ABC Submission to Creative and Cultural Industries
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ABC Submission on the Australian Government’s “Inquiry into Australia’s Creative and Cultural Industries and Institutions” October 2020 • The ABC is at the heart of Australia’s creative and cultural industries, which deliver significant economic and social benefits for Australian society. As an engine of creative development, employment and innovation, the ABC helps to support and promote these industries in line with its Charter obligations. • The ABC contributes economic benefits as a significant employer of content makers, through partnerships/interactions with other organisations (including in the screen, music, arts sectors), and through regional production and events. It also contributes broader social benefits by: providing a national platform upon which local artists and content makers can be “discovered”; as a primary way for audiences to discover and enjoy Australian creative and cultural content; and by supporting Australian storytelling (whether through the screen, music, written word or other creative outlets) and events that contribute to our national identity. • COVID-19 has had a significant impact on live performance and the broader creative and cultural industries. In line with its Charter requirement to encourage and promote the musical, dramatic, and other performing arts in Australia, the ABC has found additional ways to support Australian artists and creatives impacted by the COVID- 19 pandemic. • The Australian Government has a range of policy tools at its disposal to support the activities of Australia's creative and cultural industries and institutions. Some have recently been deployed in response to the challenges presented by COVID-19. Adequate and sustainable funding for public broadcasters remains one of the most direct and proven ways to help support and sustain these industries and institutions. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) provides this submission in response to the Inquiry by the Standing Committee on Communications and the Arts into Australia’s creative and cultural industries and institutions (Inquiry). This submission addresses the Inquiry’s terms of reference (TOR) and how the ABC itself contributes to the economic and social benefits generated by these important sectors of the Australian economy and society. Throughout its 85-year history, the ABC has been, and remains, one of the most important cultural institutions in this nation. Indeed, a case can be made that it is our most important, single cultural institution. The ABC’s commitment to the creative and cultural sectors is integral to achieving its obligations under the Charter, including 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 overwhelming majority (74%) of Australians agree that the ABC does a good job of encouraging and promoting the performing arts such as music and drama.1 It is difficult to comprehensively define the “creative and cultural” sectors. Further, this submission cannot detail all the related and relevant activity that a large institution such as the ABC engages in across these industries. The creative and cultural sector is represented at the ABC through a range of formats and platforms: performance, news, criticism and review, profiles, promotion, documentaries, landmark series and popular formats on video, audio and digital platforms, and spans all elements of screen production, music, visual and performing arts, publishing, live events, creative and cultural festivals, Indigenous culture and national events. It is also relevant context for this submission that since 2013 the ABC's operational revenue has declined by more than 10 per cent in real terms.2 This situation has been made more acute with the costs of producing various types 1 ABC Corporate Tracking Study. 2 ABC Annual Report 2019-20, p. 119. 1 of content rising faster than inflation over recent years – for example, the cost of producing Australian TV drama increased by more than inflation over the period 2013/14 to 2018/19.3 While the ABC has been able to find efficiencies to help address these trends, it remains the case that all content areas across the Corporation (including those that contribute and support creative and cultural output) have faced funding pressures over recent years. For example, the ABC's submission (July 2020) on the Australian Government Options Paper "Supporting Australian Stories on our Screens"4 highlighted that its continued investment in drama and children’s content at current levels beyond 2021/22 is likely to be unsustainable unless indexation of the ABC’s operational funding is restored and the enhanced news gathering program is extended. Nevertheless, the ABC still maintains its strong commitment to delivering content and services which enhance the creative and cultural sectors and subject to funding considerations would always be open to looking for new opportunities to innovate and contribute in the future. This submission is structured as follows: • Section 2 provides relevant background and examples of the ABC’s recent activities in the music, arts and screen industries, as well support for Indigenous culture and national events, and future opportunities. • Section 3–5 comments on specific matters raised in the Inquiry’s TOR, and where relevant cross references back to examples outlined in section 2. The ABC enriches the lives of music lovers and nurtures Australian musicians through a range of music programs. In 2019–20, the ABC’s music-focused radio stations reached 3.2 million people aged 10+ each week across the five cities.5 These stations are a vital way of connecting Australian artists with a national audience. On ABC Classic, listeners hear performances, news, stories and interviews from the world of classical music, including background, features on music history and the careers of musicians and composers, as well as information about concerts and other music events throughout Australia. ABC Classic records hundreds of Australian concerts each year, from major orchestral and operatic events to small- stage festivals in regional towns. 52% of music broadcast on ABC Classic is performed by Australian artists, and the ABC is committed to developing the next generation of artists – including through the ABC Young Performers Awards. ABC Classic is focused on sharing the love of classical music with new audiences and new generations; through its Classic Flow and Classic Kids podcasts and live events, and with a series of rich and informative online resources for parents and teachers, ABC Classic engages a broad range of listeners. Building on the ABC’s tradition of discovering and developing new music by diverse artists, ABC Classic and ABC Jazz has commissioned and funded 25 new Australian works and will bring them to a national and international audience over the next year. The debut works receiving support include musical responses to COVID-19, new jazz projects, a suite of dances by female composers reflecting on the 2019-20 bushfire season and emerging Indigenous composers exploring the 250 years since Captain Cook’s landing. triple j promotes every aspect of contemporary youth music, featuring interviews with musicians and other artists together with news, analysis and discussion of music events and concerts. Australian music constitutes 60% of music on triple j. The annual institution of triple j’s Hottest 100 typically features many Australian musicians, many whom credit triple j as contributing to their success (discussed further in section 4). 3 ABC Corporate Plan 2019-20, p. 10. In part, this has been driven by global streaming services driving up competition for quality content. 4 https://www.communications.gov.au/have-your-say/supporting-australian-stories-our-screens-options-paper 5 Gfkdata 2 With 100% Australian music, digital station triple j Unearthed broadcasts unsigned and undiscovered Australian bands. Unearthed allows young Australian musicians to establish an audience. The accompanying website and app offer audiences direct access to over 99,000 Australian tracks. Digital stations Double J, ABC Jazz, and ABC Country cater to specialist audiences, with a mix of music, interviews, articles and analysis of music and musicians. They showcase and support both established and emerging Australian artists, and in 2019 Australian music constituted 38% on Double j, 34% on ABC Jazz and 63% on ABC Country. Ausmusic Month, an annual ABC event, celebrates Australia’s rich musical landscape, and the incredible contribution musicians and their work have made to this country. Across triple j, Double J, ABC Jazz, ABC Country and ABC Classic, on television and ABC iview, on local radio and RN, Australian music is featured and celebrated. On RN, programs like The Music Show share conversations and analysis of the history, practice and experience of musicians. ABC local programs regularly promote and discuss local music events. On television and ABC iview, the Corporation regularly showcases local music and musicians via programs such as Rage, The Set, The Sound, and Spick and Specks specials. Feature documentary Mystify: Michael Hutchence was a highlight of AusMusic Month in November 2019, and in 2018, Don’t Stop the Music showed the transformative effects of teaching music in primary schools. Together with Musica Viva and the Salvation Army, more than 7000 instruments were donated to Australian schools following the documentary. New content in 2020 includes films