CCI INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE: CREATING VALUE BROADBAND INNOVATIONS AND THE CREATIVE ECONOMY

Kim Dalton Director of Television ABC

Thursday 26 June 2008

If we look back over more than five decades, Australian governments have created and sustained an audio-visual public policy framework to regulate the broadcasting environment. They‟ve done this for a number of reasons, not least because they‟ve always recognised the potency of broadcasting in the public arena. Governments, in acknowledging the power of all forms of media, have continued to intervene in this space. Indeed, the established rationale for public service broadcasting arises both from the perceived and the real social importance of the broadcasting media and the potential influence that broadcasting can have on values, attitudes, and beliefs.

And apart from the commercial, technical and access issues governed by the policy framework, a critically important goal of the policy over the years has been to achieve certain cultural and social outcomes. These outcomes are manifest in the production and delivery to Australian audiences of diverse, quality, engaging Australian content.

There are a number of strands to this. Between 6am and midnight, 55 percent of commercial free to air broadcaster transmissions must be Australian content and the Australian Content Standard also regulates the amount of Australian drama and documentaries on commercial free to air networks. The Children‟s Television Standards sets out the requirement for Australian children‟s drama. The ABC Act and Charter sets out the requirement for the ABC to broadcast programs that contribute to a sense of national identity, and that reflect the nature of the Australian community. There are legislative provisions that require pay TV drama channels to spend 10 per cent of their total drama channel program expenditure on new Australian drama. There is even an Australian Content in Advertising Standard. The Government has combined a number of agencies to create a centralised funding body to develop the Australian film, television and new media industries, and build on their contribution to the economy. The Producer Offset provides a financial incentive to producers of Australian film and television projects.

Late last year the ABC welcomed the Rudd Government‟s promise of adequate funding to ensure quality public broadcasting and the commitment to substantial amounts of Australian content. Clearly, this Government, Iike others before it, is committed to maintaining a minimum level, at least, of Australian film and television content for Australian audiences, as an important contribution to the social life and the cultural infrastructure of the nation.

And so, that brings me to our topic. The main question in this stream is „what will people do with the broadband public network that is a major priority for the new government‟; the policy response which must precede it is that Australians must be able to access diverse, quality Australian content on the broadband network, as easily and as naturally as they do on television. The content may take many forms. However, in my view, the availability of Australian content in these many forms in the broadband environment is a key policy challenge for the Rudd Government.

Why?

Because having access to Australian content is important, and the changes in the digital environment have outpaced the policy framework that in the past has provided it. We are

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living with a policy framework designed for the analogue world that is no longer fit for purpose. As consumers, we are embracing convergence across terrestrial broadcasting, satellite, cable, broadband and mobile. We are the “what, when and how we want it” generation. Yet, as we engage with these unlimited options and choices, our analogue policy framework is letting us down and in fact arguably is putting at risk a fundamental social and cultural choice - availability of Australian content.

There are a number of dimensions to this:

First, the importance of Australian content.

Australia, like many other nations such as the UK, Canada, Germany, and France, considers there to be a cultural and social rationale for ensuring there is a certain amount of local content available to its people. The Rudd government, too, in its national platform and policies recognises the importance of reflecting a distinctly Australian national identity in the electronic media; the importance of diversity, and the need for Australian content quotas in broadcasting. And with regard to public broadcasting, the Rudd government has also committed to ensuring there are high levels of attractive and innovative local content.

Another dimension is that the communications policy debate on in Australia has been dominated by technology, infrastructure, spectrum, commercial outcomes, and ownership. We have spirited public debate about broadband rollout, with little consideration given to what content will be going down the pipes. We hear about broadband in terms of education, regional communities, home entertainment systems, download speeds, and child safety, but rarely if ever about broadband in terms of Australian content. It is vital to make the distinction between the „broadband network‟ – the actual systems, cabling and hardware – and the content that is being carried.

It‟s interesting that one of the few places that I have seen the issue mentioned is in the initial report from the Australia 2020 Summit. The outcomes from the group examining the topic “Towards a Creative Australia” pick up on this issue. They noted the importance of “ensuring that the creative output of Australians is made accessible” and they “recognised the important role of public broadcasting and emerging broadband networks to produce and distribute this output”.

