Aunty’s future

Aunty copped criticism this week for hiding its male stars as a way of celebrating International Women’s Day.  It seemed churlish when Australian men make such a sterling contribution to the cause of feminism.  Think of our armed forces who served in Afghanistan for example.  Thanks to their bravery and sacrifice — 40 were killed and 261 seriously injured — women are no longer stoned to death in the soccer stadium in Kabul, although they are in areas still controlled by the Taliban.

But this was also a week when one woman at the ABC deserved more praise than she got.  Managing Director Michelle Guthrie is cutting management by 20 percent, reducing duplication in support areas and trimming production numbers, freeing up $15 million for 80 new reporters and content makers in rural and regional Australia and another $50 million to fund more programs.  All without asking for a cent from taxpayers.  Three cheers for that.

Next, Guthrie should open up the content fund — indeed all ABC content funding — to all those who produce TV content in Australia.  Pay TV, for example, invests more in unique Australian content than the ABC and SBS combined. They should be allowed to compete to produce programs for the ABC.  This is not unprecedented.  Australia TV, our equivalent of BBC World, was put out to tender — by a Labor government no less —  and it was the private sector bidder who was found by an independent panel to be most competitive.  The BBC has already announced a contestable content fund of £60m.   As to what sort of programs should be made with taxpayers’ money, that should be determined by a review of the ABC Charter, to which everyone can contribute.  That’s also what happens, every decade, at the BBC.

The ABC badly needs the fresh thinking outsiders would bring.  Even counting someone as a viewer if they watch just five continuous minutes of television a week, only around one in three watch the ABC in our cities, down from 72 percent in 1991.  Guthrie, an ex-Google executive, knows competition drives quality and innovation — who better to bring it to Aunty?