Dumbed-down dereliction of duty: the ABC has forgotten who its audience is

Dr Deb Campbell writes: Re “ABC content chief puts shows on notice as Netflix, Stan alumni enter the fray”: why put on dumbed-down radio and TV programs in a fruitless attempt to get younger viewers who, as we’ve all done, will come to the ABC as they age. I used to loathe the ABC — my father watching This Day Tonight meant all my 7.30pm commercial programs were missed — even The Mod Squad. What sacrilege! But I changed and learnt. 

There is some good drama but there are too many commercial infotainment programs e.g. New Leash on Life, Escape to the Country… Bland, dumb and, frankly, condescending. ABC Classic is now full of inane, unctuous chatter, self-promotion and phone numbers with hardly any music — especially in the mornings. Start a world music station if that’s what you want — some of us here in the regions can’t get 3MBS so we’re stuffed. 

The website is now full of blah lifestyle stuff — often the news on the radio is not on the website but instead it’s how to cook X or survive childbirth or crochet leggings. Please.

Kay Abrahams writes: Let’s face it, all the good stuff goes to the streaming services, and the ABC picks up the leftovers. Yes, it does make good drama, but obviously making do with less is not really the best way to produce quality programs. Entertaining TV is more than Utopia and Gruen. 

We tried to watch The Black Hand but after 20 minutes of distracting incidental music that popped up every time the narrator stopped talking, we gave up. Grand Designs New Zealand is at least entertaining, but who works out these new timetables? Sunday Arts has been replaced by Fake or Fortune, so there goes another arts show that was a useful guide to what’s on. And don’t get me started about ABC radio.

David Wright writes: I have listened to the ABC since I built my first working radio, a crystal set, when I was 12. I have been a confirmed, rusted-on ABC user for 69 years and suppose I will not change. Fortunately I am computer-literate and we regularly watch ABC iview for episodes of programs we have missed.

Some ABC-produced programs are to our taste, others are not, in which case we are reduced to watching regurgitated cops and robbers on one of the commercial channels. Most of them we first saw on the ABC. So be careful of your programming. We oldies want to watch decent shows. There are always DVDs to watch when all else fails but they are a last resort.

Sandra Bradley writes: The pathetic excuses provided by those brought in to the ABC from online services yielded a negative return in my affection for their employment. I think we all need to start talking the talk to get through to these so-called professionals that their interpretation of the ABC audience is not ours: “Our audiences have changed; we know this because we are part of the audience. We all watch Netflix or listen to music through Spotify. The biggest streamer in the world is YouTube.”

Many of us don’t watch YouTube (I have never watched YouTube for entertainment); Netflix (would never subscribe); podcasts (boring). Most ABC viewers watch — wait for it — television. They listen to — wait for it — radio! Most are — surprise! — older.

Stop catering to a dwindling crowd of people who can’t make up their minds whether they exist without these alternative means of entertainment. Fire the newbies and bring in responsible people who cater for the general audiences of Australia instead of focusing on younger and less consequential ones.

Juliana Payne writes: I worked at ABC TV in the mid-2000s so understand the challenges and the internal tensions. The main issue for me now, as an outsider, is watching and listening to the dumbing down of the news. Naturally I understand it’s because of funding cuts over the years but it’s nevertheless heartbreaking.

Once I’ve heard the radio news between 7am and 8am there’s no need to listen for the rest of the day. SBS has better coverage in the evening. I haven’t watched ABC TV evening news for years and it used to be the staple. And the pathetic attempt to match commercial breakfast shows is just awful. We need serious news coverage not coy morning entertainment.

Isabel Robinson writes: Contrary to the ABC’s new content division head Chris Oliver-Taylor’s claim, we all do not watch Netflix. I did not watch enough of its shows to make the payment worthwhile, so I stopped. I don’t listen to Spotify either, because it doesn’t pay the musicians well enough. The only quasi-commercial station I watch any more is SBS On Demand.

I do, however, still regularly watch the ABC. I have been watching The Black Hand, which has been an engaging insight into a particular era of Australian history. Perhaps it is not getting the viewing because it has not been promoted well. I have not, however, watched it twice a week. The newish trend of repeating so many shows is very annoying. If people missed a show the first time around, surely iview is the place to catch up on the episode.

I admit that my viewing of once engaging broadcasts such as Q+A and Insiders came to a standstill with the advent of presenters formerly of commercial stations. Here’s the thing: if I’d wanted to see biased and sensationalist commentary and comparing, I’d have watched them on the commercial networks.

It’s alarming, therefore, to find that more of the same mentality is now directing what appears to no longer be “our ABC”. It seems there’s an agenda to reduce — if not annihilate — our national broadcaster, and if so, in this era of fake news, we will all be diminished.

John Sved writes: When I read things such as “move resources away from AM radio band transmission” it does make me wonder. Does Radio National not still serve as an important national sounding board? It reminds me of the decision to scrap Radio Australia’s short-wave transmission and spend the money instead on 0.01% of a submarine.

Phil Gilmour writes: It distresses me when the wonderful ABC is forced-marched along the cookie-cutter path that every other TV station or streaming service is following. The ABC is not commercial TV and bringing all these corporate high-flyers will not make it better.