or $260 per year.[6]

The ABC costs each Australian just 12 cents a day, about half the 8 cents a day noted in the famous 1987 campaign (adjusted for inflation).

An ABC ‘package’ includes:

• Australia’s largest AM radio network delivering emergency news and information
• Australia’s most comprehensive news and current affairs from regional bureaux, state and territory capitals and 12 international bureaux
• four national radio networks; 58 regional and 8 capital city radio networks.
• digital audio networks – including Sport, Jazz, Classic, Country & Kids
• multiple stand-alone podcasts, accessible at any time through the ABC Listen app
• four broadcast television services; and
• all video content available on demand through the ABC iview app.

That 12 cents a day also contributes to the ABC position as Australia’s number one investor in Australian drama, and children’s and pre-school programs. The ABC is the only Australian broadcaster investing in Australian children’s drama.

3.  A second comparison relates to the ABC spend on advertising, promotion and audience research.

According to The Daily Telegraph, under the heading ‘Spending Waste’, the ABC spent $13.9 million on advertising and promotion and $7.5 million on audience research in 2023/24.

ABC figures note that its advertising spend is just 2.5 % of total expenditure, compared to levels “10 and 20 times” greater by media companies such as “Stan and Amazon Prime”.

The Daily Telegraph’s owner, News Corporation, spent US$ 536 million (AUD 840 million) on advertising and promotion in 2023/24.[7] That is 5.6 % of News Corporation’s annual expenditure of US$ 9.5 billion, more than double the ABC proportion.

The Tele may wish to let corporate HQ know the company is spending twice as much on advertising and promotion, per dollar of total expenditure, as the Australian Broadcasting Corporation; perhaps an opportunity to reduce ‘spending waste’ at News by as much as US$ 300 million annually.

As the tabloids were joined by Sky News in the attack on the ABC, it’s clear that News Corp has once again launched a campaign against independent public media in Australia, in a prelude to the federal election.

The Murdoch family has been attacking the ABC since the 1930’s.  Ask yourself this: which Australian company would profit most from the abolition of the ABC?  Could it be News Corp Australia?

[1] ABC annual report, 2023/24, p. 141.

[2] Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Digital Platforms Reports, 2018, 2019.

[3] ABC annual report, 2023/24, p. 64.

[4] News Corporation Form 10K, Annual Reports, 2022, 2023, 2024.

[5] Ipsos iris data, November 2024. https://iris-au.ipsos.com/the-kings-visit-us-election-and-reality-tv-finales-see-the-nation-flock-to-online-news-ipsos-iris-data/

[6] $5 per week for digital sub lock-in plan for Herald Sun, Daily Telegraph, Advertiser, Courier Mail, NT News

[7] News Corporation Form 10K, 2Annual Report, 2024.