Another dimension is that many commentators seem to treat the internet, and time spent on it, as a different activity, when often they are talking about people using it to engage with television or related content. To me, convergence means that increasingly people are doing a range of different things on different platforms – such as paying bills, doing banking, and sending emails – but they are also doing the same thing on different platforms – such as watching an episode of Summer Heights High on TV, then downloading the vodcast and watching it again on their computer or their iPod, and then buying the DVD.

It is quite clear to me that the same, often traditional forms of content will increasingly be made available across different platforms. So the fact that people are watching less television but are spending more time online has an impact on free tv's business model, on its ability to aggregate eyeballs at a single point in time , but the impact it has on the numbers of people actually watching a particular piece of content is less certain. The agencies who measure these audiences are yet to come to terms with how to measure and define audiences across platforms.

Our research tells us that people‟s attitude and behaviour are changing1. One quarter of Australians claim to have accessed the ABC website and eight-in-ten users believe the website adds to the value and relevance that the ABC has for them. Over the previous three months 33% said they had watched some type of ABC video content through the website

1 2007 survey on ABC Online KD CCi speech final 2

(up from 20% in 2006) and 10% had downloaded a video; 18% had played games on the website - either by themselves or with children; and 6% had participated in an online forum.

The extraordinary success of our downloadable videos, or vodcasts, tells a similar story. ABC TV at the moment offers on average around 26 programs for download at any given time. Last year the Chasers War on Everything had an average metro audience of 1.4 million, and an average regional audience of around 840,000; there were 9.9 million downloads of its weekly program in 2007. Summer Heights High had an average metro audience of 1.3 million, an average regional audience of around 550,000, with over 1.2 million downloads recorded. Triplej TV clocked over 2.3 million downloads. And behaviours are changing across the ABC‟s audience demographic: there have been over a quarter of a million downloads of Gardening Australia this year to date, and nearly the same number for The Cook and the Chef. This year, Sunday Arts has already more than doubled its total downloads for 2007. Clearly, watching TV increasingly means more than sitting in front of the TV set.

I am advocating for a very clear distinction in our discussions between the nature and range of content available, as opposed to the platform by which it is delivered. Because there are completely different policy considerations behind these two dimensions. My concern is that we need to have in place a policy framework that will enable Australians to have access to high quality, diverse, engaging Australian content across all platforms. The ABC has recognised the primacy of content over platform and essentially now has three main content divisions, Radio, Television and News, delivering a broad range of audio, moving image and rich media content across multiple analogue and digital terrestrial platforms, through the internet by streaming, vodcasting and podcasting and over mobile platforms.

TV content remains a focal point and a critical driver in the new digital multi-platform environment. The economics and the business models might change, but kids are still watching anything up to about 17 hours of TV a week; what has changed are the ways we can reach and involve our audiences, across many digital platforms.

Let me quote one of the world‟s major media figures on television content: “People want content more than ever. Quality is more important than ever because the marketplace is more ruthlessly competitive.” 2 This is Newscorp chairman Rupert Murdoch talking about television content, so this speaks for itself.

So, TV is still the primary source of compelling, must-see programs, and can unite disparate audiences across the nation, if not across the globe, in a common experience. However, audiences have a whole range of new expectations around their content – choice, viewing time, viewing place, and participation, and also expectations of having rich media extensions to programs, the ability to interact, the ability to be in communities of interest around their programs. Increasingly, audiences are grazing for the content outside of set patterns and loyalties. And while user generated content is already part of our offering I don‟t think its growth will be at the expense of professionally made TV content.

So, if having access to quality Australian content is important, and governments agree, then I propose that we now need a new policy framework.

For the record, allow me to create some context by revising a bit of the history of the Australian content policy framework.

Australian governments have maintained an audio-visual public policy framework to regulate the broadcasting environment for fifty years or more during which time not much changed in the business.

2 Source: http://www.cinemarealm.com/2008/05/25/blood-peanuts-and-the-future-of-television/ KD CCi speech final 3

One of the main goals of the policy over the years has been cultural: the production and delivery to Australian audiences of diverse, quality, engaging Australian content, requiring a thriving creative industries sector capable of delivering this content.

Let us not forget then that the history of Australian content on Australian television is in fact the history of regulation. Where government intervention through regulation has been absent, so too has there been a lack of a diverse offering of Australian content. This applies as much to the ABC where we have seen volume and diversity of its Australian content subjected to revenue pressures. It certainly applies to subscription television and it will apply to any free-to- air multi channel offering, and other future developments.

