HAS THE ABC HAS LOST ITS WAY? I was asked to comment on this article in The Australian today and would welcome the views of people living in Northern Tasmania about the performance of ABC news and current affairs programs in particular. ------------------ Showpiece ABC news and current affairs programs are failing to pull strong audiences, according to ratings data released in response to senate estimates committee questioning. Lateline, Q&A, Insiders and Four Corners do not appear in the list of the national broadcaster’s top 20 programs for the first six months of the year. The 7pm Saturday bulletin was the only regular news or current affairs program in the top 20. It was joined by two one-offs; Treasurer Joe Hockey’s first budget speech and the special edition of 7.30 that followed. ABC news director Kate Torney yesterday hit back at comments from Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull last week that staff and viewers are entitled to question the broadcaster’s management over how $70 million in additional funding over three years it was awarded last year is being spent, insisting her division is providing “a substantial return on investment’’. But government figures have seized on the ratings data to call on the ABC to review the tone and content of its news and current affairs programming. Senate leader Eric Abetz said managing director Mark Scott could learn from the results. “While it is true that ratings are not the be-all and end-all, it is telling that programs like Lateline, Insiders, Four Corners, Q&A, Foreign Correspondent and the ABC’s weeknight news just don’t seem to rate,” he said. “Surely this should be telling Mr Scott something.” Tasmanian MP Andrew Nikolic said the ratings “demonstrates the message I hear in my electorate every day: the ABC’s priorities and programming decisions, particularly in relation to their news and current affairs area, have lost touch with mainstream Australia’’. “The ABC is funded by the taxpayer and must work harder to ensure its statutory obligations of accuracy and impartiality,” Mr Nikolic said, adding the ABC would win strong audiences for its news and current affairs programs “only by adhering more closely to recognised standards of objective journalism’’. Mr Scott has flagged news and current affairs as a key field for the future of the ABC. Ms Torney on The Drum website yesterday defended the corporation’s newsgathering. “Just five years ago, ABC News was broadcasting two half-hour television news bulletins to Australian audiences each weekday,” she wrote. “Today, we deliver television news all day every day through ABC News 24 and have increased our programming on ABC TV from one hour per day to more than five hours most days of the week, through the addition of programs like ABC News Breakfast, ABC News Early Edition and The Drum.” Ms Torney said the new national reporting team had delivered 293 stories in the first eight months of the year. Government figures pointed out this averaged out to little over one a day. theaustralian.au/media/abc-news-ratings-under-fire/story-e6frg996-1227081773200
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 20:39:57 +0000
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