March 15, 2006

Why the ABC should carry lots of advertising

By Crikey publisher Eric Beecher

Although the little kite about the ABC taking advertising was shot down with deadly accuracy this morning by the spokesman for Australia’s TV proprietors, Mr John Howard, it should still be floating.

The common argument against running advertising on the ABC is that it would threaten the national broadcaster’s independence. In fact, carrying advertising would be the single biggest step the ABC could take to protect its independence.

The ABC is under constant threat from its owners, the federal government, which controls its budget and hates its agenda. This has been the case for several decades, through governments of different political hues. And the pressure on ABC funding will only grow as the media becomes more diffuse and the traditional role of a national broadcaster becomes harder to justify.

Carrying advertising would generate significant revenues for the ABC — hundreds of millions of dollars once it became an established medium for reaching a desirable audience who largely don’t watch commercial television. Those revenues could be ploughed back into ABC programming — strengthening areas like local drama — and would deflect the damage caused by inevitable government budget cuts.

The crucial issue would be “church and state” — ensuring that advertising and editorial comment were kept in entirely separate compartments that could never infect each other — just like it is at other reputable commercial media organisations, such as The New York Times or The Guardian. This would have to be enshrined in the ABC charter and would be inviolate.

Of course advertising on the ABC won’t happen. Not because ordinary people, or even politicians, believe it is wrong for ethical reasons, but because a far more powerful three-member group believe it is wrong for commercial reasons. Hundreds of millions of reasons.