Our existing policy framework was established under very specific conditions: a small population and a large country, the combination of public and commercial interests, a dominance of overseas content and little or no local production in the early years of television. Since 1961, it has involved regulation of commercial free-to-view television, Federal and State government subsidies, and, importantly, funding to the ABC. This framework was developed for an environment characterised by scarcity of spectrum and delivery mechanisms; business models in the analogue world were built around aggregating eyeballs and delivering them to advertisers in large numbers.

However, the policy framework which has delivered overall levels of Australian content including news and information programming, children's programs, drama, documentaries and comedy is now at risk of not achieving its goals, because the digital environment has outpaced the reach of the policy. The business models for the digital world are about capturing fragmented audiences across an array of content, across multiple channels and on demand offerings, about charging access fees, about counting people as they pass by and charging advertisers by the visit. The policies that were developed in, and worked for an analogue world, are no longer fit for purpose in the digital environment. Audiences, and revenues, are migrating to the largely unregulated digital arena.

If we want a vision of the future with regard to Australian content – look at Pay TV. Operating in a comparatively unregulated environment, outside of sport, the Australian content that is delivered is occasional showcase drama, minimal showcase documentary, low cost life style and entertainment programming and recycled programs originally funded by the analogue parts of the system. Pay tv is a high volume, low cost retail business delivering a lot of overseas, primarily US, content into Australian homes. The business models which sustain its content exist largely in the US or the UK.

Pay tv and access to content via broadband exacerbates the age old problem of market failure in Australia. That, in the absence of Government intervention, the market will not deliver Australian content in any volume or diversity. It is inevitable that in a world of increasing choice, the price paid for programming will be driven down, making it even more difficult to fund the creation of quality Australian content. It costs anything from a half a million dollars and upwards in Australia to produce a series drama, for example, while license fees paid by a broadcaster will cover 75 per cent or less of this. High-end US and UK drama made for US$1 million per hour and more, are able to be sold to Australian networks for anything up to A$40,000 per hour.3

If we include the potential of high speed broadband the not-so-distant future, increasingly used to deliver television content to homes, we can project that Australian content – and culture – is at risk of dwindling away to a trickle in the floods of easily accessible overseas content, in the absence of a policy response from the Government.

So, an analogue policy framework for an Australian media market which is being transformed by digital technology in some fundamental ways:

3 Australian Film Commission KD CCi speech final 4

Shifting time, shifting location, and shifting between devices is changing the way people watch television; With more work and leisure activities, the time available for television viewing is being compressed; Access to the internet has opened out a world of infinite content and choices; There is a generational change occurring as the old media establishment loses its certainties to the rapidly evolving new media market and its new possibilities and challenges; Media is everywhere, as the environment is filled with screens and audiovisual content all fighting for viewers‟ and users‟ attention.

And media is everywhere – at home, at work, in public and private places, in cars, buses, trains and planes, fixed and mobile. While free to air television continues to attract and aggregate the largest audiences, audiences are fragmenting as people have more opportunities to watch, read and listen to content where, when and on a device that they want.

It is still clear that the moving image continues to be the most persuasive and pervasive form of media, and is the dominant form of popular culture. However, increasingly, the audiovisual content that is most readily available to Australian audiences, delivered in various digital forms, is anything but Australian.

In an environment of limitless choice, quality Australian content is at a premium. Recent research shows that while consumers might be increasingly disenchanted with TV, they are loyal to favourite programs, showing a great preference for content over delivery method.4 Add to this the growing proportion of people – 23% - who prefer to watch dramas and comedies on-demand 5 and it means that we need to ensure Australian content is available on-demand, where, when and how the audiences want it.

What‟s happening with media in people‟s homes?

Australian family households are technology rich6, with three or more televisions per house, three or more mobile phones, almost certainly a computer, a DVD player, and an internet connection. Three quarters of families have a broadband connection.

There‟s also game consoles, portable music and DVD players, hard drive and DVD recorders. Households with children and young people tend to have greater access to media technologies than the general adult internet population7.

ACMA states that “Despite the increase in media choices, television … remains the most time-consuming leisure activity for children and young people”, at just under two hours a day, with a quarter of this being subscription television. I quote, “television is still the most pervasive and influential media in the lives of children and adults, and watching television and talking about it, are important to social interaction and „cultural literacy‟, particularly for older children”.

ACMA also notes that almost half of young people reported watching television shows, movies, cartoon or video clips on the internet.

