ABC and SBS safeguarded with $7.7bn in new five-year funding cycles

The ABC and SBS will receive a combined investment of $7.7 billion over the next five years, as the Albanese government extends the funding cycles of both broadcasters to protect their operating budgets from “political interference”. 

Labor’s second federal budget provides the ABC with $6 billion in funding until 2027, while the SBS gets $1.8 billion, most of which has been allocated to the operating budgets of each broadcaster. 

Investment at the ABC will see $7.6 billion committed to its operating budget across television, radio and digital, adding to the $83.7 million in reinstated funding provided by Labor in its first budget last October. 

Some $52.4 million has been allocated to local news and current affairs services, set to kick in from 2025 over three years. 

At SBS, $45 million has been committed to shoring up the special broadcaster’s Chinese and Arabic news services, from 2024 over four years. 

The budget also sees both broadcasters receive an additional $72 million combined over the next four years, with new investments made in programs due to expire. These include the ABC’s enhanced news-gathering program — which supports regional journalist positions in bureaus across the country — and SBS’s media sector support. There are also ongoing investments in audio descriptions through programs broadcast at both the ABC and SBS.

As part of Labor’s funding commitment, the ABC will receive $8.5 million over four years to build on transmission infrastructure in the Pacific in a bid to expand access to Australian content in the region. 

Beyond the public broadcasters, the Albanese government is also committing to investing $5 million in the Australian Associated Press, and a further $2.5 million to a new partnership with the Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Council of Australia to advance media literacy among culturally and linguistically diverse communities. 

Labor’s five-year funding commitments make good on a promise made heading into last year’s federal election to safeguard the federal funding of both publicly funded broadcasters — after $526 million in cuts over eight Coalition budgets at a cost of 640 jobs.

In November, Communications Minister Michelle Rowland announced that shifting to a five-year funding term would be the first step towards protecting ABC and SBS funding, ahead of opening up public consultation on a review of funding certainty at each of the national broadcasters. 

“The ABC must be funded to a level that ensures it can fulfil its charter to provide high-quality, accessible and diverse programming,” Rowland said during a speech to the Victorian Friends of the ABC on November 15. 

“And deliver public-interest journalism that holds people in positions of power to account, exposes corruption, injustice and counters dangerous mis- and disinformation campaigns.”

In the speech, Rowland ruled out the possibility of a merger of the two broadcasters, along with a review of efficiency, and any changes to the charters of the ABC and SBS. 

After Labor’s first budget in October, the ABC said the reinstated funding would enable it to invest more in education and digital services and to continue to reach communities with emergency broadcasts.