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AWRA Submission Senate Select Committee Abbott Govt Cuts Final

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AWRA Submission Senate Select Committee Abbott Govt Cuts Final Submission to the Senate Select Committee into the Abbott Government ’s Budget Cuts by the Australian Womensport Recreation Association Inc. Submitted 23 February 2015 The Australian Womensport Recreation Association (AWRA) welcom es the opportunity to make a subm ission to the Select Committee I nquiry into the effect of the Abbott Government’s Budget Cuts. 1. Introduction: This submission focuses on cuts to the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) in relation to television coverage of women’s spo rt (i.e. the Women’s National Bas ketball League (WNBL) and the W -League (the national team competition for women’s football). It summarises AWRA’s concerns and reiterates many of the views expressed in the media by both male and female elite athletes, coach es and administrators and women in sport advocates on the negative impact the Budget Cuts will have on the long term development of Australian sport, especially in relation to equal opportunity for women and girls. 2. Background on AWRA The Australian Womensport and Recreation Association (AWRA) is the peak national not-for-profit organisation committed to equal opportunity for women and girls in sport and physical activity. AWRA does this through: ● Influencing decision makers to support initiatives, programs and policies that level the playing field for women and girls ● Sharing best practice and research to engage women and girls in sport and physical activity ● Inspiring a nation of active women and girls by celebrating and supporting role models and leaders. AWRA works primarily with national sporting organisations (NSO’s) to ensure gender equality issues are mainstreamed and integrated in all aspects of the sport deli very system. 3. Response to Terms of Reference - Reduction in Services provided by the Commonwealth This submission seeks to address the terms of reference in relation to point ‘a’ of the Terms of Reference: ‘reductions in access to services provided by the Commonwealth’. Specifically, this submission addresses the cuts to the television coverage of women’s elite sport by the ABC and the likely impacts to women in sport and the Australian community. Commonwealth funding reductions to the ABC budget have resulted in ABC management announcing the recent ending of television coverage of the Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL) and the W-League (the national women’s football competition). The decision ends the 35 year relationship of the ABC with the WNBL (the longest in Australian sport). For the W-League, it is the first time since the W-League’s inception in 2008 it will not have its games telecast. 3.1 Women’s Sport receives less Media Coverage (and Sponsorship) than Men’s Sport and Horse Racing! In responding to the impact of the cuts to television coverage of elite women’s sport, it is necessary to take a step back and provide the context in which this decision was made. Two recent Federally funded reports highlight the disparity in media coverage of women’s sport, all published well in advance of the ABC cuts being announced in late 2014. A major Federal Government report funded by the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) on media coverage of women in sport between January 2008–July 2009 found that: • television news coverage of women in sport in Australia was 8.7% of all sports coverage compared to 81.1% for men • just 7% of non-news programming television content featured women versus 86.6% featuring men i. Television news reports about female sports on average were 30 seconds shorter than reports on male sports ii . The report confirmed that “despite the ongoing successes and strong participation levels of women in sport...female sport and male sport receive starkly disproportionate amounts of coverage iii ”. A 2011 article by the same authors of this report concluded that 1 “during the sample period at least, horseracing received more airtime on Australian television news than women’s sport iv .” The relatively low volume of reporting and somewhat lower duration of air time given to female sport tacitly gives the message that male sport holds greater significance and is of more value than female sport. A more recent 2014 Australian Sports Commission commissioned report v highlights an even more appalling reality with a decline in media coverage from the already low 2008-2009 figures and a further decline in some media categories during the July 2013 to February 2014 monitoring period as follows: • television news sport coverage (volume of stories) dropped from 8% in July 2013 to 5% in February 2014 • online news sport coverage (volume of stories) dropped from 6% in July 2013 to 3% in February 2014 • dedicated television sport coverage (hours of coverage) was a steady 7% through