I thought it would be interesting to touch on schools as well, where „TV‟ also plays a big part. Our research found that 80% of all teachers use recorded TV programs as part of their teaching, and that this is shifting to using online resources: 13 per cent of teachers use streaming, vodcasts and podcasts in classroom, and they say will double their use of these resources in the next year. All teachers said they would increase their use of electronic

4 Accenture Consumer Broadcast Survey 2008 5 “ 6 ACMA report Media and Communications in Australian Families 2007 7 Nielsen Online, Australian eGeneration Report, 2007 KD CCi speech final 5

interactive whiteboards8, where they access the internet to create their programs and share with other teachers. Video, the internet, or both, appear increasingly to be an essential part of the educational environment.

So, television remains an important part of people‟s lives

People are watching television daily, for a fairly substantial amount of their time. Some of it might be on a computer in a study or office, on a mobile phone screen, on pay TV, or in a classroom, as well as on a television screen in their home. People are closely engaged with their favourite content when they watch it, and television content is part of how we define our reality9. Therefore it is paramount that there is a distinctive, accessible Australian choice for Australian audiences, because people are seeking out quality, engaging content. This is especially salient when considering children and young adults, who are more likely to be engaged in the internet or pay tv where there is little or no requirement to offer Australian content to Australian audiences.

Going forwards, “television” increasingly will consist of numerous subscription or fee for service items delivered by digital technology on terrestrial, satellite, broadband and wireless mobile platforms. Overseas programming will be available on a multitude of services and platforms and will overwhelmingly dominate content delivery to Australian viewers.

The Australian commercial networks are facing significant challenges from fragmenting audiences and a decreasing share of advertising revenue, whilst still being bound by a range of regulations including content regulations. A recent annual survey of advertising spend in Australia showed that of the total spend of $13.2billion, free to view TV advertising rose 8% to 3.5b, but online advertising jumped 34% to 1.35b, and pay tv advertising rose 30% to 276m 10. In this light it‟s testament to the popularity of Australian content to see that all commercial licensees in 2007 exceeded their quota requirements, with Free TV stating that free-to-air broadcasters spend 70% of their program expenditure on Australian content.

On the other hand, the subscription television platform remains virtually unregulated, and is seeing an increasing market share, with revenue growth of 14% in 200711. Research is showing pay tv becoming more sustainable with expectations of further growth.12 28.6 per cent of households in the five cities have access to subscription television with a slightly lower figure in the regional markets13. A significant fact when considering the cultural policy intentions of providing regulation for Australian content is that, in pay tv homes, the majority of viewing tends to be of pay TV, particularly where there are children. While there are no figures collected on the amount of Australian content on pay tv, the program guide demonstrates the low levels of Australian content available on this platform. This is a concern for Australian policy makers, as pay tv digital video recorders dominate the DVR market 14, and pay tv moves to position itself as a driver for digital take-up 15

In the online arena, which is unregulated as to Australian content, the Government is moving to provide universal high speed broadband connections to consumers and the educational sector, and home access to the internet is already almost ubiquitous16. Consumers are demanding more extensive online video-based entertainment 17. The business model here favours cheap, foreign video content, and as noted, online advertising is putting pressure on established business models.

8 Austin Strategic Research: ABC TV Schools Study 2007 9 ACMA report Media and Communications in Australian Families 2007 10 Commercial Economic Advisory Service of Australia 2007 11 Foxtel 12 Research and Markets report „2008 Australia Broadcasting and Pay TV‟, 2008 13 2007 OzTAM 14 “ 15 SMH 30/4/08 „Pay television pleads a fair go‟ 16 ACMA report Media and Communications in Australian Families 2007 17 Research and Markets report „2008 Australia Broadcasting and Pay TV‟, 2008 KD CCi speech final 6

It is likely that the existing regulatory arrangements to deliver local drama, documentaries, comedy, children‟s, news, current affairs and other Australian programming may have diminishing effects on the market as the existing business models of broadcasters are challenged and the content offered becomes, increasingly, foreign.

I am proposing that in this rapidly evolving digital environment, it is time to reassess and reshape the Australian content policy framework, because while the environment has changed, all the reasons for the original policy framework remain just as vital, especially the cultural reasons.

By making new connections between the previously distinct fields of communications, media and cultural policy, the government can address the issue of ensuring Australian content is available in the digital environment. The new connection recognises and fosters the dynamic dependency between the creative industries, the ability and capacity to innovate, and market development. By pulling the right policy levers, the government can help to ensure that healthy, robust and growing creative industries have the ability to innovate, serving existing markets and creating new markets for Australian content in the digital environment.

