Scott urges ABC and SBS merger in Press Club address as public funding squeeze continues
Mark Scott urges merger with SBS
Outgoing ABC managing director Mark Scott has urged the government to merge the backroom operations of the ABC and SBS in a bid to ease funding pressure on the two broadcasters, saying if a multicultural broadcaster was set up today it would not be created as a standalone media business.
In an address to the Press Club where he celebrated his time at the helm of the national broadcaster, Scott warned that SBS faced a challenging future battling other commercial media for advertising funding, and that bringing the two together would preserve the future for both and allow them to fill the growing demand for content – an element he said was now under real pressure at the ABC.
Scott’s comments expanded on his recent declaration to a Senate Estimates Committee hearing that the existence of SBS should be questioned and he called on the government to “have a grown-up conversation”.
Oh dear, why can’t he just go quietly? Yawn!
Pathetic. For starters neither is a business. Both are public services. Scott says SBS is not fulfilling its charter. Yet Scott presided over a decline in editorial standards, a slackening in cultural and creative influence and a heavy investment in dubious extensions such as 24 hour tv news and clear breaches of its charter such as the drum.
SBS is arguably a much better user of public funds than Scotts bureaucracy. Maybe SBS should lead a merger???
Scott has been far from perfect in his time at the ABC, but he is on the money with the suggestion of merging the back room operations of the ABC and SBS.
No, terrible idea. ABC and SBS could certainly do with a stronger focus on differentiating their content, however the multicultural broadcaster has a distinct commitment to continue serving multicultural Australia as its own entity.
Scott unfortunately is showing the signs of having spent too long in the system. He should have left a year or two ago before his weariness became apparent to both those inside and outside the ABC. A quiet departure without illogical suggestions wouldn’t be a terrible idea.
Today’s SBS is completely different to the one born in 1980, no doubt in part because Australia has changed and the concept of ‘multiculturalism’ has evolved, but so has the concept of public broadcasting as part of the overall media mix.
There’s no reason NOT to examine a merger – nothing should be off the table for rational consideration when it’s largely public money being spent.
I can’t see a single solid argument against merging back-office operations, once you discount the obvious and rather lazy “It’s the thing edge of the wedge” rationale. This should be underway immediately,
Merging the networks also makes sense to varying degrees, especially with all those offshoot digital channels they have. At the very least they should be co-ordinating on bidding for content and sometimes sharing content, using the same catch-up service and apps, and looking at areas of duplication and near-duplication in those secondary TV channels where mergers can be effective.
The expression “merging the back room operations” is to be understood as “a wholesale takeover of SBS and sell-off of its building”. The ABC has already sold the site next door. Unless it gets control of SBS very soon, SBS itself might sell the building and use the proceeds as it sees fit. The pot of gold would vanish before their very eyes… a prospect too terrible for ABC management to contemplate.