the period and • dedicated print and electronic media coverage was 7% in July 2013 and February 2014 but dropped to 5% in November 2013. This low level of television coverage is echoed globally with women in sport receiving just over 10% of sports coverage in the United Kingdom (mainly due to coverage of women’s tennis)vi . Research confirms that media coverage is the most important variable affecting the value of sports properties vii and similarly, the 2011 article viii concluded: “The low visibility of many female sports (the exception of tennis) in Australian television news leads to low levels of awareness among the viewing public of female athletes, teams and their successes, and in turn this leads to low sponsorship interest and so the cycle continues.” Due to inequitable media coverage, there is a reasonable expectation that the level of sponsorship of women’s sport is also disproportionately lower than men’s sport. Not surprisingly, a UK sponsorship study confirms that women’s sport only accounts for a pitiful 0.4% of the commercial investment going into all sports in the UK ix . A recent report estimates that women’s sport attracts only 7% of the Australian sponsorship market x. Using this figure to extrapolate the likely value of commercial investment in Australian women’s sport based on the latest publicly available value of the overall the Australian sports sponsorship market (Aus$774 million xi ), an estimated figure of Aus$54.18 million is invested in women’s sport. This is in stark contrast with the amounts brought in by professional men’s sports across both Australia and New Zealand which are able to negotiate significant free- to-air (f-t-a) television rights packages (in rank order): Aussie Rules US$135 million, rugby union US$105 million, rugby league (US$90 million) and motorsport (US$77 million) xii . Soccer, cricket and tennis follow. 2 Women’s sport, including the two women’s national basketball and football leagues continues to need the support of the ABC to have a chance of attracting and retaining a modest level of investment in order to build a profile over time that can attract greater commercial investment. Using netball as an example, long term TV coverage by the ABC from 1975 to 2006 helped build a sponsorship and fan base and lay the foundations for Netball Australia in 2014 to negotiate with three commercial free-to-air networks, as well as subscriber viewing via Fox Sports Australia and SBS (Appendix A). 3.2 The ABC’s Long Standing Support of Women in Sport and the Benefits of that Support Notwithstanding the imbalance in coverage of women in sport, the ABC historically has been recognised as a strong supporter of women in sport many times over. This is exemplified by President of Women’s Lacrosse Australia, Shelley Maher’s comments: “The ABC has probably given the greatest ongoing support for women’s sport xiii ”. In the five years to 2006, the ABC in a Submission to a Senate Inquiry (Appendix A) noted a steady increase in coverage of women’s sport from 2001-2002 to 2005- 2006. This support has continued since that time with an analysis of coverage during January 2008–July 2009 confirming that both ABC1 Sydney and Melbourne television stations provided the highest level of coverage both with 11% of total reporting of women’s sport, above the average of 9% whilst commercial channels (i.e. Channel Nine Sydney and Channel Ten Melbourne) were at the lower end of the spectrum, with 6% of coverage each xiv . Similarly, more recent research in 2014 mirrors this finding with the ABC having the second highest level of reporting at 8.8% behind SBS with 9.1% in respect to television news sport stories xv . Over a 12 month monitoring period (1st April 2012 –31st March 2013) of 22 major sports, the ABC had the highest proportion of female sports content of all television sports broadcasting (20%) xvi . It was well ahead of rivals Channel 7 and Channel 10, both with 12% and other major Pay TV and free-to-air (fta) channels xvii . In providing more media coverage of women in Australian sport than other free-to-air broadcasters, women in sport and the Australian community have benefitted from the ABC television coverage through: a. the enhanced financial viability and sustainability of both the W-League and the WNBL which in turn has led to Australia fielding internationally competitive women’s teams. 3 Australian basketball and football sporting organisations have both produced high quality women’s national teams as a result of having some of the best women’s leagues in the world. This has come about because ABC television coverage has helped Basketball Australia and the Football Federation of Australia and the league teams attract more commercial investment than would have been possible without f-t-a television coverage. This sponsorship in turn has supported the employment of coaching and admin staff, payments to some players and other costs like travel.
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