So what are the options? There are the existing policy mechanisms of direct and indirect funding for Australian content; it would be relatively straightforward to add to existing avenues of funding. There are the current Australian content regulations. Obviously this would be more difficult to change, although I would like to point out that, while many argue that the internet cannot be regulated, Australian Governments have been active in relation to regulating the areas of pornography and gambling. In addition, the Howard Government held out against the US Government and the US film and television industries in negotiating the US/Australia Free Trade Agreement and retained the right in the future to regulate in favour of Australian content. So, difficult, but not impossible.

What other new policy levers are available to a government committed to maintaining a minimum level, at least, of Australian content for Australian audiences?

The Canadian government has done a great deal of work on this question. Through Government agencies and private trusts substantial funds are already provided to stimulate multiplatform innovation and content creation. Last year their „New Media Project Initiative‟ examined the issues around new media broadcasting, and looked at possible interventions in the new media market to ensure their broadcasting policy objectives are met. They found that incentive measures may be more likely to succeed in the development of Canadian content on the Internet, rather than regulation, however, in some cases, incentive measures would benefit from a regulatory framework. Some of the options they propose include:

content regulation of broadband Internet content, i.e., for linear or non-linear audio-visual content made available on the Internet; including new media or multiple platform distribution in the promises of performance or other licence-backed obligations; applying diversity of programming genres regulation to broadband Internet content; including new platforms more explicitly in the proposed terms of trade agreements between broadcasters and producers as requested of broadcasters in preparation for the forthcoming TV license renewals; developing terms of trade between the portals, ISPs and content developers, possibly through exemption regulations; increasing existing new media funding to a level approaching traditional broadcast production funding; making the promotion of Canadian new media content a Canadian broadcaster regulatory obligation.

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The UK regulator, Ofcom, in its recently published Second Public Service Broadcasting Review18 observed that the emerging digital broadcasting and media system would not be able to deliver existing levels and diversity of UK content and that new forms of funding would be required. Some of Ofcom‟s recommendations were direct public funding from hypothecated proceeds from spectrum auctions or spectrum charges, access to spectrum at below market prices and a wide range of industry levies.

The Australian Film Commission has also researched internationally the regulatory and funding options for broadband content, with similar findings. Whilst all acknowledge that some of these measures would be challenging to implement, it would not be impossible. The AFC has found that in the last five years, significant moves have been made around the world to regulate areas which have been unregulated, to ensure policy frameworks are effective in the digital era.

And, in Australia, the ABC has a significant role to play as part of this policy solution. In the digital era public broadcasting becomes an even more critical policy tool in the delivery of Australian content.

ABC TV is already innovating in the multiplatform area, to ensure that Australians have a trusted and valued space to watch and interact with locally produced content. Innovation is around new forms and new approaches to the content itself, around developing new audiences, new markets and new ways of engaging with them, as well as how content is delivered across multiple platforms to many devices.

The ABC also has a critical role to play because it‟s innovation that often drives market development, rather than vice versa. In the sphere of technology it is often the artist or content creator presenting the vision which forces the innovative solution. And it can be the public broadcaster determined to showcase its content and reach new audiences which leads to innovation around delivery and challenges to conventional marketing strategies.

Let me tell you about Summer Heights High. We had a pretty fair idea about the potential of this program; we knew it was going to be important to have a presence across multiple platforms, to be where most of the program‟s potential viewers would be. So in addition to the usual marketing approach, we launched a viral campaign on YouTube and Ja‟mie had her own webpage on MySpace. This was supported with advertising banners on the MySpace site and street posters in Sydney and Melbourne. Ja‟mie soon had 50,000 friends on MySpace. We hooked into social networking sites and allowed the people there to share content. And we worked very closely with the co-producers to ensure that we could deliver free, full downloads of the program after each week‟s broadcast. We knew this was highly commercially desirable content, but we went with a counter-intuitive strategy to the standard restrictive distribution policy.

And what happened? The Summer Heights High broadcast achieved an average 5 city metro audience of 1.3 million. The program captured a viewing share of 47% among high school aged students, and 45% of 13-24 year-olds. The Summer Heights High website was one of the most popular ABC TV program sites. 1.2 million downloads were recorded for the program in 2007 and interactive games were available. And how did this affect the viability of the DVD? After two months in release, Summer Heights High had the highest sales of any individual Australian title in the last four years.

