Inquiry Into Australian Content on Broadcast, Radio and Streaming Services 2017

Australian Broadcasting Corporation Submission to the Senate Environment and Communications References Committee Inquiry into Australian content on broadcast, radio and streaming services 2017 January 2018 ABC Submission to the Senate Environment and Communications References Committee Inquiry into Australian content on broadcast, radio and streaming services Australian Broadcasting Corporation Submission to the Senate Environment and Communications References Committee Inquiry into Australian content on broadcast, radio and streaming services January 2018 Executive Summary • Australian storytelling and creative content provides important social and cultural outcomes and is worth preserving, promoting and supporting. • In a world of abundance, it is critical that Australian creative content continues to be distinctive, accessible and discoverable. • In an increasingly globalised market featuring a small number of dominant multinational players, market solutions are insufficient to ensure optimal public outcomes. • Public broadcasting is integral to a healthy, vibrant Australian creative ecosystem. • The Australian Broadcasting Corporation is unrivalled in its commitment to Australian content across television, news, radio and online, investing more in program hours and funding than any other organisation. • Like all broadcasters, the ABC is evolving to meet audience needs and expectations. This requires a balanced approach as well as investment in new programs, platforms and technology. • The regulatory and support framework must demonstrably recognise the important role played by public broadcasting in helping to deliver the social and cultural benefits of Australian content. 2 ABC Submission to the Senate Environment and Communications References Committee Inquiry into Australian content on broadcast, radio and streaming services Introduction The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) submits this paper for consideration to the Senate Environment and Communications References Committee Inquiry into Australian content on broadcast, radio and streaming services. This submission considers the Terms of Reference of the Inquiry and sets out the ABC’s manifest commitment to the creation, production and delivery of Australian content and the integral part the Corporation plays in the sustainability of viable and diverse Australian creative industries. It is somewhat ironic that in a world where audiences can access content from anywhere across the globe at any time, the need for meaningful storytelling has become more acute. Storytelling devoid of emotional touchpoints created through shared experience, understood references or connection to time and place can be regarded as little more than an ephemeral distraction. In particular, audiences connect most with stories, voices and culture that represent them and reflect their lived experiences. In support of this view, the November 2016 Measuring the Cultural Value of Australia’s Screen Sector report identified that those surveyed expressed a strong preference for Australian content, with 64 per cent saying that local content accounted for up to half of their media diet, and 22 per cent reporting that most or all of their viewing was Australian.1 The report also identified that access to original Australian content is particularly crucial for young audiences, who in their formative years are beginning to search for understanding about the community around them. The report states: Strong evidence exists to demonstrate the particular importance of quality children’s content in general, and this is underlined in the Australian context by the impact of a number of high quality productions. These include Little Lunch, which helps children to understand the world around them, as well as help with school preparedness; Round the Twist, which influenced a generation, and remains popular to this day; and Paper Planes, with its focus on ingenuity and resilience. In general, it is apparent that while any high-quality and well-designed children’s production has value for childhood development, domestically made ones are most important.2 Throughout its history, ABC programs have been synonymous with Australian life and resonate deeply across generations. From The Argonauts to Little Lunch, children have grown up with the ABC, and how many Australians can’t sing the Play School theme song? ABC comedy programs like The Gillies Report, The Late Show, Aunty Jack, The Games, Frontline and Kath and Kim have helped us laugh at ourselves and satirised the ridiculous and the powerful. The ABC’s rich heritage of news and investigative current affairs programs like Four Corners, This Day Tonight, PM, 7.30 and AM have kept the same powerful to account, while programs such as The Country Hour (Australia’s longest-running radio program), Landline, Back Roads and A Big Country have documented life in rural and regional Australia to the benefit of all Australians. 1 Olsberg SPI, Measuring the Cultural Value of Australia’s Screen Sector, P. 1 2 Olsberg SPI, Measuring the Cultural Value of Australia’s Screen Sector, P. 56 3 ABC Submission to the Senate Environment and Communications References Committee Inquiry into Australian content on broadcast, radio and streaming services The ABC began as a radio network in 1932 and the medium continues to be a key platform for the Corporation, as the most direct and personal way to connect with audiences. From the long-running serial Blue Hills, Australia All Over, Grandstand, Conversations, people tune to ABC radio programs in homes, cars, sheds, and now mobile phones across the country. The ABC has supported Australian music from the earliest days of radio through to Six O’Clock Rock, Countdown, Recovery, Saturday Night Country, Rage, triple j Unearthed and through the Corporation’s longstanding relationship with state symphony orchestras and other Australian classical music ensembles. Currently, Classic FM records and broadcasts 300 classical music concerts a year from around Australia, ensuring the talents of local performers can be heard across the country. Similarly, the national expansion of triple j in the 1980s and 1990s brought independent contemporary Australian music to regions across Australia, and helped inspire the formation of countless local bands. The ABC is also responsible for an array of highly-regarded drama programs, from the trailblazing Stormy Petrel in 1960, to Bellbird, Police Rescue, Power Without Glory, Brides of Christ, Blue Murder, Something In The Air, The Slap, ANZAC Girls, Redfern Now and Rake. These stories of Australia have made us laugh and cry and brought Australian accents into loungerooms across Australia for over 50 years. These cultural touchstones are only a few among a host of iconic ABC programs that have entertained, enriched our lives, informed who we are as a society, and fostered civic life and a robust yet cohesive liberal democracy. Australian storytelling is in the Corporation’s DNA and central to its strategic goal “to be the source of Australian conversations, culture and stories”. This remit is underpinned by the ABC Act and Charter, which provides clear direction on the ABC’s activities. The ABC Charter, contained in Section 6 of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Act (1983), speaks directly to the focal point of the Inquiry in calling for the ABC to broadcast “programs that contribute to a sense of national identity and inform and entertain, and reflect the cultural diversity of, the Australian community”. The ABC has set a course to ensure it continues to play a vital role in producing, commissioning and broadcasting Australian content for decades to come. The ABC’s Investing in Audiences strategy, announced in March 2017, has two central strategic pillars specifically addressing this objective: • Creating extraordinary relevant and valued content; and • Delivering an outstanding audience experience.3 The ABC’s content strategy is firmly aligned with public policy outcomes and recognises that the Corporation sits within a broader industry ecology. The complexities and challenges of creative industry economics require the ABC to collaborate with numerous partners. It does so willingly and with a strong sense of public purpose. It consults regularly with its partners and through its Annual Report and other accountability mechanisms, provides information on its strategy and expenditure. 3 http://about.abc.net.au/press-releases/50-million-audience-investment-in-abc-transformation/ 4 ABC Submission to the Senate Environment and Communications References Committee Inquiry into Australian content on broadcast, radio and streaming services As domestic commercial broadcasters come under increasing revenue pressure, they have on occasions called for reductions in ABC funding or a narrowing of the ABC’s Charter obligations. The ABC has been familiar with such attacks since its inception in 1932.4 Considering the ABC and these commercial entities have existed side by side for more than 80 years, it is difficult to find their arguments credible, even more so when they have grown to become global media conglomerates. Clearly it is not the ABC stifling domestic revenues, but the multinational companies that have been at the forefront of digital innovation and adaption, sometimes abbreviated to the five known as FAANGs (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google). In fact, the ABC notes a report commissioned by the BBC which found that public broadcasters contribute considerably to the broader domestic commercial sector:

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