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The Australian Government has ended an $84 million funding indexation freeze on the ABC and SBS and have given them a $4.2 billion package for the next three years.
Aside from this, the Australian Government has also imposed on Australia’s public broadcasters a statement of expectations that require them to provide more information about factors such as regional staffing levels and programming.
During the announcement of the additional funding, Communications Minister Paul Fletcher cautioned the ABC to “avoid either the reality or the perception of political bias”.
“Having high expectations of how the ABC services all Australians – those in the inner city, those in the outer suburbs, those in regional and remote Australia – that is not attacking the ABC,” he told ABC radio.
“It’s very important that the ABC itself is scrupulously objective and impartial.”
The $4.2 billion funding marks an end to the coalition’s previous indexation freeze, which cost ABC $84 million for over three years.
“What we do is make an assessment of the funding needs of the ABC and of SBS, just as we make an assessment of the funding needs of all of the other organisations and programs which have a claim or seek to make a call on the budget,” Minister Fletcher said.
However, he declined to guarantee that a re-elected Coalition government would not reduce ABC’s funding in the future.
“What I can commit to is the funding we’ve announced today over the three year period,” he said.
The ABC will get $3,284.9 million over the next three years and the SBS $953.7 million.
The Australian Government has also unveiled a $7.3 million program that looks at the future of free-to-air TV and proposed requirements for streaming services to invest in Australian content.
Submissions on the latter are due by April 24.
A working group will be also established to look at how to broadcast will be regulated in the future as well as the prominence or availability of Australian content on TV platforms.
This article was first published on Public Spectrum
Eliza Sayon is an experienced writer who specialises in corporate and government communications. She is the content producer for Public Spectrum, an online knowledge-based platform for and about the Australian public sector.