Clearly, the paradigm is shifting. Our online on-demand offering does not erode our audiences; it strengthens their engagement and enjoyment.

The policy ambition of the analogue era provided for Australians to have access to greater content choices than the market would otherwise deliver, as well as for innovation around enhanced content generation and delivery on the supply side. The ABC‟s role remains

18 Ofcom‟s Secon Public Service Broadcasting Review, Phase One: The Digital Opportunity, April 2008 KD CCi speech final 8

necessary in the digital world, where audiences are fragmenting and the fight for them is more ruthless than ever, where the drive for fragmenting revenues will inevitably reduce and innovation in content, and where there are major public cultural assets which could and should be unlocked and made available to content creators and audiences alike.

If we go back to the question about what new connections can be made in communications, media, cultural and creative industry policy, then the ability of the ABC to connect organisations, institutions, practitioners and audiences goes to the heart of the desire to develop the creative economy in this country. In bringing content to audiences, the ABC‟s expertise extends to the multiplatform digital marketplace, with its communitis and interactivity.

We are excited by the Government‟s commitment to support Australian cultural entrepreneurs, with such initiatives as „Enterprise Connect‟ and in particular, the promise of $17million for a new Creative Industries Innovation Centre. With the ABC„s multiple digital platforms and its highly recognised and trusted brand, the ABC could contribute to such an initiative a national, universally available digital test bed for innovation in content creation, delivery, audience engagement and market development. What jump out immediately are the possibilities in collaboration, mentoring, training, accessing the latest technologies, making connections throughout Australia, and linking with local communities. This is all bread and butter to the ABC: turning ideas into reality, transforming knowledge into a creative engagement with markets and audiences.

The ABC is committed to partnerships that contribute to the development of the creative industries and support new business models. By providing multiple national digital platforms for Australia‟s digital content creators, innovators, artists and arts organisations, and scientific and cultural institutions, the ABC can facilitate innovation and encourage entrepreneurial initiatives.

Why do I see such a role for the ABC? Because the strengths and core capabilities of the ABC lie in its brand, its capacity to work creatively and innovatively to aggregate and deliver content, and its capacity to reach a national audience across its multiple digital channels and platforms.

And so, in concluding, let me briefly outline and provide some examples of these defining strengths of the ABC which I believe go to the heart of broadband innovation and the creative economy.

Firstly, the ABC’s brand: Grey‟s market research in 2006 found that the ABC was third on Australia‟s list of most trusted organisations. Nine of ten people in Newspoll‟s 2007 audience survey believed the ABC provides a valuable service to the community. These qualities represent a national asset which has been developed with public resources over more than seventy years. In the crowded and often anarchic digital space this national asset is invaluable; it is what the ABC and its many partners, in content creation, in Government and public sector institutions, and in the arts, can build on to find and engage with audiences and markets.

Secondly, the ABC’s capacity to work innovatively to aggregate and deliver content: A few recent examples:

1. With our new program The Gruen Transfer, which is attracting a national audience of just under two million people weekly, we provide a mash up tool that allows the audience to create their own 'broadcast quality' commercials. An online community is growing around these and the best end up in the show. The application itself was developed by an independent digital content company and the IP resides with them.

2) The ABC is leading the way among Australian broadcasters with „Playback‟ – an application which will deliver high quality programmed internet broadcasting channels of full

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screen video, and a vodcasting service offering on demand viewing. The underlying application was developed by the ABC‟s Innovation division.

3) The ABC‟s GoodGame Game Initiative enables the world‟s first “Crowd Sourced Video Game” which allows the audience collectively to make contributions to develop an online game. The result is a growing online community which will produce a concept and design document to the game developer who is building the prototype. This initiative is funded as a partnership between the Australian Film Commission and the ABC and once again the IP will reside with the digital production company.

4) The ABC‟s Our Playground website offers a full immersive children‟s animated world entirely navigable by children. It is devised so that content can easily be developed for broadcast or online.

5) triple j tv is a classic example of content for a media hungry youth audience who are used to juggling different forms of media. Originally a radio brand, triple j is now a truly cross platform youth brand which takes live music, current affairs, interviews, pop culture, documentaries and comedy and makes it available across a number of platforms including ABC1, ABC2, radio, online, on mobile and on portable media players.

And thirdly, the ABC’s capacity to reach a national audience across platforms: ABC programs are viewed by over 12 million Australians each week and over the course of a year all Australians with a TV will have watched something on ABC TV. There have been over 2.2 million unique ABC website users in this financial year. The recently rebranded ABC2 digital channel has a reach of 350,000 people and growing. And ABC coverage of events of national significance such as the Apology to the Stolen Generations or the 2020 Summit, demonstrate its great ability to bring Australian audiences together.

Strength of brand, the capacity to work creatively with content and content creators, the capacity to aggregate large audiences nationally across platforms. These qualities have underpinned the ABC‟s track record as an active player and facilitator in the creative economy, enabling new connections to achieve both audience and market results, such as:

A groundbreaking partnership between ABC TV, the Australian Film Commission, The Australian Ballet, and the Australia Council screened nationally the live performance of Graeme Murphy‟s Swan Lake. Audiences watched the program on ABC2, eight regional centres around Australia held free public screenings via the AFC's Regional Digital Screen Network, it was beamed via satellite to other regional venues, and a further thousand or more people also watched the performance streamed live in Federation Square in Melbourne.

We saw a traditional theatre performance delivered live across multiple digital terrestrial broadcast, satellite and broadband platforms. We now have a major cinema chain interested in joining the initiative and selling tickets. And a challenge for everyone involved in rights management in the digital era.

The iArts initiative is a partnership between Screenwest, ABC TV and the West Australian Department of Culture and the Arts. Artists and musicians will partner with producers to create two interactive works to be streamed online, podcast, vodcast or broadcast on mobile networks and on ABC TV. This is a case in point where the ABC, through its digital broadcast and online platforms, can help artists reach new audiences, to expand and develop new markets, to learn about rights management in the digital era and to experiment with new business models.

ABC TV and regional Arts Australia are partnering to produce content-rich artist profiles from around the country, primarily for online but also for transmission on ABC1, ABC2 and mobile platforms. The ambition is to stimulate user generated content from the arts community.

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In My Favourite Australian 10 video artists will create moving image portraits of favourite Australians as voted by audiences. These will be featured at the opening of the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, broadcast on ABC1 and ABC2, and will also be on a dedicated ABC website and available via streaming and download.

These are a few examples of Federal, State or regional organisations coming together with the national broadcaster to pool resources and to provide content creators with access to the ABC‟s national digital platforms. And a revised policy framework – which had at its centre a commitment around broadband content, innovation and industry development – could deliver so much more.

For example Australia has significant public collections and repositories of knowledge based around works of art, cultural artefacts, social studies and scientific exploration. These constitute major public sector assets which in the digital era have the potential to be a significant national resource. A national digitisation initiative along with the powerful combination of metadata, search and web2 technology in the hands of our artists, digital content creators and television program makers could unlock this store of knowledge. And with access to the ABC‟s digital broadcast and online delivery platforms they can make it available to broader audiences and markets.

Or in the area of education, drawing again on the collections of Australian public institutions and organisations, as well as the ABC‟s own archival resources, the potential for an initiative to populate the new high speed broadband network with Australian digital content and resources for teachers and students. This would lead to innovation in content creation, the creation of Australian intellectual property and opportunities for its exploitation in new and expanding markets locally and internationally. It would also ensure that Australian children‟s earliest experience of the broadband space involves at least in some Australian content.

Finally, then, if we are asking about the nature of the content and how it will be managed, I would say that the more things change in regard to the technology, the more that the features of quality content remain as they ever were: strong narratives, good story-telling, distinctive characters, humour, emotional connections, human insights, and learning new things. The communal aspect, the way that people come together around content, developing the stories and content even as they themselves change and develop, this communal dimension doesn‟t change. As we are deluged with choice, the need for content which can contribute to shared experiences, social cohesion and national identity becomes even more important. The more so when the content is a high quality, professionally produced, well curated selection of content, delivered across platforms in irresistible ways.

And the management of content? The Australian content creation industries already have an extensive skills base, and financial, institutional and business systems and structures to manage it as it goes about developing, creating and delivering content to audiences.

What we need now is to develop an Australian content policy framework that is fit for purpose in the digital environment. The framework needs to be such that it recognises the multiple platforms and devices by which Australian‟s view and engage with digital screen content, and ensures that Australia‟s creative industries can prosper as they create and deliver Australian content to Australian and international audiences.

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